Josie is a 5 month old Golden Retriever from Seal Beach, CA here for our three week puppy Board and Train program. Josie is a very playful pup who loves people and dogs. Josie loves going on walks and playing with her toys. However, Josie does not know any commands so she does not listen well. She also goes potty in the house and digs in the backyard. Over the next three weeks, Josie will learn the basic and most fundamental commands to be the best Josie she can be so keep checking her pupdates for her PAWsome transformation!
PUPDATE 2/27/2022
Today was mostly spend getting Josie comfortable with her new surroundings. She was great for the car ride home! Josie was very interested in all the new sights and smells but a little cautious at times too. She was pulling me a lot on her leash so we will be working on that mostly. She was a good listener when it came to sit however her down command had more difficultly. She did not eat too much of her food but that is typical for pups in a new place. I was unable to take the initial weight today due to my scale not working so I will confirm her weight tomorrow!
PUPDATE 2/28/2022
Josie worked on our first lesson that is Come to Sit. Overall, she got the concept quickly which was great to see! I noticed that she responds more to hand gestures so I will be making sure I am incorporating that a lot more. Josie needs to practice sitting in one area for an extended period of time but we will get there! Her potty training is doing great, no accidents in the crate or the house. She has not pooped yet so I will keep you updated on that. She is a very sweet and happy pup! Not eating too much but I am not concerned.
PUPDATE 3/1/2022
I took Josie to a local park to see how well she does with distractions. Josie had some great moments and things we really need to work on. She learned not to pull on the leash as much which is great! We need to work on building her confidence level as she was unsure about going on the different place objects I tried to put her on. It took a couple tries to get on most of them but in the end she did it! She pooped late last night and this morning as well so that is getting normal. She is eating better and having a lot of water. I let her and the other Golden Retriever (1.5 years old) play today and it was very cute. She had a great time.
PUPDATE 3/2/2022
I mostly worked on the place command today since she has some confidence issues. It always took a couple times to get comfortable on the object I placed her on. I used a lot of praising and small steps. I worked on her Come to Sit and it did not seem like the best day for it as she did not sit every time she was being asked. It seemed like once she felt confident on the place cot, she was able to stay there for a longer period of time. She is eating all her food, peeing, pooping, and drinking normally.
PUPDATE 3/3/2022
Josie had a very productive day today. I worked on all her commands at the park. The two commands she really needs more work on is Come to Sit and the Down command. Her Heel was great today even through all the distractions at the park. Her Place command was a lot better as she was getting onto the objects more easily. She had a difficult time staying in the Down command and she didn’t quite understand Come to Sit today. She is eating all her food now which is great.
PUPDATE 3/4/2022
I took Josie to a new park to work mostly on her heel command. As you can see in the video, she was distracted when kids, other dogs, or people walked by. This is very typical for pups. The only time she pulled on the leash was when she wanted to say hi to those distractions. She learned quickly to follow my lead wherever I go. She was doing better with her sit command today. I introduced her to a OffLeash SoCal lesson dog and she did well with that.
PUPDATE 3/5/2022
I took Josie to her first public outing at the local outdoor mall. Overall, she did okay. She still has a lot to learn but I can see there is progress! She went on place objects better but having her stay on them for any period of time was a struggle for her. Down was difficult for her as well. But her heel was great throughout our training session there.
PUPDATE 3/6/2022
I worked on Josie''s down command the most today at a park and she did a lot better than she has in the past couple of days. She was more responsive today which was great! She still needed a little assistance from me going into the command but it was progress seeing her stay in the command when I walked away. Later, I played with her in the grass with another OffLeash SoCal trainer and she had a blast. Having some rest/play time is very important for puppies.
PUPDATE 3/7/2022
Josie had some good moments and things we really need to improve on when I took her to the Northridge mall. Her heel continued to impress me through the whole time we were training. The only time she needed a reminder to focus was when people walked by her sometimes. She was awesome at getting on all the place objects I put her on. She really needed more help on duration work as she would not stay in a command longer than 5 seconds. I had her stay on place and that seemed to be better than having her stay in a down command on the ground. She pooped in the sporting goods store even though she pooped outside of the mall before we headed in. Other than that, she has been doing great with potty training. She is eating, drinking, peeing, and pooping normally.
PUPDATE 3/8/2022
I went to the Century City mall with Josie to practice all her commands. I hope you can see all the progress she has made already but also notice how I put her back in the commands when she gets out of them. When she went on place and got out of command, I put her back into the sit command on place. I was close to her so that I could put her back in command quicker. I did the same concept with her down command. Notice that her duration has improved by at least staying in one place just for a couple seconds which is more than it was last week. No accidents at the mall today.
PUPDATE 3/9/2022
I took Josie to a local outdoor center to work more on her duration commands. She did much better with her duration sit on place command. I practiced having her sit in place for two minutes and she only got up once! I practiced having her in a duration down command for two minutes and she got out of her duration down command 3-4 times but it continues to improve. She was good at going on different place objects today.
PUPDATE 3/10/2022
I took Josie to an outdoor mall in West Hills to work more on distraction training. Overall, she did really well. Josie had some moments where she did not heel with me well because people walked by us. Her duration sit on place really improved today. She was really able to hold it much longer. Her duration down improved but she still needs to work on it more because she tried to get out of the command.
PUPDATE 3/11/2022
I took Josie to an outdoor area that is near my house and she did well overall. She kept jumping off the place objects I put her on and she was very hesitant about the metal bench. She was heeling with me very well though! She still was distracted when people walked by but not as much today.
PUPDATE 3/12/2022
I took Josie to the Simi Valley mall for another place to work on distractions. Overall, she did well. I still was very impressed with her heel but I noticed there were some things that spooked her like a cart walking by so we will be working on that. I noticed that when I don’t have a “Mickey Mouse” voice for Place, she was less interested in doing it. Her Down still seemed to be her hardest command to accomplish. I wanted to work her through the band playing music because that seemed to spook her as well and they dedicated a song to her! It was so funny! She had a great time! It was important for her to have a positive experience with a big sound like that.
PUPDATE 3/13/2022
I took Josie to a DIY center to mainly work on her duration commands. She was still having some trouble with duration down but her duration sit was much better today. She had a lot of compliments about how well behaved and how cute she was. Out of all the different objects I placed her on, she only had difficulty on one of them which is great progress. She continued to do well at heel today although she had some stubborn moments when she wanted to stop. Continuing to give a high tone of praise putting her on place helped her. She is eating/drinking/peeing/pooping normally.
PUPDATE 3/14/2022
I took Josie to the Third St Promenade to continue to work on her duration commands and she was a rockstar! She improved so much and was able to hold her duration commands for two minutes! Way to go Josie! She was great at her heel command and went on place objects with ease. Today I noticed she was really itchy and it seemed like she was getting wet on parts of her neck, ears, and legs. I thought it was because she maybe spilled water but after the promenade I gave her a break in the crate without a water bowl and an hour later she was wet. The wetness bear her ears is a little sticky and a slight odor to it. The inside of her ears are not red. I’m going to clean the areas with a small amount of dawn dish soap and gently wipe. I think what is happening is she might be drooling in her crate and then she sits in it and she scratches it so it becomes more irritated. I’m going to put a t shirt or something similar to help decrease the itching. I will keep you posted.
PUPDATE 3/15/2022
I took Josie to the Citadel Outlets to work on bigger distractions and overall she did fantastic! Her heel continues to impress me and her duration commands improved significantly. She still sometimes gets up from the command but she can finally stay in one place for longer than 30 seconds. We worked on greeting manners as well with a couple people at the outlet and she did well. She did not try to jump but she was just so excited she wanted to get closer to them and get out of the sit command I gave her. Her neck is so much better. I’ve been putting a towel in her crate and that seems to help.
PUPDATE 3/16/2022
Josie had a great day at the shopping center in Santa Monica. She was great at all her commands, even her duration ones! She worked so hard so it is great to see how far she has come. She did have some moments that she got out of the duration commands but overall she did very well. She did great at her place command. It is very important for her to keep a positive tone. She did get a little distracted when another passed by but I kept praising her as much as possible as the dog went by. She is eating, drinking, peeing, and pooping normally. Her skin is healing and I am still putting a towel in her crate just in case.
PUPDATE 3/17/2022
I worked on Josie’s home manners today that included door and food manners. Door manners took a couple tries for her to realize she needed to stay there when the door opened and closed. She never ran out the door but she would get out of the command. Her food manners were more successful than her door manners. She did not get out of the command as much, so that was great to see. Her skin irritation looks much better and now it’s healing so there are some scabs, but they are hidden by her fur.
PUPDATE 3/18/2022
I took Josie to the Northridge outlet center to practice all her commands in another new environment. She did not get overly excited when we first started walking around so that was great to see compared to how she would act three weeks ago. She has made so much progress over the past couple weeks and I am very proud of all that she has accomplished. Staying in a command still tends to be a little more difficult for her than the other commands like heel and come to sit. Practicing duration work at home each day will be very beneficial.