Kiwi | Golden Retriever | Pasadena, California | In Training
- Tanner Strong
- Oct 27, 2024
- 17 min read
Updated: Nov 10, 2024
Meet Kiwi! She's a two year old Golden Retriever from Pasadena, California here for our Two-Week Board and Train Program! Kiwi is incredibly sweet most of the time, but she often oversteps her boundaries by jumping on everyone she meets! She doesn't respect personal space and will then bark for attention until she gets it! She gets very excited, especially when meeting new people, and has trouble containing her love! She knows some commands, but only follows through when she feels like it, and often doesn't listen at all if she thinks she can get affection from someone. She also pulls heavily on her leash while walking, and loves to beg for food! Over the next fourteen days, we will tighten up her commands, teach her manners in and out of the house, especially her greeting manners, help her with her impulse control and boundaries, and show her how to be the best pup she can possibly be! Stay tuned for Kiwi's two week transformation!
Pupdate: 10/27/2024
After picking up Kiwi, we stayed at the park for a few minutes to get to know each other! She's been extremely friendly, and immediately started barking and jumping on me as her way of saying hi and asking for attention! This will be one of the first things we start working on. She is definitely also a leash puller, and seemed set on pulling me toward anyone we came across. She was willing to Sit for me a few times, but if her attention left me and she started focusing on someone else, it seemed like she didn't even hear me! She also was only able to hold her Sit position for a few seconds. We will work on following through each time when asked and also extending the amount of time she's able to sit still.
Back at home, Kiwi started settling in right away! She is very trusting and didn't seem apprehensive at all about entering my home. She tried climbing onto my couch the first chance she got, which she will not be allowed to do while she's with me. She seems to like me already and is doing a great job making herself at home! Aside from our initial meeting, she has not barked at me so far!
In addition to her first video today, I will also be adding a tutorial video and picture of her new E collar! Watching this will make the transition process much smoother once she's ready to go home!
Pupdate: 10/28/2024
Kiwi and I went to Whittier Narrows Park today for training! We met with some other trainers and their dogs. I think Kiwi was a little overwhelmed by everything at first, and got pretty excited when we first arrived. She calmed down relatively quickly, though. We introduced her to some other dogs and people. When the other, well mannered dogs sniffed her, she was completely fine with it, until one of them tried sniffing her behind. At that point. She swung her butt around to keep them from sniffing it. She wasn't mean about it, and she's allowed to have boundaries, so I think her response was reasonable for now. Even though she is allowed to have her own boundaries, she definitely needs a lot of work on respecting peoples' boundaries! She's already learning that she's not allowed to jump on me, but when greeting a few other people, she tried jumping up on one person, then with the next she simply raised her paws to try to grab their hand. With the third person, her greeting manners actually went very well. We will be using the Off command to hand these situations. The Off command is our, "Do not do" command, and can be used in a variety of situations when Kiwi gives us any unwanted behavior. This includes jumping, demand barking, and even hyperfocusing on distractions. She seems very smart, and is quickly picking up on the fact that we don't want her paws on us. That being said, I will need to introduce her to as many new people as possible to help her generalize this expectation.
In other news, I ate a donut in front of her today, and got to see how ready she was to beg for human food! We will also be working on that.
Pupdate: 10/29/2024
Kiwi and I went to Almansor Park today for training! We worked on her Heel and Come To Sit commands for today, as well as continuing the use of the Off command. For Come To Sit, I want Kiwi to come to my right side, walk around my legs and sit at my left side with her ears at my knee. This recall command flows nicely into her Heel command, where I want her to keep her ears at my knee while we walk. I don't want her to pull ahead, behind or veer to the side. For the most part, she is picking up these commands quickly! In the above video, you can see her notice another dog running around nearby, and it was tough for her to stay focused. Each time she turns around to stare at that dog, I'm using the Off command, as well as reminding her what she's supposed to be doing, in this case, Sit! Notice the exact moments I choose to offer her physical praise, and you'll see it is almost always when she is either sitting politely next to me, following through with her commands, or when her attention leaves the distraction and comes back to me. Physical praise seems to be very high value for Kiwi, so we want to be careful about when we offer it to her. Notice how when she turns her head to stare at the dog, I stop petting her, use the Off command, then begin petting her when she looks at me again. This seems to be working well for her, as I felt her attention stay on me more and more throughout the day by doing this consistently.
I only found one new person for her to greet today, and when she did, she immediately put her paws up. I then asked the person to stop touching her, then begin again when all four paws were back on the ground. The second try, she sat politely to receive her affection. She is learning, but she still needs reminders and guidance!
She hasn't been demand barking very much for me. She barked once this morning on our first walk when she wanted to go up to someone else out on a walk. It is important to teach her she doesn't need to say hi to everyone we come across. She is extremely cute, so I'm sure she is used to getting plenty of attention and getting physical praise from people whenever she wants it. As mentioned before, we want to try to offer that reward when she's behaving and doing a great job, whether that praise is coming from me or a stranger!
Pupdate: 10/30/2024
Kiwi and I went to Santa Anita Mall today for training! We spent most of our time in the outdoor sections of the mall, focusing on her Place command. Kiwi was a little skeptical going through this new environment and the Place command is great for confidence building! When I ask for Place, I want Kiwi to hop onto a raised object, such as a bench, and remain there until I either release her from command or ask her to perform a different command. It took a few tries for her to hop onto the various benches, as she found it difficult to use her hind legs to jump, and often put only her front half on the bench before giving up. With tons of encouragement and guidance, she slowly started to hop up with a little more confidence. With her other commands, she did quite well. She did an okay job ignoring all the people there, other than one guy who was eating lunch. She wanted to pull towards him. She also tried pulling more when we were leaving and heading back to the car.
On our walk last night, Kiwi got pretty spooked by a motorcycle. It was incredibly loud, it came out of nowhere, and it was also dark out, so I can't blame her, but I will be keeping an eye out for her behavior around loud noises.
Overall, she did a good job with her commands and behavior herself for her first day at the mall! However, there are plenty of specific things we still need a lot of work on, like her food manners, greeting manners, as well as a tad bit of confidence building!
Pupdate: 10/31/2024
Kiwi and I went to Los Angeles State Historic Park today for training! I was hoping there would be a big event for Halloween, but there were just the usual crowds walking their dogs and having family picnics. This was still a good time for training, as I got to begin practicing Kiwi's commands with her leash dragging! Allowing the leash to drag gives me some idea of how she might perform off leash while still having access to the leash should I need it. Kiwi made plenty of small mistakes without the guidance of the leash pressure, but ended up doing fairly well with each command.
When it was time to go, I noticed Kiwi wanting to pull forward back to the car. She's done this before, so I wanted to take a few minutes to work on it. Basically, any time she started pulling forward towards the car, we turned around and started again. This is to show her she still needs to Heel with me even if she really wants to get somewhere. We won't make progress toward what she wants unless she is very well behaved. This same idea applies to people she wants to say hi to, or even a tree she wants to go sniff. She needs to understand she's not going to immediately get her desired result by pulling me!
Pupdate: 11/1/2024
Kiwi and I went to Almansor Park today for training! We continued working with the leash dragging. She did better with her commands, and ended up Heeling with me even better than when I had the leash in my hand for the most part. When walking through the more populated areas, I still opted to pick up her leash.
When walking through people, she did a much better job of staying focused on me. She still got distracted, especially if another dog ran by, but she didn't try to move towards the distractions today. While walking through high distraction areas, I keep her attention using the Off command and reminding her to Heel with me. Even though she's doing much better, I still find myself staying on top of her with these commands. She did a great job with the leash dragging today, though, and her commands are starting to tighten up!
Pupdate: 11/2/2024
Kiwi and I went to the park for most of the day today, continuing our exposure to distractions and working on her commands with the leash dragging. She did pretty well at the park, but still has moments where she gets a bit too distracted, and gives in to the temptation by breaking her commands. One thing we need to work on is her overall impulse control. We can practice this in many ways, most of them by getting her around plenty of people, but we can also work on this at home through her manners! For today's video, I'm showing us working on her food manners in particular. For food manners, I want Kiwi to be able to sit politely when I place food in front of her without her trying to gobble it down immediately. Kiwi loves her food, and often gets excited at meal times, so this has been pretty tough for her so far. As you can see, there are a couple moments throughout the video where she breaks and gets excited, even barking one time. When practicing this, I stay as calm as possible, to try to bring her energy level down, ask her to Sit, then remind her to hold her Sit position as needed. Ideally, I want her to be able to hold her Sit for at least a minute before releasing her towards her food. We practice this a little each time she eats, and she's getting better and better every day!
Pupdate: 11/3/2024
Kiwi and I went to Almansor Park today for training! It was a great day for the park, as there were plenty of sports and other activities taking place. We got to work on her commands around plenty of noise, people, and other dogs. I used a shorter leash to further replicate the sensation of being off leash. She did pretty well around these distractions, and even remained calm when a tiny barking dog came running at us. Kiwi sniffed a couple times, then we proceeded on our way without issue. Meanwhile the owner of the other dog chased it around the whole park trying to get it to come to her. This is why we spend so much time working on the leash and with the leash dragging before taking our dogs off leash.
With all this going on, it was surprising to me that the most distracted Kiwi got was near the flock of geese by the pond. She did not try to chase them, but she absolutely seemed like she wanted to. Her ears perked up, she started doing her little hops that she does when she's excited, and she had trouble paying attention around them. I picked up the leash each time we got close to them.
Overall, a good training day for Kiwi, but I also found some more things we need to work on!
Pupdate: 11/4/2024
Kiwi and I went to Whittier Narrows Park today for training! We met with some other trainers and their dogs. Kiwi needed a bit of a warm up for the first several minutes we were there, as she got a bit distracted by everyone around her. She didn't get overly excited, and still behaved well during this time, but she was just slightly less responsive to her commands. For example, when asked to Place, she put her front two paws on the cot, then looked back at the other dogs. When reminded, she followed through, but I'd like her to respond the first time I ask without needing to stop and check on her friends.
After some warm up time, she became much more focused on me. One trainer brought some toy vehicles, like a little skateboard and scooter, which Kiwi was initially perplexed by. When she saw one move for the first time she was on the place cot, and she hopped a little and barked at it once, but remained on the cot. After that initial interaction, she really didn't care about those toys. In fact, later in the day, I tried riding them with her at my side, and she did a really good job staying next to me while we moved.
Kiwi was allowed off leash today for a few minutes at a time. When we tried something new, or something I wasn't sure of, like riding the little skateboard, I kept her leash on and in my hand. When practicing things that she is getting solid with, like her Heel, Come To Sit and Place commands, I often dropped her leash, and then eventually opted to take it off. While off leash, her Heel was pretty solid, her Come To Sit was good, but not perfect, and her Place was mostly smooth. Her biggest issue, especially off leash today, was holding her Sit position. Holding the Down position seems to be much easier for her, as she tends to relax more when asked to Down. She is also good at holding her Sit if she is right next to me. When asked to Sit she tends to follow me, or try to move closer to me if I step away. Luckily, this is a very addressable issue, and simply requires a little more repetition and consistency on my part. Overall, today was very successful and a big step forward for Kiwi!
Pupdate: 11/5/2024
Kiwi and I went to Home Depot today for training! We went to a pretty crowded one in Hollywood, and she had trouble getting adjusted at first. When we first arrived, she was clearly on edge, but settled down over the course of our session. We started in the garden center, which was nice and quiet, giving her time to relax. Once she was doing a great job in the garden center, we slowly made our way into the main portion of the building. She was a little nervous, but walked politely next to me. We were able to walk by people and carts with very little issue. Due to the crowd and tight spaces, I wasn't sure if she would do well walking within inches of people without breaking towards them, but she did a really good job with this. I would, however, like to come back to a store like this when she is more used to it, to see if she was behaving only because of her nerves.
Several days ago, I talked about Kiwi getting spooked by a motorcycle, so I wasn't sure how she would do around the loud carts in a store like this. She didn't seem to mind the carts at all. She did get slightly spooked by one of the massive mop/cleaning machines, but not nearly as much as the motorcycle. When I noticed this, we followed around this machine until she was able to Heel politely by it and stay mostly focused on me. This process only took a few minutes, showing me her nervousness isn't completely irrational, and she is able to identify when something isn't as scary as she initially thinks it is. She just needs to be guided and helped through these moments when they appear.
Pupdate: 11/6/2024
Kiwi and I went to the park today to get some more off leash work in! Generally speaking, she did well, so I wanted to focus on something she had been struggling with. I'm glad she loves me, but I really need to work on her ability to sit still while I walk away from her. This is what we focused on today, adding distance to her extended Sit, as well as her Come To Sit command. She still sometimes tried to get up and get closer to me, but I can tell she's starting to understand when she is being asked to remain seated and when I am either releasing her from command or asking her to come to me. I was able to create some good distance between us while keeping the integrity of her recall intact.
Importantly, we do not use an actual Stay command. We use what we call the Implied Stay. Meaning that whenever I ask her to perform a command I expect her to maintain that position until released from command or asked to do something else. This applies to her Sit, Down and Place commands, although the Sit is the one giving her the most trouble. When practicing her commands with this in mind, adding a Stay command every time we want her to stay can be unnecessary at best. At worst, it can lead her to think that saying Sit simply means to touch her butt to the ground and then she can do whatever she wants after. She is definitely getting better with this idea every time we practice!
In addition to this, I also spent a lot of time today playing with her, and giving her tons of Break opportunities. When I say the word Break, Kiwi is allowed to sniff around, play around and basically do what she wants within reason. While on Break, she is still not allowed to jump on me, or give me any other unwanted behavior such as barking at me or pulling on the leash if she has one attached. It is also important that she is able come back under command as soon as I ask. For example, there's one point in today's video where she starts a Break, and she's allowed to come over, get love and attention, and even roll around on the ground excitedly. This is all fine, but as soon as I start walking and ask her to Heel with me, I want her to do so as soon as possible. Because Kiwi has been known to get overly excited, this is important to work on, and she's doing pretty well!
Pupdate: 11/7/2024
Kiwi and I went to Santa Anita Mall today! She adjusted quickly and behaved well from the start.
While in the outside promenade sections, she did really well on leash and with the leash dragging. Inside the mall was a little tougher but she still did great. She was a bit more nervous but not that bad. This mostly came out when we were on the top floor next to the glass wall, when Kiwi was able to see down to the bottom floor. We spent enough time up there, though, that she got used to it and didn't have an issue with it when we went back up the next time.
Another obstacle was the entrance of Shoe Palace. For some reason, she really didn't like this entrance. I think it might have been the mannequins. We spent some time walking by this store, and then relaxing next to it until she started feeling better about it.
She found it much more difficult to hold her Sit while inside. This time instead of it being her impulse control, it was simply the slick tile. When we were on surfaces with more grip, she did a good job of holding her Sit position today.
We got tons of opportunities to practice her greeting manners today. Once one person asks to pet her, other people see this and want a turn. At one point there was a line of three or four people waiting to pet her. This is good, because she needs all the practice she can get with this. She did pretty well greeting people. She picked up one of her front paws a few times, but otherwise stayed seated and polite!
Pupdate: 11/8/2024
Kiwi and I went back to the mall today! With a long day of practice here behind her, she was allowed off leash this time. We still took several minutes to warm up on leash, but she quickly relaxed enough for me to feel comfortable taking off the leash. We managed to work around people, children, dogs, and other distractions including the turtles in one of the fountains.
We also got more opportunities to practice her greeting manners, which you can see at the end of the above video. She's gotten a lot of practice with this, but usually on leash. She ended up doing well with her off leash greeting manners, but it was much tougher for her, and she was wiggling for a lot of them in an effort to control her urge to put her paws up.
Back at home, Kiwi got to eat her lunch and take a nap before getting a lot of playtime with me and my dog. Kiwi has gotten pretty good at playing with me and then calming down quickly when asked, but adding another playful pup into the mix can make things tougher. She did a really good job, still. That being said, it definitely helped that my own dog will disengage immediately when I asked. If she was playing with a less reliable dog, I believe it would be more difficult for Kiwi to stop and calm down if the other dog continued to push her into playing. This is only one of the many reasons we need to be picky when deciding who Kiwi can say hi to, play with, and when she can be allowed off leash.
She did a great job today!
Pupdate: 11/9/2024
Kiwi and I went to the park today to have a more relaxing time after two successful days at the mall! We continued working, however, on her impulse control off leash. Saturdays are pretty crowded at Almansor Park, so we had plenty of people, dogs, and sporting events to work around.
For her video today, I'm showing her food manners and her door manners. We saw her food manners quite a while ago, when I still had her on leash, and it was clear she was trying to go for her meal without waiting. Today, she ate her meal after sitting politely, waiting for my que, and even letting me walk away for a moment before digging in. Again, we work on this a little bit every time she eats. That doesn't necessarily mean you need to have her wait for a full minute and walk away before allowing her to eat every time. It can actually be beneficial to vary the amount of time she waits, so that we can be sure she is waiting for our go ahead. The important part is that she isn't jumping around or getting overly excited when I place the food in front of her. Sometimes I ask her to wait only a few seconds before eating, sometimes we go for a full minute or two! I still suggest trying for an extended amount of time every once in a while to make sure her impulse control stays in check when it comes to food.
This same idea applies to her door manners. We practice this every time we go through the door. The main goal for door manners is for the door opening to become a nonevent for Kiwi. For the purposes of a video, I have her sitting right in front of the door, but in our everyday life, I want to be able to open and go through the door whether she is taking a nap, playing, or just lounging around, without it being a big deal for her. I practice this randomly throughout the day, opening and closing the door, even while she is just relaxing. If we only open the door when she is getting to go outside, she is only going to see the door opening as an opportunity to do so. She has done well with this. She will still look up at me when the door opens, but usually stays where she is and doesn't get too excited. Starting off, having her actively hold a position, such as Sit, Down or Place can give her something to do other than move towards the door, but I'd like you to practice this even when she isn't under a direct command. If we only practice this while she's under command, she might still be anticipating getting to go through, which is still good practice for her impulse control, but is still a far cry from the end goal of making the door moving a complete nonevent. Kiwi is doing very well with this notion. It is also worth noting that this same practice can be applied to any thresholds you see fit. Gates and fences are a good example. For me, the dogs are not allowed in my kitchen, so the line between my dining room and kitchen is one they are taught to respect.
Kiwi will be going home tomorrow, and I am so proud of her and how much she has learned! She is such a good girl, and I will miss her dearly when she goes home!
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