Maddie | Labrador | Marina Del Rey, CA. | In Training.
- heatheroffleashsoc
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 14 hours ago
Maddie is a two-year-old Labrador from Marina del Rey who has just joined us for our Two Week Urban Board and Train Program! This sweet girl has a big personality to match her size, complete with demand barking, pulling her owners along on walks, and selective hearing when it comes to coming when called. If Maddie has somewhere to be, she fully expects everyone else to keep up!
Over the next two weeks, we’ll be working closely with Maddie on her basic obedience, leash manners, and overall house manners to help her become a calmer, more polite companion both out in public and at home. Our goal is to give Maddie the structure, guidance, and tools she needs to succeed while strengthening her communication and relationship with her family along the way.
Stay tuned to follow Maddie’s training journey and see her transformation unfold! 🐶✨
5/10/2026
For Maddie’s first day with me, we decided to take a walk through the park to better get to know one another, see what she already knows, and introduce her heel command. Maddie started off with a very strong leash pull, so anytime she forged ahead she was quickly met with a pop of the leash and I changed directions. We practiced this consistently for a while until she started to understand that walking nicely with me was what would keep us moving forward!
I also found out that Maddie does know “sit,” which is great! Over the next couple of weeks we will be working on making it more reliable and performed promptly on command rather than only when she feels like offering it. By the end of our walk, Maddie was already beginning to walk with me a bit better, and we will continue building on that progress over the next few days.
After our walk we headed back to the car to load up. Maddie hesitated for a moment, but then hopped right into the crate! She did whine some on the ride home, but once she realized she couldn’t negotiate the terms of the car ride, she chose to settle down and quiet herself.
Once we got home, I let Maddie check out her home away from home for the next couple of weeks. She had no complaints until I left her in the yard briefly while unloading her things from the car, and she immediately tried opening the gate to get to me. When it came time for the crate inside the house, she went in willingly, but once she lost sight of me she began barking. My thought is that Maddie may have a little separation anxiety going on, which is completely okay and something we will absolutely be working through together during her stay.
All in all, for such a big day full of new people, places, and experiences, Maddie is doing alright. She definitely has some nerves right now, which is totally normal, but I’m sure with a little more time and structure she will settle right in!
5/11/2026
Today Maddie and I headed out to Rosemead to meet up with some fellow trainers and their pups! Our main focus for the day was introducing Maddie to the e-collar as well as beginning work on her come to sit command.
Maddie seemed pretty unfazed by the e-collar introduction, which was great to see! In some moments it even helped sharpen up her listening skills a bit, so that was a nice bonus. We also continued working on her heel command along with sit, and I discovered that Maddie already knows down—smart girl!
Her heel is coming along nicely, though Maddie is definitely a very willful young lady and still isn’t entirely convinced that I know where we’re headed. Even so, she is making steady progress and beginning to settle into the routine more each day. Her sit and down commands are becoming much more reliable, so we started adding some distance and duration to them. For the most part she handled this very well. She did break command here and there, but with calm and patient redirection back into position she started to better understand exactly what we were asking of her.
With her come to sit command, Maddie is learning to walk around my right side and finish sitting at my left side. She doesn’t quite have the full motion down yet, but she responded very well to leash guidance which is lovely to see and gives us a great starting point moving forward.
Overall, Maddie still has some opinions about all the new surroundings, people, and changes in routine, but she’s making good progress and learning that everything here is safe and okay. She’s not the biggest fan of the crate just yet, but she made it through the night with no demand barking to be let out, which is a huge win! I’m sure with a little more time all of this will feel much less stressful for her and she’ll continue to settle in nicely.
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