
Meet Iggy, she's a two-year-old Sheepadoodle from Studio City, California! This sweet and intelligent pup is back with us for a One Week Board and Train Program. She had joined us for three weeks of boarding and training in the recent past, and now she has returned to continue her training journey here at OffLeash SoCal. Our goals for this week will be to refresh and improve her manners and obedience, as well as elevate her skills by teaching her some brand-new commands! Stay tuned for her seven-day transformation!
Pupdate 1/12/2025
Today Iggy and I spent some time getting reacquainted after her pickup. We visited a park, and tested out all of her basic and advanced commands to see where her starting point will be for this week's board and train. She was definitely still very excited to see me so her energy levels were elevated which made it difficult for her to focus at times, though overall she did a good job and it was so great getting to spend some time with her again!
She was able to Heel decently well, though she sometimes got a bit of "zoomies" and wanted to run around instead of staying beside me. She was able to Come to Heel pretty well, though she sometimes would end up out of position and needed some assistance to find the correct positioning. She was able to Sit, Down, Under, Place, and Send Away to Place very well and had no issues with these commands. One command she seemed to struggle with was Come to Sit. She was overall good about coming to me when called, though she tended to be a bit off about her position and instead of Sitting beside me on the left side, she would tend to either Sit out of position or roll around in the grass next to me instead of positioning herself for a Sit.
The new commands Iggy will be learning during this program include Touch, Center, and Watch. We tested out her knowledge of these commands, though since she has yet to be properly introduced to any of them she understandably didn't follow through with them and was confused on what was being asked of her. We will spend the next couple of days introducing her to these commands, as well as cleaning up her already existing commands!

Pupdate 1/13/2025



Today Iggy and I visited a shopping strip, where we practiced her commands around various distractions, including people, other dogs, and noises from the busy nearby street. We focused on practicing the three new commands that she will be learning during this program, Touch, Watch, and Center. We had begun practicing these commands at home in a quieter environment, and once she had begun to show progress we took our training outside to begin proofing them around distractions. The goal for the Touch command in this scenario is for Iggy to touch her nose to her handler's palm. This is a versatile command, and is great way to encourage engagement with her handler and create physical contact. It's a good skill for her to have, as it can help aid in teaching her other types of commands as well as cleaning up her positioning for already known commands, such as Heel or Come to Sit! We first introduced this command today by using some of her breakfast, and encouraging her to Touch my hand to get the food. Once she touched it, she got the food! We then moved the food to the other hand, and continued the training without the lure. She quickly got the hang of this, so we were able to transition to practicing Touch without any food motivators, and Iggy continued to do great!
The goal for Watch is for Iggy to create direct eye contact with her handler. This is another useful command, as it establishes a cue that can be used to have Iggy provide her handler full attention when asked. We introduced this by using her food as an initial motivator by placing a handful of it near my face to encourage her to look at it and me while the Watch cue was given. She quickly picked up on the idea that she needed to look at it to get the food, so the next step was moving the food away from my face, and waiting for her to provide eye contact with me instead, at which point she would get the food. She understood this quickly as well, and we were able to take food out of the equation while still getting pretty reliable results! We kept the duration for this command pretty short today, though we will be working to add duration to it so she can hold her Watch for longer periods.
The goal for the Center command is for Iggy to recall to her handler and position herself between their parted legs. This command is similar to Come to Sit, so to create a distinction between the two commands, handler body language is important! When asking her for a Come to Sit, her handler should have their legs together so it is clear what is being asked of her, and when asking for Center, legs should be separated to create a gap large enough for her to position herself between. To further avoid confusion, we also focused on using only the cue "Center" rather than asking for "Come" beforehand. Once she understands this command, "Come" can be used when she is at a distance, and then when she is near the Center command can be given to specify the desired position for her to complete the maneuver at, though we wanted to keep things simple for today's introduction. Iggy seemed quick to pick up on this command, though sometimes she was a bit silly with it and would end up rolling around on the ground instead of sitting or laying down nicely, so we'll definitely need to spend some more time working on this one!

Pupdate 1/14/2025
Today Iggy and I continued working on all of her basic and advanced commands, including the three new commands! We spent time working in various areas around my neighborhood, including the quieter residential areas as well as the busier areas by the main street. Various distractions could be found, including people, other dogs, cars, bicycles, and of course, squirrels! Iggy did well with each of her commands today, and we spent some extra time working to clean up her Come to Sit command as this is one she tends to be a tad sloppy with at times. The goal is for her to complete the maneuver by sitting directly next to her handler, and position her body so that it is facing parallel to them and facing forward. She sometimes tends to Sit facing sideways, backwards, or in the entirely wrong position, so we took a step back to focus on this command and ensure that she got lots of practice in to reinforce the correct positioning.
Our other focus for training today was on the three new commands of Touch, Watch, and Center. She showed good improvement with each of these commands today, and seems to have the hang of them overall! We first practiced these commands while in the quieter areas of my neighborhood, before venturing over to the busy spots and proofing them around more distractions. Naturally, she was a bit more consistent with them around less distractions, though she was still able to perform them decently well in busy areas too which was good to see!

Pupdate 1/15/2025




Today Iggy and I visited an indoor mall, where we practiced each of her commands around distractions. The mall was decently busy, and had lots of shoppers, dogs, and other distractions such as food and music. Iggy was a popular pup as usual, and had tons of people stop to watch her train, admire her, and ask to pet her! She was as always very sweet and well behaved during greetings, and she thoroughly enjoyed all the attention she got!
We continued practicing each of Iggy's commands around these distractions. She did a fantastic job with each of her previously learned commands, including Heel, Sit, Down, Send to Place, Under, Come to Heel, and also Come to Sit! She was able to perform each of these commands very well without any leash pressure needed, allowing the leash to remain more of an accessory rather than a tool for training.
We also put some more work into her new commands of Watch, Touch, and Center, and she did well with these too! She needed a bit of warm up for these ones to get back into the mindset of practicing them around distractions, though she quickly understood the expectations and was able to perform them consistently. She particularly excelled with Watch, and did a wonderful job of maintaining eye contact with me, even for several seconds, with plenty of tempting distractions around. Iggy did well with her Touch also, and this command has proven useful in helping to further shape and clean up positioning for commands like Come to Sit and Heel. She sometimes needed a bit of guidance for Center from time to time to aid in her positioning, though this guidance was very minimal and she was often able to do it without the extra help, allowing her to follow through on the cue and body language alone.

Pupdate 1/16/2025
Iggy and I visited an outdoor mall today, where we practiced all of her commands around plentiful distractions. The mall had lots of people, other dogs, food, music, and other distracting surroundings present.
She did great with her basic commands of Heel, Come to Sit, and Extended Sit, Down, and Place! Iggy also did very well with her advanced commands of Under, Send to Place, and Come to Heel. She sometimes was slightly reluctant to perform Send to Place at first, though she was always able to follow through once the command was repeated and reinforced with the e-collar.
Iggy also did well overall with her new commands of Touch, Watch, and Center. The distractions were noticeably more challenging to work around with these commands as opposed to her previously learned commands, however she still did a great job with them overall. She was pretty good with the Touch command, though sometimes she would try to put her forehead into my hand rather than her snout, so we worked to clean this command up to make it more consistent. Her Watch was great, and even though I could tell she was tempted to look around at her surroundings, she managed to hold eye contact with me for several seconds at a time, which is a great display of her obedience and self-control! She seemed a bit distracted with her Center command at first, and would sometimes try to perform a Come to Sit instead of Center, so we found a wall to spend some time practicing against. Working along the wall helped as it limited the space she had to make errors, and encouraged her to slow down and process the verbal cue being given to her rather than assuming and making incorrect judgements. After practicing against the wall for a while, she was able to perform Center more reliably while away from it too, and did not seem to rely as much on physical guidance for it.

Pupdate 1/17/2025




Today Iggy and I visited a Home Depot, where we practiced her commands around distractions. The store had a variety of distractions present, including people, shopping carts, other dogs, and loud noises from nearby machinery.
Iggy was a bit excited at first as she wanted to look around and check out the area, though she was very quick to settle down and focus on her commands. She didn't seem phased by any distractions we encountered, and was able to perform her usual commands such as Heel and extended stationary commands like Sit and Down reliably, even in the presence of major distractions.
Iggy's new commands were also consistent today, and she was able to perform each of them with very minimal to no guidance needed, even around distractions. She did great with her Center and Touch commands, and had no issue performing them when prompted. She did better about touching my hand with her actual nose rather than bumping against me with her head or other body parts as well, which was good to see her understand! When there were lots of noises or movements nearby she would sometimes break her eye contact with me during Watch momentarily, though with a reminder she was quick to redirect her focus right back to the task at hand.

Pupdate 1/18/2025
Today was Iggy's final day of her board and train, so as always we put all of her skills to use and made the most of our time together! We visited an outdoor mall, and practiced each of her commands around distractions while off leash.
Iggy has visited this mall with me a few times before, so she is quite familiar with it by this point. She was a bit excited at first as she has always had good experiences here, though she understood to stay focused and calm enough to follow through with all of her commands without any issues. She also excelled with each of her new commands even while off leash around all the distractions, which was wonderful to see! Iggy of course was very popular here and had lots of people stopping to chat and pet her, which she was thrilled to bits about, and she had a blast getting attention from all the nice people.
While this is my third time saying goodbye to Iggy at the end of a stay with me, it never gets any easier! She is wonderful, intelligent, and an absolute pleasure to work with and spend my days with. Her goofy, fun, sweet personality, and her eagerness to learn and grow never get old or cease to amaze me! She will of course be missed once she goes home, though I am so happy to have had another opportunity to help this good girl further her excellent obedience. We hope to see you again soon, Iggy!

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