Meet Lady, a 3-month-old Goldendoodle from Laguna Hills, CA! Lady is here for our Three-Week Puppy Board and Train Program for socialization, basic obedience, manners, potty training, and biting. Stay tuned for her twenty-one-day transformation!
Pupdate 12/19/2021
Lady was a little unsure of what was going on when I tried to take her out of the kennel and immediately squatted to pee. I took her out into the dog run and she immediately loosened up her body language, jumping up on me while wagging her tail. I turned away from her and took two steps so she would fall off my body. When she had all four paws on the ground then I reached down to pet her. After peeing and pooping, Lady settled into her crate for the night. She did not have an accident until morning, when I went to open the door she immediately squatted and started peeing. This morning she ate all of her food and is getting settled in to begin her training.
Pupdate 12/20/2021
Lady got to socialize in the dog run with Yuuki, who is her age, and my other dog, Juno. She had a great time running, jumping, and wrestling with him! When Lady tried to jump on Juno, who is 3.5 years old and excellent with puppy socialization, she was verbally corrected. Lady caught on and did not do it again. I noticed Lady does pee often. She did this when I went to take her out of the kennel, when someone else was walking towards the x-pen she was in, and when I put her on the scale to weigh her. As she gains more confidence around people this will hopefully lessen and eventually be eliminated.
Pupdate 12/21/2021
Lady and I started clicker training today! I click and feed to create an association where the sound of the click means food is coming. We worked on eye contact while Lady was in her crate. Every time she would look me in the eyes I would click and then feed. She got distracted a few times between reps but always came back and made eye contact. She is having regular accidents in the crate. Her triggers seem to be someone moving towards the crate, reaching for the door, reaching for her collar, leashing her, or asking her to “place” on something (she had an accident on the scale after we put her on there to weigh her), so I will work on desensitizing her to people approaching her. I tried taking her out to potty last night when I heard her pacing at 1am but when I went to reach for the door she immediately squatted.
Pupdate 12/22/2021
Lady and I worked on eye contact, impulse control around food, and desensitization to hands reaching for the x-pen door as well as for her collar. She did really well! Today was the first day she did not have an accident after training when I reached for and opened the door of her pen, and I was able to pet her several times without an accident. It has not transferred over to other people, and she is still barking at them, and having accidents if someone else tries to reach for her collar and leash her, but it is progress.
Pupdate 12/23/2021
Lady and I worked on leash pressure and loose leash walking on my property. I learned right away that she does not have a soft mouth when taking food and will bite skin. When Lady is in the heel position I click to mark the event and only release the food from my hand when I feel her tongue, not her teeth. After she settled down from the initial excitement of being rewarded we were able to get some good repetitions in and loose leash walk as if she had been born doing it!
Pupdate 12/24/2021
Lady and I worked on loose leash walking at Irvine Spectrum Center. There was a lot of activity around us and Lady was easily distracted. I had to increase the rate of reinforcement to keep her attention. Luckily she likes her food and was hungry, and we were able to get some good repetitions in. I have to lift her in and out of the van, and she is still having accidents when taken out of the crate in the van, but doing better going into the crate and coming out of it, as long as it’s on the ground. I can also reach for her collar now without her squatting.
Pupdate 12/25/2021
Lady and I worked on loose leash walking, place, sit, and down on my property. She got to socialize with two collies, and although she was unsure of them in the beginning, when I brought her friend Yuuki into the run with them she immediately relaxed and started playing with him. When I first lured her on to the Klimb platform she was unsure and peed on it. I rinsed it off and lured her back on, marking and feeding once all four paws were on the surface. I then lured her into a sit, marked, and rewarded. We did several repetitions of sit on the place board before moving on to downing on the place board and adding some duration. I release her with the word "break" and then toss a treat away from me to get her to leave the Klimb. After a while I stopped using food to release her and just used the word "break" and a visible hand gesture, which I'll show in future videos.
Pupdate 12/26/2021
Lady and I worked on her commands while children ran and played on the playground equipment at the park. She wanted to chase after the children in the beginning, but was soon motivated by the food I had, and engaged in loose leash walking with eye contact. I've been adding sits and downs to our walks and Lady is picking them up. I noticed her nails are overgrown so we will work on grooming tomorrow.
Pupdate 12/27/2021
Lady and I worked on her commands at the beach. She had a difficult time focusing while on sand and would not take food. We moved over to pavement and I was able to keep her attention. We loose leashed walked, worked on sit and down, and I marked and fed when she saw other dogs. She is able to walk nicely on leash for longer periods of time without treats.
Pupdate 12/28/2021
Lady and I worked on her commands on my property. She got to meet the workers who do the gardening and their children who are here during the day. After that I introduced her to a few more dogs and let them run and play. She got a little aggressive with a smaller puppy and had to sit out for a few minutes. She seems to really enjoy playing with dogs of all sizes! Lady has not peed in the crate the last couple of days, and sleeps through the night. She does, however, have accidents when she’s unsure of things, like climbing up on something or if someone reaches for her collar. I continue to work with her on this to get her more comfortable with handling.
Pupdate 12/29/2021
Lady and I worked on her commands at Dana Point Harbor. She did a good job holding her sit and down, but was unable to focus once a trash truck was in the area, so I stopped asking for behaviors and kept feeding as she looked around to help create a positive association with the sound of the trash truck at work. I'm starting to feed less between heeling repetitions now that Lady understands where I want her to be when we are walking.
Pupdate 12/30/2021
Lady and I worked on her commands at the Carlsbad Outlet Mall. She did a great job loose leash walking/heeling, and I was complimented several times on this, as well as how well behaved she was in a stimulating environment. Lady was able to hold her sit and her down, and mainly struggled with excitement when she saw children. In social I do have to watch and interrupt her as she got a little rough with a smaller puppy and definitely has some herding dog instincts where she will chase and try to grab other dogs.
Pupdate 12/31/2021
Lady and I worked on her commands by the beach. She wanted to chase birds and was rewarded heavily for following her commands when birds were around. She does struggle at times with wanting to go see other dogs, which I do not allow, and is rewarded when she turns away from them and towards me.
Pupdate 1/1/2022
Lady and I went back to The Strand to work on her commands while she dragged a leash. When a dog started barking at her I stopped asking for behaviors and started feeding her to counter condition any fear she might have. Lady bounced right back and went back into performing her obedience commands.
Pupdate 1/2/2022
Lady and I worked on her commands at a park. She gets very excited around children, which makes sense since they are loud and can be very exciting to a puppy, especially when they run. Keeping in mind that she is a young puppy that needs rest, I do one hour out of the crate and two hours in. This goes on until they are six months old when I switch to two hours out and two hours in. A puppy that is out for too many hours without structured rest is the equivalent of a toddler who hasn’t napped. Better to get them in the pattern of crate rest and then an activity.
Pupdate 1/3/2022
Lady and I worked on her commands at a shopping center. She did great! In the afternoon she got to socialize with new dogs. Occasionally she will try to jump on dogs or mouth them roughly and will get corrected. She normally accepts corrections well unless the dog is smaller than her. I am careful with her around younger dogs her size and no longer have her with the smaller puppy. She is too rough with him and got aggressive when he tried to tell her it was too much.
Pupdate 1/4/2022
Lady and I practiced her commands inside a pet store. She was more excited in this environment but settled into training once she heard the clicker. In social I have to interrupt play when the smaller dogs are there since she is still too rough with them.
Pupdate 1/5/2022
Lady and I worked on her commands by the beach. We focused on place and her extended down, which she doesn’t really enjoy doing. She still wants to chase birds so I worked on having her look at birds and the clicking and treating to bring her attention back to me.
Pupdate 1/6/2022
Lady and I worked on her down to a sit, and sit to a down, as well as leash pressure. She occasionally resists going into a down so I want to make sure she moves when she feels directional pressure. She is getting better about not chasing birds or getting as worked up when she sees children.
Pupdates 1/7/2022
Lady and I worked on her final video by the beach. She did a great job loose leash walking past dogs, held her sit while skateboarders zoomed past us, and she remained in the heel position while a procession of people walked past us singing and playing instruments. Lady is still very much a puppy who is learning and growing, but she has a new found confidence and obedience skills and manners which will make life with a puppy more enjoyable.
Pupdate 1/8/2022
Lady and I worked on her final video at the beach. Attached is a snippet of her video! She is loose leash walking at a heel, comes when called, can hold an extended sit and an extended down, and gets complimented regularly during our training. Lady is very food motivated, and I highly recommend continuing to reinforce her known commands using her meals. Lady was a pleasure to train and I wish her and her family all the best as they continue on this journey of life together.
