Lucy | Mixed Breed | Carson, CA | In Training
- Tanner Strong
- Aug 2
- 9 min read
Updated: 13 hours ago
Meet Lucy! She's a one-year-old Mixed Breed from Carson, California, here for our Two-Week Urban Board and Train Program! Lucy is a fun, happy pup who loves nothing more than pulling her way around on walks, jumping up to greet everyone she meets, and chewing on anything she can get her paws on! She also likes to make her own decisions about when to listen, so we'll be spending plenty of time building her obedience and reliability.
Over the next fourteen days, we'll be working with Lucy on her obedience commands, leash manners, and polite behavior both inside and outside the home. Our goal is to help her become a well-mannered, confident companion while still letting her happy personality shine. Stay tuned to follow Lucy's two-week transformation!
8/2/2026
Lucy and I had a pretty good first day together. After picking her up, we spent some time at the park getting to know each other. She is such a friendly, happy girl, but she definitely still has plenty of puppy energy! She loved jumping up to say hello, play biting, and pulling wherever she wanted to go on our walk.
Once we had gotten acquainted, I introduced Lucy to a Heather's Heroes leash to help guide her into the right positions. She spent the first few minutes trying to pull it off her nose, but she adjusted surprisingly quickly. Once she became comfortable with it, it was much easier to show her where I wanted her to be and reward her for making the right choices. I also rewarded her throughout our outing for offering calm, polite Sits by my side, and she seemed to catch on pretty quickly. This balanced approach is already showing some promising results!
After our time at the park, we headed home to get settled in. Lucy's biggest challenge of the day was walking up the stairs, so we took our time and let her build confidence at her own pace. Once we made it inside, she began relaxing and exploring her new surroundings. She's already starting to settle in nicely, and I think she's going to enjoy her stay. I'm excited to see all the progress she'll make over the next two weeks!
8/3/2026
Lucy and I made a couple trips to the park today, giving us plenty of opportunities to continue building the foundation of her training! She was still her wiggly, excited puppy self, but we spent a lot of time working on her Heel command and introducing her to her e-collar.
For Heel, I ask that Lucy walks politely at my left side with her ears in line with my legs. This is still a challenging concept for her, as she's very eager to explore everything around her. Every now and then she would get overly excited, try to bite the leash, or pull off in a random direction. Even so, I noticed many more moments where she chose to check in with me and give me her attention instead of tuning me out. Those little moments of focus are exactly what we're looking for and are a great sign that she's beginning to understand what's being asked of her.
We also introduced Lucy to her e-collar today. At this stage, it's simply another communication tool that we'll use to reinforce commands she already knows. She handled the introduction well, and we'll continue taking things slowly so she builds confidence and has a positive learning experience. Lucy is a fun, energetic pup, and I'm looking forward to seeing her confidence and focus continue to grow over the coming days!
8/4/2026
Lucy and I spent most of today working on her Come To Sit command, which is her recall and will be one of the most important commands she learns. For this command, I want Lucy to come when called, go around me, and sit neatly at my left side with her ears lined up at my leg. Throughout the day, she made some nice progress and really started to understand the motion of the command.
Before she settled into working, there were still a few moments where Lucy decided she'd rather play, jump on me, and act like the happy puppy she is! The good news is that these moments happened much less often than before, and she was able to refocus and get back to work much more quickly, which is a great sign of improvement.
You'll also notice a difference at the end of each training clip. In the first clip, when I release her from command and begin praising her, she immediately wants to jump up and play. When that happens, I stop petting her, use the leash to guide her away from me, and only continue praising her once all four paws are back on the ground and she is calmer. After practicing this throughout the day, you can really see her progress in the second clip. When she's released and praised, she stays much more polite and keeps her paws on the ground, showing much better self-control. It was great to see her make progress not only with her recall, but also with learning that calm behavior earns her attention and affection.
8/5/2026
Lucy and I had a pleasant day together today! One thing I was especially happy to see is that she's starting to settle down much earlier in the day instead of needing lots of time to get all of her puppy wiggles out before we can really focus. She still has plenty of energy, but she's beginning to show a little more self-control, which is great to see.
She's continuing to make excellent progress with her commands and has shown me over and over how smart she is. Now our biggest focus is on helping her become more polite and well-mannered in everyday situations, which is naturally a bit more challenging for an excited puppy.
During our walks and our time at the park, Lucy built a much nicer Heel today and needed far fewer reminders to stay in position as we walked. I was also really happy with her progress on loose leash walking. Even when she's on a break and isn't expected to be in a Heel, she's still not allowed to pull on the leash. That's been a tricky concept for her to understand, but today she made noticeable improvements.
Our goal is for Lucy to understand that anytime she feels the end of the leash, whether she's stopping to sniff something or gets distracted, her cue is to immediately check back in with me instead of continuing to pull. She's slowly but surely figuring this out and is offering me more attention on her own, which is exactly what we want. I'm proud of the progress she made today and look forward to building on it tomorrow!
8/6/2026
Today we spent most of our training time working on Lucy's Place command! Place means hopping onto a designated object, such as a cot or bench, and remaining there until she's released. I find this command especially useful around the house when I'm busy doing something that doesn't involve the pups, like cooking, cleaning, or answering the door. It teaches patience, self-control, and gives Lucy a clear job to focus on.
Lucy impressed me once again with how intelligent she is. She caught on to the idea of the command very quickly and started understanding exactly what I was asking of her. She needed less guidance throughout the day and showed some great problem-solving skills as she worked through the exercise.
I also noticed a big improvement in her overall behavior today. She did much less jumping and was noticeably calmer than she has been the last few days. Overall, this was by far our best day together so far! I really believe that consistently practicing the Place command is going to be the key to Lucy's success, and I'm excited to keep building on the progress she made today.
8/7/2026
Lucy and I had a great outing to Home Depot today! We spent quite a bit of time there, giving her plenty of opportunities to experience all the sights, sounds, people, and activity that come with a busy store. She was definitely a little excited when we first arrived, but once she had some time to settle in, she became much more responsive and obedient.
A big part of our visit was actually just sitting and practicing being calm. We watched people walk by, listened to carts rolling around, and let Lucy take in everything happening around her without feeling like she needed to react to every little distraction. This seemed to help her settle in quite a bit, and for most of our time there she did a really nice job listening and staying focused on me.
After being there for a while, Lucy started getting a little tired, and I noticed her becoming slightly less reliable with her commands. That's understandable after such a long and stimulating outing, but I'm still very happy with how she handled herself overall. She showed me that once she gets comfortable in a new environment, she can settle down and make some really good decisions.
Home Depot was a great training opportunity for Lucy, and I'm looking forward to bringing her back again so we can continue building on today's progress!
8/8/2026
Back at Home Depot today, Lucy and I continued working on her training in a busy, stimulating environment! I was especially happy to see that she did a better job of settling in earlier today. She seemed more comfortable with everything going on around her, which gave us a great opportunity to focus on her commands.
We spent quite a bit of time working on her Down command. This one has been a tough challenge for Lucy, and asking for a Down when there are carts rolling by, people walking around, and all kinds of distractions happening nearby is definitely not easy! She started to make some really nice progress with it throughout the day, becoming more consistent about listening and settling into the command even with everything happening around us.
Lucy also did a better job of giving me her attention today. Instead of focusing so much on the carts and people passing by, she was more willing to check in with me and stay engaged with what we were doing. That was a great improvement from yesterday!
I'm very happy with Lucy's work today. She's showing more ability to settle, focus, and work through distractions, and I'm excited to keep building on this progress!
8/9/2026
Lucy and I got to see some sports today! We spent some time at the park where people were playing soccer and basketball, giving Lucy plenty of fun distractions to work around. All the activity definitely got her excited, but she did a great job handling herself!
Even with all the running, jumping, and excitement happening around us, Lucy was able to return to me when asked, give me her attention, and remain obedient when things got more stimulating. That’s exactly the kind of progress we want to see as she learns to stay focused no matter what’s going on around her!
We got a fun workout in, practiced her obedience around some real-world distractions, and finished up with another great day together. Way to go, Lucy!
8/10/2026
Lucy and I enjoyed another great day together! We started our morning with an early trip to the park while the weather was still nice and cool. She had a great time getting some exercise and practicing her commands before we headed home.
For the rest of the day, we spent plenty of time relaxing and working inside, with a few short walks mixed in to keep things interesting. Lucy’s Place command continues to be extremely useful around the house, and she’s getting quite good at settling onto her spot and staying there. It’s been great to see her becoming more comfortable with the routine and needing less guidance.
Her Heel is also continuing to improve. She’s needing fewer reminders to stay with me while we walk and has done a nice job of sticking by my side today. She can still get distracted by certain things, especially other dogs, but she’s getting better at bringing her attention back to me and continuing on.
Overall, it was another really good day for Lucy! She’s showing some great progress, and I’m happy with how well she stuck with me throughout the day.
8/11/2026
Lucy and I headed over to Downtown Alhambra today for some new sights, sounds, and a little extra training! She got to experience all kinds of distractions, but the most exciting part of our adventure was definitely the fountains.
When we first got near them, Lucy was a little nervous. The fountains blast out water pretty loudly, and the sudden sounds caught her attention right away. Instead of rushing past them, we hung around and gave her some time to take everything in. Before long, Lucy started realizing that the fountains weren’t anything to worry about. She became noticeably more relaxed and eventually paid much less attention to the noise! It was great to see her confidence grow as she got used to them.
We also spent quite a bit of time working on her Down command. Down can be especially challenging in a new environment with so many distractions, and it took Lucy a few tries to really settle into it. Once she understood what I was asking, though, she did a great job! She was able to focus and hold her Down even with everything going on around her.
Overall, it was another really productive day for Lucy. She handled some new distractions, worked through a little nervousness, and showed that she’s becoming more comfortable listening and settling in different environments. Great job, Lucy!
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