Leroy | Rottweiler | Hermosa Beach, CA | In-Training
- Scott Hansen
- May 4
- 35 min read
Updated: May 17
Meet Leroy! Leroy is an 18-month-old Rottweiler here for our Two-Week Board and Train Program. Leroy is a sweet young pup; however, he does display several unwanted behaviors. Leroy is a timid, nervous, and anxious pup despite his large size. Leroy is intimidated by new people, new places, loud noises, and commotion. This behavior leads to poor leash manners and his inability to go to very many places. Leroy can perform a command or two and has been through some training, but he lacks structure and will perform the tasks inconsistently. Over the next fourteen days, Leroy is going to learn to be an obedient and brave pup through consistent, clear communication and balanced training at home and by discovering new people and places. Leroy will learn to perform all these things on and off-leash through a positive and balanced training environment. Through structure and consistency, Leroy will demonstrate how great a pup he can be! Stay tuned for Leroy’s two-week transformation!
5/4/25
Today, Mr. Leroy joined me for his two-week board and train program. Mr. Leroy is quite the nervous pup. On the way home, we stopped at a local park to see what commands Mr. Leroy could perform. He did not do very well! But I think you knew that, and that's why he's here. After I tested his skills, we had a mini photoshoot for his profile picture for his blog. I don't know if you know this, but as soon as dogs see a phone or camera in front of their face, you are now invisible to them and they must ignore you at all costs. Once we got what we needed, we loaded up and headed to Mr. Leroy's temporary residence for the next two weeks.
Once we got home, I let Mr. Leroy smell Ms. Toji through the front gate. Ms. Toji was excited to see Mr. Leroy. Mr. Leroy paid her no mind. Mr. Leroy was reluctant to enter my house, but with enough pressure, he did make it inside. I let him explore each room and meet everyone. He didn't want to leave my oldest daughter's room. My mini-trainer was excited to meet Mr. Leroy and joined me in introducing Mr. Leroy to Ms. Toji. Throughout the introductions, I could see Mr. Leroy showing signs of being stressed out. When we were outside, I noticed excessive drooling. He was looking for a way to escape my backyard. There were no issues with them meeting, and Ms. Toji paid him no mind. When we came back inside, he wanted to run back to my daughter's room.
We then went on a long walk around the block with my mini-trainer so that he could get used to the sights, sounds, and scents of his temporary new neighborhood. He half pulled me around the block, stopped to smell occasionally, and then the rest of the time we chased my mini-trainer around the block. I didn't see too much unwanted behavior on the walk, except for the hard pulling on the leash. That should be easily corrected with the prong collar if you have introduced him to this, as it's a great tool to correct this behavior. I have been watching his nervous behavior all day today. I did try to give him some toys, such as balls and squeaker toys, but he didn't want to play with them. I might have to gain more of his trust first.
I set him up with his blanket in his crate. I gave him his food, and I'll leave it for him and see if he finishes it overnight. I keep track of his weight and will ensure that he maintains his weight while with me.
Attached is the e-collar familiarization video. Please review it a few times before Mr. Leroy's turnover. We'll practice together to make sure you are comfortable with the system before using it with Mr. Leroy.
Pupdates 5/5/25
Today was the beginning of a bright future for Mr. Leroy! We officially started his training. The first part of the video is me introducing the e-collar to him. As you can see, I am trying to get him to get comfortable with me and get him to play with toys. He is still a little skeptical of me and his environment. I left his crate door open for a few hours last night, and he didn't come out. Eventually, I brought him out to go potty and hang out with Ms. Toji for a little while. When he came back in, I left it closed and had him hang out in the room with me and my mini-trainer.
Today, I introduced the e-collar and most of the commands that he is going to need to know over the next two weeks. The first and most important thing is that we introduced his e-collar. As you can see in the first video, I brought out a bunch of toys to drive to distract him and get him to play and interact with them to get him in a playful state. No e-collar on. Just fun and bonding time. Then I put the e-collar receiver on him. He was looking at me like "what did you do to me?" Then back to playing with him and pretending like nothing happened. He was still hesitant, but I was doing my best to play with him and pet him. I then noticed that he was sniffing around the turf and being himself. This is what I was waiting for. I picked up the remote and started to determine what his level is. He decides the level. I start at Level 5 for the first stimulation and work my way up by 5's until I notice a reaction from Mr. Leroy. I received the slightest one at 10, a more significant one at 15, and then at 20, almost the same type of reaction. Now I had my range of 10-20. From now on, I'll always start at Level 10. The e-collar system goes up to Level 100. These are nice and low numbers to work with. The stimulation is meant to replace leash pressure when we go off-leash. As you know, on a flat collar, Mr. Leroy can and will resist. However, on a prong collar, he will be more willing to go along. This is what we want. We want Mr. Leroy to make the correct choices with the least amount of pressure possible. We also want to positively reinforce all his good choices. He didn't like the freeze-dried treats I had on hand, but it could also be that he doesn't like me enough to take them. We might take a trip to the pet store and see how he does there. I'm thinking that I might get him to like a Kong toy with a few treats in there. We're going to figure out what motivates Mr. Leroy!
I did notice that due to his skittishness, he is wary of being pet on the head. I think this is going to be important when he meets new people. Let's set a rule that when new people meet Mr. Leroy that they should pet him under his neck/front chest area only and not on top of his head. I am going to teach him to sit there and be calm, but as a good parent, we can ask strangers and friends not to pet him on the head and let them know that he doesn't like that.
In the second part of the video, I put on the prong collar and worked on introducing heel, sit, place, down, and break. Heel, sit, place, and down went well. Break is going to be a work in progress as he needs to find me more valuable. Break means that he can stop doing whatever he's doing and go be a dog. Mr. Leroy is not motivated to do much at this time, except maybe chew sticks and play in the mud. He is not motivated to come to me, that's for sure. We'll keep trying! We have to build each of these tasks up individually and then bridge them together.
I introduced door manners, which is where he has to sit at the door and wait until I go in, and then he can break the sit and enter the door.
Attached are also pictures of the e-collar unit that I'll be using for Mr. Leroy throughout his training. I have attached the titanium-coated hypoallergenic contact points, which reduce skin irritation over the regular contact points. These are much better. You also get a 15' training lead included which is in the box for you.
Pupdate 5/6/25
Today was another backyard session for me and Mr. Leroy. I will be taking him out to more places starting tomorrow, but I still don't have his unrequited love and attention. I also wanted to test out how valuable some new treats were. My wife came home with some new tasty treats from Costco yesterday for Ms. Toji and I had sprinkled some into Mr. Leroy's food, and he devoured them!
As you can see from the video, I tried to interact with him with the tennis ball to start the training. He still isn't feeling those vibes. Time to start the training, Mr. Leroy. You can't hear it in the video, but my neighbor was conducting all his yard work, so the leaf blower or lawnmower was going the entire time we were outside. Mr. Leroy was ok with performing with that loud noise next door. I then wanted to test how well he would relax in the "down" with other loud noises. The "down" is the most vulnerable position for most dogs and often the most difficult for anxious or nervous dogs to feel comfortable in. I wanted to see how well he would do in a regular down, not on the place cot, with all the noises. He kept running to the place cot for comfort, so I knew he felt safer on that. The problem is that I won't always have a place cot, nor will you, so we can't rely on that safe space for him everywhere we go. I started tapping on the metal things in my backyard to test his reactivity. It was going well, and he was taking the treats until a gust of wind came along and moved my shade tarp and spooked him. I tried to get him back to a calmer state of mind. I noticed that his back legs weren't calm and he was in more of a jump up and get ready pose rather than a relaxed pose. I reset him on the place cot because he was doing well and I didn't want to lose the progress that we were making. Went over to the grill and started making noises. I would pet him and reassure him for doing a good job. I started low and wanted to see how much he could tolerate. We want to walk right up to the line and slightly cross it and end there. Then the next time, the goal posts should move slightly further back. I am not sure that he'll be able to tolerate an entire marching band at the end of these two weeks, but we are going to keep improving each day on his reactivity. Some of his reactivity is based on his attention to the environment and his ability to relax. We need to find a way for him to take in his environment and relax before becoming overstimulated. We have to do this piece by piece. We do have to be firm but fair. My job is going to be to find the fine line of that so that we can help get him over his fears without being too sensitive and perpetuating the unwanted behaviors.
5/7/25
Mr. Leroy and I headed over to Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA. I wanted to test how well he would perform today in a more open space. There weren't too many distractions there. It was relatively quiet. He was receptive to the commands and didn't show any of the reactivity that he has shown in other areas. For example, yesterday I was working on how much he could tolerate with amping up slamming the door, and he was still reactive to that noise even though he was right in front of it. Last night, my mini-trainer was working with him and she was having him perform sit, down, paw, and heel, all without the e-collar! (while I was supervising, of course) She would try to bring him to me, and he didn't want anything to do with me, but he would happily lick her and do anything she asked him to. She's one of the only people that he will come out of the crate for. The rest of us have to drag him out. Even my oldest daughter, who helps with breaks, has to get him to come out by the collar to take him to the dog run. I'll talk more about this later in this pupdate.
For the training at the park, there were no loud or sudden noises or frightening objects in the area to intimidate Mr. Leroy. This was good and bad. This was good because it allowed us to work on some of his obedience in the large park with open space, people coming and going, cars going by, and various scents all over the place. It was bad because I am fairly confident that he is fine to perform all these tasks when it is calm and quiet. Most pups do way better when it is calm and quiet. However, Mr. Leroy isn't here because he can't handle calm and quiet; he's here because he has a few issues, in my opinion. I am not sure what percentage of each of these is at play yet, but this is what I have boiled it down to at this point:
Poor Genetics
Trauma, which has led to a Conditioned Emotional Response to new areas/loud noises/new people - all his triggers
No coping tools to overcome his Conditioned Emotional Response to new stimuli
Now with this being said, and as you noted during the pickup, you would just like to see him be able to go places without freaking out. My goal is to give you and him the tools to handle his conditioned emotional response, which is likely from sort of trauma. Unfortunately, our pups can't talk to us, so I can't figure out what it is and completely reprogram it. You have seen me using quite a few techniques to address the reactivity and fear. One of them is to simply not allow him to be scared when there is nothing to be scared of. I am going to apply firm and steady pressure and be a strong leader. We are going to be ok. Sometimes he doesn't want to get out of the crate when we get home. This is not a choice. I tried to give him a choice between a treat and his tennis ball, but he didn't want to come out. Once he's out, I'll pet him and show him that it's ok. But this is not a time to perpetuate that fear and anxiety and reinforce it anyway. We don't want to be negative and apply corrections. We are going to simply apply steady pressure. This is the same upward pressure we apply to the head as we are pushing down on the butt while teaching the sit. Once the pup performs the command, all the pressure is released. There is no e-collar stimulation, there are no treats, there is no feedback to Mr. Leroy until he is out of the vehicle and paws on the ground, and then he will get a "good boy" once the pressure is released. I am applying this same strategy to everything. We are going to start making some decisions for Mr. Leroy. We have to show him that some things are ok, and that being afraid of everything is not ok and almost unacceptable. We are not going to make it a negative experience because that would make it way worse, but we are going to have to be good, strong, firm leaders.
Another strategy was how I was running around with him and distracting him. We raise the tempo and don't let him fixate on the thing that has caught his attention. We must get him to focus on the task that we are asking of him. We need him to stop worrying about everything else that's going on around him and worry about us applying consequences for his choices not to follow through with our commands. I focused on that while we were at the park. I pointed out several times at his tail and his body language. You may or may not be able to see it. Whenever his tail was tucked under his body, I reset his sit. This is going to be unacceptable going forward. Only a relaxed, comfortable, tail-out "sit" position is going to be acceptable. This applies to his "place" and "down". We are not going to allow him to be in a tense position. Imagine sitting in a chair while doing your work, and the whole time you are hovering 1" above the seat. How much work would you get done before you get tired and start focusing on whether you should stand up and stretch your legs? I want Mr. Leroy to be relaxed and calm so he can focus on staying down for as long as I need him to.
However, we may not be able to undo everything, we need to show him that he doesn't have to live like that. He does need strong leadership due to his reactivity, so he may not make it off-leash in two weeks, but I am going to do my best.
I did not give him much of a potty break before we started. This reminds me that you should always make sure your pup has had a good potty break, poop and pee, had enough water and food, and enough rest before going on a walk, putting him in a high stress environment or conducting any focused training.
Pupdates 5/8/25
Today, Mr. Leroy and I headed over to Whittier Narrows in El Monte, CA, to meet up with a couple of our fellow Off Leash trainers. Once again, although this was not an overstimulating environment, Mr. Leroy never fully relaxed but was able to maintain his "down" and "sit" around new pups and people. We were there for approximately one hour, and Mr. Leroy never got into a fully relaxed position. He was on alert the entire time, showing signs of drooling and attentiveness to his environment in contrast to the other pups, which were relaxing in the "down" and even falling asleep.
I am glad that he was able to perform the commands that I asked him to without much resistance or fleeing. He did get up one time as I was telling a story about my mini trainer, and I said "Ok" in a happy tone, and he was like alright,t I'll get up and leave. Other than that one slip-up, he was minding his own business. He did "sit" and "down" a few times with his tail underneath him. Once again, we are not going to accept this as his standard. I moved him with a "heel" and a slight uptempo movement, and then repositioned ourselves so that he would have his tail wagging, and then I would have him perform the "sit" and "down" again with his tail out from underneath him.
When we got back home, he fell asleep for a few minutes. He is still reluctant to relax, though, because at the slightest noise, he will get up and move around the office. I kept his crate closed because I don't want him to keep running off to be scared in his crate. He needs to understand that it's ok. Nothing is happening to him. He has his food, his water, toys, and a nice quiet and cool place to relax. There's no need to be so anxious. It is one thing to have a safe space in his crate and to be able to relax when he is overstimulated, but there is zero stimulation happening for him to behave that way. I don't want to allow him to go in there immediately when he is in that state. I want him to relax and be in a calm state of mind before going into the crate. If it were up to him, he would stay in there for the next week and only come out to go potty. These are the kind of small things that we are going to manage for him. We have to stop letting his fear override everything and let it run how we live our lives. Is the fear ever going to go away? Probably not. Can we get it to a manageable level? Definitely. You're going to have to continue to do a decent amount of work going forward, but I think you'll be able to handle it because Mr. Leroy needs the leadership and responds well to it.
Pupdate 5/9/25
Today, I took Mr. Leroy to my local hardware store, Home Depot. It was hot today. We started in the garden area, but didn't get to hang out there for long. I started working on his anxiety and reactivity the moment we walked into the store. I noticed he was a little intimidated by the large push carts; however, the concrete floor was too hot, so we moved to a shady area. He was once again intimidated by the wheelbarrows. I have attached a picture of him excessively drooling around them. He is willing to perform the obedience commands, which is excellent. His tail is sticking out and not tucked under him. This is called desensitization. For simplicity's sake, he is just soaking in the thing that he was intimidated by. I am not asking him to do anything else. I was not moving them or making any noise. I was saying "good boy" but wasn't overly reassuring him. Yes, he is showing signs of anxiety and trepidation. When I mentioned his conditioned emotional response the other day, if I had just walked out of the store at that point when he was in that state and put him in the car and gone home, that could easily reinforce that behavior. This means that the next time I went back there or you, he would see the wheelbarrows and start to immediately have that anxious response. However, we were far from done. I didn't let him leave in that condition. We went and explored more of the store. And now I think I have something to reward him for these missions - more on that later. We explored the store and found some more things to work on desensitization. Anything that caused a physical response from him, we went straight to it, and I had him sit next to it and soak again next to it. Once again, his last response to a piece of wood or a shopping cart or "scary" item is not going to be his flee response. It is what we say we want it to be. We can't completely control his psyche, but we can manage it.
We headed out to Petco to go find some of Mr. Leroy's favorite things. I basically let Mr. Leroy lead the way and pick out some of his favorite things. We went to the treat aisle and he picked out a tough chew bone. We went and said hi to the birds. Stopped by the aquariums and their weird noises. Then we went to the toy aisle where Mr. Leroy picked out a Kong. I grabbed some liver flavor filler for the Kong. Since it was a hot day, I also grabbed some puppy-friendly frozen treats for Mr. Leroy and Ms. Toji. Overall, this was a good trip to Petco.
When we got home, he devoured the frozen treat! That was good. I then gave him the Kong with the filler, and he was all about that. Once he was done with all his treats, nap time in the crate. He even slept through the loud noises of the dishes being washed, which isn't surprising, given that when he is in his crate, he feels safe and secure.
Now that I know that he likes the Kong with the liver filler inside of it, I am going to bring that with me and have that on hand for him after successfully overcoming a new environment. Maybe when we hang out in a new area with a stimulus, I want to see if he's willing to chew on it. I have observed that if something is interesting enough, such as the row of treats or toys, Mr. Leroy can ignore quite a bit of his nerves. If I can stimulate his olfactory senses, his sense of smell, with the liver filler inside the Kong, and have him enjoy that while he is soaking around the fear item, then we should have a recipe for success. This is something I will try out in my backyard with some loud noises and see how it goes. We can't just run out to a high distraction area and expect him to take it. I also want him to play with it a few more times so that it has much more value to him.
Pupdate 5/10/25
Today, I wanted to focus on three things with Mr. Leroy. The first thing I worked on was his come-to-sit command. I have been super focused on his "sit" and "down" around distractions that I haven't made this one a priority, so I started our training with this task. Overall, not too bad. Once again, as long as there isn't a major distractor around, he can do this task with minimal leash pressure. We are going to be practicing this one a lot more as we advance. I know he knows "place", "down", and "sit" well enough that we can move on to this task and his "heel". He had plenty of time to eat, drink, and relax before this training session. All the panting and drooling is simply from the anticipation of stress. I tried to play with him before starting, but his fear and anxiety overran everything. That's fine. We carry on.
After several practice sessions of come-to-sit, we moved on to the desensitization of loud noises. I started with my wooden shed. As you can see, he wanted to run away at first. We aren't doing that anymore, Mr. Leroy. Some behaviorists could argue that my coming and petting him in between the loud noises is reinforcing his mental anxious state. This is possible, but we do have physical indicators since I can't read Mr. Leroy's mind. What I can do is read his body language. I see a pup that is in the down, no tail tucked, loose leash, not running away, and I want to pet him and let him know that I appreciate that he is doing that despite the loud noises going on. That's the best I can do. And that's what you are going to have to do. I was hitting that shed pretty hard toward the end. Almost as hard as I could, and he didn't care. That is huge progress from trying to run away at the first sound to lying there and not caring that I was hammering away at the side of it. Then the BBQ monster came and spooked him. As you can see, I moved him further away. I said, ok, maybe this one is too close for comfort and it was out in the sun. Let me move him to a more comfortable spot in the shade since we have already been out here a while. It was also much louder than the wooden shed. Once again, we made huge progress. Did he get up and want to run inside as soon as we were done? YES! Did I let him? No. I had him perform a "sit" and I gave him the "break" command. He can leave when I say he can leave. It's not to be mean, but it's to let him know that the fear and anxiety aren't running his life, that we, the humans, are going to take care of him, and he can trust us.
We then moved onto something indoors since it was so hot today. I wanted to demonstrate to you his door manners. There are two types of door manners. There is the first type where he can be put in a "place" and "down" at the door while you go outside and check your mail or carry your groceries in and out. He's supposed to stay there until you give him the "break" command. This is for our off-leash dogs, but you'll be receiving the long line, and it's good practice. The second and most frequently used door manners are the second one I demonstrate for you, which is where Mr. Leroy has to stop and "sit" at the door and wait for you to open the door. I say "ok" after going through the door first, and then he can come with us. He can't run past us or take off. You can say "ok" and then "sit" so you can lock the door, or "ok" then "heel" as you close the door so he stays with you.
He's still been reluctant to eat his food, but I have been leaving his crate door open now and letting him choose to come in and out as he wants. He can eat whenever he needs to. He ate the outside layer of the bone he chose yesterday. He's been enjoying the Kong with the liver filler. He enjoys chewing on the Nylabone I have. He has hidden a tennis ball in the back of the crate. He likes to sleep on the wooden floor on these hotter days with the AC and fan blowing on him.
My favorite moment so far of the training is that he finally gave me a puppy kiss last night! He's such a sweet guy, and I hope you are enjoying the progress because I want to see you and him be successful.
Pupdate 5/11/25
Today, Mr. Leroy and I headed over to McMaster Park to show you his progress. I think we both agreed that he's making steps in the right direction. In one week, I've finally been able to get him to like me a little more than tolerate me. He still sort of wants to run into his crate when I head into my office/indoor dog area, but then he comes right back out of the crate. We discussed that Mr. Leroy is a bad decision maker because he lets his fear and anxiety overtake him. We are going to be a good, consistent leader for Mr. Leroy and not let him make bad choices. We also discussed that when he does show that fear or flight response, he isn't allowed to run away, we stay calm, and that we never let him leave in that state of mind. We discussed how important desensitization is when we have time to work on it, and also how challenging the word is to type and say. Another major talking point was how to incorporate the e-collar into Mr. Leroy's life without it becoming overly aversive and utilizing it incorrectly when Mr. Leroy is in a heightened anxious state. We do not want to make an already stressful situation worse. Instead, we'll use steady leash pressure as our primary means of helping Mr. Leroy.
There was a lot of information, but we'll be revisiting a lot of it this week and reviewing it in the pupdates. Maybe I'll get him to be excited to be around me like he was to see you today.
Pupdate 5/12/25
For today's training, please watch the entire video. It's a little overexposed due to my camera settings, but the audio of me talking kicks in around the 3:20 mark, and I walk through the desensitization process and using pressure to guide Mr. Leroy away from bad choices. A lot of the things I do are without thinking about them, and I tried my best to talk you through what I was doing while I was doing them. If you have any questions, please shoot me an email about any portions, and I will do my best to clarify. This is a follow-up to what we discussed yesterday regarding how you are going to handle his fear responses. I'll try to find something that I can bring on Sunday to recreate this so you can work on it with me there, but at least you'll have this video and my blueprint on how to do this. It is a bit long, but I hope this helps you understand how to overcome and deal with this behavior when it arises. I started with the come-to-sit before working on desensitization, as that is extremely stressful for Mr. Leroy.
As a reminder, this was only one session. I now know what he can tolerate. This does not mean that he is cured. Ideally, we would only work on desensitization to the tarp (or one or two items at a time) every day until we met our goal. My goal would be to have him relax the way he is with you underneath the tarp while it is flapping away. The problem is I don't have that kind of relationship with him, and I don't have unlimited time with him, so we have to move on to other objectives for this week. You can see that the desensitization training to the BBQ grill and fire pit worked, as he had little to no reaction today.
We went on a nice walk around the neighborhood afterwards, where he practiced his "heel". He reminded me that his anxiety isn't the only thing we have to manage. He is still a regular puppy at heart. Be on the lookout for the small behaviors such as starting to put his nose on the ground, looking over his shoulder, breaking off the "heel," i.e,. Walking off the sidewalk when we are on the sidewalk. These are all mini-behaviors that he is trying to do what Mr. Leroy wants. He doesn't get to do those things unless we say he can. When it's time for a potty break, we say. If he's showing signs that he needs to go potty, we take advantage and say "Break - go potty" as if we commanded it from the heavens, not that it was his innate desire to go this entire time. All these are going to add up to Mr. Leroy continuing to look to us for our leadership in all situations.
Pupdate 5/13/25
Mr. Leroy MADE MY DAY TODAY! I am not even exaggerating a little bit. We headed over to Liberty Park in Cerritos, CA, to work on his commands in a new place. The specific reason was that there are several concrete benches that I wanted to ensure he would "place" on. I wanted to ensure that he would "place" on various items other than just the dog cots we have been using. Of course, he had zero issues. At the park, pickle games were going on, other dogs, people exercising around the track, and yard work was going on with a giant combine grass mower and a John Deere utility cart driving around.
Today, we continued to work on his come-to-sit, which was looking good because when I would say "come," he would automatically start making his way towards me. The whole process of making his way around me still requires some movement from me, but it's better than where we started. We will be doing high repetitions of this every day. He was able to maintain his extended "sit" for well over a minute. I figured he would break it at some point with me moving around behind him, which is why I was sitting and moving around behind him. This is the hardest thing for most dogs when they can't see their pup parent. We just have to be timely with the reinforcement of reminding them to carry out the current command. I didn't say "sit" when I stood up on the last one, and he was like "ok, I'm going to get up now since you didn't say anything." That was his limit, and that's where we need to remind him what to do. We practiced his extended "place" and "down" on the benches, and he had no issues with those either. If you notice him looking off in the distance, most of the time, it was at the grass cutting combine. Have no fear, we went straight for it after his stellar obedience session.
But what MADE MY DAY was that HE LIKES ME! HE REALLY LIKES ME! DID YOU SEE IT IN THE VIDEO?? He jumped on me with excitement like he did with you! Even after pushing him through all the scary things and not letting him run away and teaching him a few new tricks this week, he likes me! It took a little while longer than most pups, but I finally won him over! I let him do it a few times because I was happy he did it, and I wanted to let him know it was ok to be himself around me. I didn't want to bring the hammer down immediately after he finally came out of his shell. This is great for our training and relationship. He trusts me that we can push even a little more in our training.
This is exactly what we did. We headed straight over to the disc golf course, where the combine was cutting the grass, and walked past the machine. We had a slight tail tuck, but nothing too significant from Mr. Leroy. I was proud of him. I then cut into a little fenced-off area and let him roll around in the grass as a stress reliever and fun time for overcoming the fear. As fate would have it, the combine monster was headed right for us. The combine pulled its blades up like a mythical villain ready to strike and struck fear into the heart of Mr. Leroy! Alas, his human trainer was attached to him with the leash and did not allow the fear to overtake him, and they stood there and withstood the monstrosity as it passed by. Then all was calm, and we went back to rolling in the grass and running around as if nothing had happened.
We practiced our "heel" for a while longer with the combine doing its thing all over the park, and Mr. Leroy no longer paid it too much attention. At the end of the session, I let him roll around in the grass again, as you can see at the end of the video. We left with a nice positive experience and a fun time. Going to new places equals fun more than it equals trauma and fear is what we want to program into his conditioned emotional response. When he first got out of the car, slight tail tuck, but right away, we shut that down by running over and finding something interesting for him to smell. I didn't crank up the obedience. I waited until I saw his tail wagging comfortably, and once he was a little comfortable, I gave him the "heel" command, and we headed over to start our training session. We're not going to be able to do this in every situation, but we don't want him to jump out of the car and there be an instant loud noise and immediate fear response. Although we can't control that, we're going to have an uphill battle that we will need to hurry up and move on and overcome that situation. Just be on your toes when going to new environments, and just like being a parent, you know your dog better than anyone else, and what his needs are.
Thanks for making my day, Mr. Leroy!
Pupdate 5/14/25
Today, Mr. Leroy and I headed over to Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, CA, to work on his commands in a more public place around people. We went in the middle of the day and the middle of the week so that it wouldn't be overly busy, but it would be enough to gauge how he would react. His only major reactivity was towards the metal dogs that took some convincing to get him to pose next to, and the mall strollers that are made to look like police cars and fire trucks. He was not a fan of those. Oh, and he saw his reflection in the mirror when we dipped into Hot Topic and started to growl at himself. That was interesting.
My mini-trainer came with me. She kindly reminded me on the way that "Mr. Leroy likes me more than he likes you." She's not wrong, so it wasn't bad that she came along to help him with any fear or anxiousness he had. As you can see, when he's "placed" on the bench, she sits next to him to calm him down, and he cozies up right next to her. She made sure that he was being a great pup and having fun the whole time. He was also checking in with me throughout the time we were there. I was observing him for when he would look up at me to see what I was doing. Occasionally, he would try to pull ahead or slightly break off from the "heel," and I would use the e-collar to bring him back to the correct location in conjunction with leash pressure. I switched over to the flat collar for a few minutes to see how he would handle that. It was ok to start, but once he realized he could resist the pressure and fight through it, it was game on for him. It's called the opposition reflex. The more pressure you apply in one direction, the dog will apply in the opposite direction. Therefore, the more I pulled him with the flat collar, the harder he resisted in the opposite direction. Unlike with the prong collar, that pressure comes with discomfort, and the only way to relieve that discomfort is to release the pressure.
We did have a few people ask to pet Mr. Leroy. He was average at this task. He would let them pet him, but it wasn't a nice, calm sit while they petted him. He would break the "sit" after mere moments, which was the end. I let all the petters know not to pet him on the head but rather his back or chest. Just remember to always make sure you put him in the "sit" before allowing someone to pet him. If not, it will scare him tremendously when some random person or thing touches him.
5/15/25
Today was quite interesting. My focus was his house manners—another low-stimulus training environment—but I also wanted to see how well he would perform on the flat collar instead of relying on the prong collar. It went surprisingly well, considering that I forgot to pair the e-collar and the remote until we were almost done for the day. Rookie mistake.
We started with his door manners. Once again, Mr. Leroy is required to stop and sit at each door. He is not allowed to run through the door or go through the door until after we go through and say "ok". This is for any closed door. For open doors and going through thresholds, that will be up to you on how consistently you want to reinforce that for him. Once again, I recommend that if he is on leash and you are running the show, you make all the decisions for him, and he cannot proceed unless you let him.
Next was his food manners. Although he isn't exactly a food hound, he still understands obedience well and can patiently wait to eat his food. I find that one treat in his food normally gets him going to eat even a few bites of the kibble, but then he breaks off. Some people mix in food toppers for their dogs to help them eat all their food, but if he eats all his food at home and maintains a good weight, I don't think you need to change anything with his food. He has lost a little weight, but nothing out of the ordinary for the amount of training and play he's been getting while with me.
Next was his car manners. He has no problem performing this task. He did give me resistance early on getting out of the crate, but with using the steady pressure, he decided that it wasn't worth the battle, and now freely jumps in and out without issue. I've been making decisions for him as often as possible. When he makes a poor decision or lets his fear or stubbornness override reasonable decisions, the steady pressure shows up and is only released when he makes a better choice.
Lastly, we headed to the backyard of DOOM! Mr. Leroy's playground of fear! Well, that is what it has become because he did not want to go over there. I wanted to practice his come-to-sit without the prong collar. I wanted to see how well he could perform that task only using the e-collar and flat collar (apparently it was only the flat collar). He did not like that idea, but Mr. Leroy doesn't drive this ship, so ahead we sailed. As you can see, our come-to-sit training turned into some desensitization training. Remember what my goals would have been? Him sitting under the tarp, relaxing while it was moving? Almost there. But as I said, we can't do that every single day because that is a lot of stress on him, and as you can see, it distracted him from the other training I was trying to accomplish. I don't want to put him through all that stress every day and then run out and do more training. The giant, heat warmers pushed him a little over the top which is why he broke the "down" towards the end. I didn't have the leash, and he was able to make a poor decision without me being there to prevent it. He was under the tarp (stress), I was banging on stuff (stress), and then the heat warmers were moving (more stress), and he was like, "I've had enough of this," and left. Totally reasonable. I have been pushing him and pushing him. I reached another limit for him. That's how this works. You can see the BBQ and fire pit don't bother him anymore. When I slam the doors shut in front of him, he isn't as reactive anymore. I am not encouraging you to slam every door, but I have been pushing him to overcome this reactivity at every opportunity and letting him know that his fear response is not acceptable and he's not allowed to get up and run away. That's it.
At the end, he wanted to get up and run away to the door, go inside, and get away from all the scary monsters outside, but that's not how we end things. I wanted to see how he would perform with the flat collar and e-collar only on a walk. Only about halfway through my walk did I finally realize that the e-collar was not paired with the receiver. He performed everything up to this point with only leash pressure on the flat collar. That's pretty impressive. We have made significant progress with Mr. Leroy.
Normally, about this time is when we transition from flat collar to off-leash, but in his case, we are testing the waters with transitioning off the prong collar to the flat collar. The prong collar gives us significantly more control over Mr. Leroy, and it doesn't seem to be too much of an added stressor to him. When making decisions for Mr. Leroy, control is the name of the game. We want to control his decision-making process. As he progresses and you continue on your journey, you will figure out what you are more comfortable using, the flat or the prong. If you are going to a potentially high-stress environment or an unknown environment, I would be prepared with the prong collar for maximum control. In places that he is familiar with, and so are you, you could consider using only the flat collar, like I was comfortable trying stuff around the house with the flat collar. I even tried the flat collar for a little bit at the mall yesterday to see how it would go. I would not go to Santa Monica Pier or Venice Beach using a flat collar and expect Mr. Leroy to make good enough decisions to only need the flat color. Please keep this in mind when choosing the equipment you will need for him.
5/16/25
Mr. Leroy and I headed over to Stearns Champion Park in Long Beach, CA, to meet up with one of our fellow Off Leash trainers and his pup in training. Mr. Rob and his pup, Ms. Hana. Ms. Hana is also a shy and fearful pup. Mr. Leroy gets along so well with other pups! He was a gentleman and respectful of Ms. Hana! I started with the prong collar due to the new environment, but once I felt comfortable that there was nothing too overstimulating for him at the park, I switched over to the flat collar and e-collar alone. He had no issues with these and was his usual playful self throughout the session. I let him get his grass roll on and conduct his bug finding investigations since I don't have grass in my backyard. He has been such a pleasure to work with, and I hope you have enjoyed our progress over the past two weeks.
Tomorrow, we will conduct one more day of reinforcement training of all his commands. I'll try to find a medium-stimulus environment to continue pushing him before he goes home. I'd like to continue to see progress on the flat collar, but it all depends on the significance of the fear or stimulus how well we can get him to overcome that item relying only on the flat collar + e-collar.
5/17/25
Today was the final day of training for Mr. Leroy with me. I didn't quite have the time to take him out to dinner at a Lazy Dog this past week, but I did take him to my son's soccer game today at Hollydale Park in South Gate, CA, and had him hang out with me while the family watched the game. This was a big test for him as he had to stay on task for a long time with a lot of distractions going on. He did well with all the soccer balls, loud noises, cheering, kids running around, different scents, people coming up to him, and fighting his boredom. He let the soccer team come up to him and say hi. He definitely let all the females greet him. He let several adult males say hi to him without any treats or rewards. I always try to ask people to pet him on the back or chest, but I don't always get there in time. Several kids complimented Mr. Leroy and said, "I like your dog". They asked me his name, and I said "Scaredy Cat." One kid said that he looked like the dog from Grand Theft Auto V. He received a lot of attention, and it didn't seem to bother him.
His "place" and "down" were not perfect. I had to reset him multiple times. We were there for over an hour for the game and warm-ups. I gave him several breaks to roll around in the grass and hunt for bugs. I see some of that behavior as de-stressing and him being comfortable in that higher stimulus environment, so I wanted to give him ample opportunity to do that, but I also wasn't going to let him dig a hole and ruin the fields. I feel like he could handle going to Lazy Dog or a brewery or something that allows dogs, as long as you continue to make decisions for him and let him know what you want him to do. The only way for him to get better at it is for you to keep doing it. He knows what "off" means, and sometimes you do have to go a little bit higher on the e-collar to get his attention, but it does work, and he understands that it means to stop doing that unwanted behavior. His longest place and down lasted for each 30-minute half. There were a few resets in between there when he would get up to say hi to my wife or daughter, but those were quick.
After our final expedition to the park, I decided I'd give Mr. Leroy a bath at my local self-service grooming station. I have been quite gratuitous with allowing him to roll around in the grass when we have been out and about, and I felt he needed a rinse off before I sent him back to you. My mini-trainer came with me, and we tackled another thing that Mr. Leroy is not a fan of. Once again, sorry but not sorry, Mr. Leroy, you can't back out of the giant metal water monster. He did well in the bath. His tail was tucked, but it was in a way that most dogs are in the bath. The air dry was fine, and overall, he handled the whole experience well.
Keep making strong choices for Mr. Leroy and not letting him back out of things, and you will be fine. He's still going to do it from time to time. Some of it is just from not wanting to do stuff like not wanting to go into the bath is extremely common and not unique to Mr. Leroy, but the overhead tarp monster may come back, and that's when you have to step in and not let it take over. Use things like speeding up, coming back to it, not leaving the area or stimulus while he is in that heightened fear state. Be careful not to pet him or reinforce him when he is in that heightened fear/reactive state. Ensure that he is calm and in a more peaceful state of mind before moving on. He doesn't get to run away or break away when you're done. You will calmly walk away in a nice "heel" and move on as if nothing happened.
As a reminder, here are the obedience commands that he has learned while with me:
Sit/Extended Sit: Press the black "S" button + say "Sit".
Down/Extended Down: Press the black "S" button + say "Down".
Place/Extended Place: Press the black "S" button + say "Place".
Come-To-Sit: Press the black "S" button + say "Come" + use your hands to guide into place. Use your spirit fingers.
Heel: Press the black "S" button + say "Heel".
Food Manners/Refusal: The pup must patiently wait in either a "sit" or "down" while you prepare the food, and then say "break," allowing the pup to access the food.
Car Manners: Press the black "S" button + say "Load up!"
Greeting Manners: Have the pup "sit," then allow for new person to say hi
Door Manners: Place the pup in a "sit," open the door and then allow the pup to go through with you or say "ok" and let the pup inside or place pup in a "place/down" at the door while you go outside and check the mail or get your groceries then release with a "break" or "ok"
Off: Press the black button "S" + say "Off" to stop the pup from performing unwanted behavior. Always press the black "S" when using this command. NO FREEBIES!
"Break!" - no stimulation and the pup can freely sniff or go potty.
We will review how to perform all these tomorrow during the turnover! We can't wait to show you how much he has learned and how great of a pup he will be in the future!
Comments