Meet Nora! She's a fourteen month old German Shepherd Mix from Burbank, California here for our Two-Week Board and Train Program! She is very sweet, however she has some issues with jumping and nipping when she gets excited, and chewing on things in the house, especially shoes. She also loves to pull on her leash and bark at people when they come in the door. Over the next fourteen days, we will help Nora with her manners in and out of the house, work on her basic obedience skills, teach her how to properly greet people, and show her how to be the best pup she can possibly be! Stay tuned for Nora's two week transformation!
Pupdate: 4/7/2024
After picking up Nora, we headed home so that we could get to know each other! Nora has been extremely sweet so far, and I believe she's settling in well. Once we relaxed at home for a bit, we went over to the park by my house for our evening walk. She definitely wanted to pull on her leash at first, but she seems to be responsive to me and did a great job sticking by me for the most part! I think she will do very well with our training!
Pupdate: 4/8/2024
Nora and I went to Santa Anita Mall today! Typically I save the mall environment for a little later in our program, but she did a great job nonetheless! We mostly worked on her Heel command. For Heel I want her to walk politely next to me despite any distractions.
She is well ahead of her counterparts, and behaved well even when faced with these heavy distractions.
In addition to her video today, I'm adding a tutorial of her e collar which will certainly come in handy when she goes home!
Pupdate: 4/9/2024
Nora and I went to Almansor Park today for training! We continued to work on her Heel command, which is coming along nicely, however, I forgot that she is training on our right hand side, so we started working on a right hand Heel today, which went just as well as yesterday!
We also started working on her Come To Sit and Place commands. For Come To Sit, I want Nora to come to my left hand side, walk around my legs, then sit at my right with her ears at my knee. She's done a great job with this so far!
We also started on her Place command. For Place, I want her to hop onto a defined object, such as the rock in the above pictures! The object can also be a bench or a place cot. This is great for building confidence, but is also an invaluable command for your everyday life once she learns it inside. Anytime I have company over, start cooking dinner, or start cleaning my house, I always ask my dog to place first. Then depending on her behavior, she might be allowed to say hi. This is a brilliant command for practicing those indoor manners!
Pupdate: 4/10/2024
Nora did an amazing job today. She was a little impatient this morning before she got some exercise and a nice workout in. Nora is a German Shepherd Mix, and I suspect she's mixed with a Husky. She is extremely smart and reliable with her commands as long as you stay on top of her with her E collar. Even today I was able to put down a place cot in random locations and Nora did a great job of holding her positions.
She is doing great so far with her commands, but she definitely needs a fair amount of exercise per day before she is able to relax. Overall, great job!
Pupdate: 4/11/2024
Nora and I went to Almansor Park today for training! We continued working on each command, especially holding her sit position. Ideally, I want her to be able to hold a sit for about two minutes around distractions. She's progressing well with this, however she sometimes likes to lay down or get up before I'm ready for her to move. After she holds a command, I release her with the word, "break!" Or ask her to perform a new command such as her Come To Sit command!
Back at home, she was nice and tired and did a great job holding her Down position on a place cot, and even settled in for a little nap!
Pupdate: 4/12/2024
Nora and I went to the Santa Monica Promenade today for training! She did a great job with each command, although there were a few areas with lots of people where she got a little excited. This was the busiest place we've gone so far, so I'm still proud of her! She never tried to jump on me or anyone else, but she whined a few times and wanted to pull ahead of me. After a few minutes of walking around she calmed back down and did a wonderful job!
After Santa Monica, we went to the park in the evening so she could spend some time in a slightly more relaxing environment.
Pupdate: 4/13/2024
Nora and I went to the park this morning to make it outside before the rain! Even with the impending rain, it was still relatively busy, with a couple baseball and softball games going on. In the quieter areas of the park, we started working on some of her 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. Her Place and Down commands are going well with this, although when asked to come back to me from the place cot I still needed to pick up the leash.
After the park we went home to work inside so that we wouldn't get rained on! Pretty good day today despite the weather.
Pupdate: 4/14/2024
Nora and I survived another rainy day! It rained in the morning, but then on and off for the rest of the day. We went to Bell Gardens Veterans Park to practice more of her commands with the leash dragging.
She did pretty well with everything, and much better today with her recall! She seemed a bit slower than usual, but I believe that was due to the weather. We had several opportunities to practice between the sprinkles, and any time they started, we took cover in the car and had a break! She's been doing very well so far with her leash dragging, but I'm eager to try it when the weather is nicer!
Pupdate: 4/15/2024
Nora and I went to La Mirada Park today for training! We started off with the leash dragging, then took her leash off after several minutes of warm up time.
Even off leash, she did well with her commands! There were a few other dogs there, and she didn't seem bothered by them, even if they barked or played around.
My only complaint with her at the moment is that she still prefers to lay down sometimes instead of follow all the way through with her commands and sit. This is especially noticeable when around the place cot! She loves the place cot, which is great, but now I'd like her to start becoming more responsive to other commands, even if it means she needs to move from the cot!
Pupdate: 4/16/2024
Nora and I went back to the park today to practice her off leash training! Once again, her weakest point is coming off of her place cot and performing other commands. However, she was very good about this today. It simply takes consistency with each command to let her know she needs to follow through with everything, not just her place command. Other than her place command, she does best when given encouragement, whether it's in the form of a head pat, a pat of my leg as we're heeling, or simply telling her, "good girl."
She's very smart, and she knows what she's doing. The only downside of that is she knows when to try to get away with being lazy. To contest this, I want to allow her to lay on the place cot, then immediately ask her to come to me, then make sure she follows through. She is allowed plenty of time to nap on her place cot at home, so when we are out working, she needs to pay more attention to me. She is doing well with this, but it will take a lot of work and consistency!
Pupdate: 4/17/2024
Nora and I went to Almansor Park today! She was allowed to be off leash all day. She stuck with me and followed all of her commands.
We had a fun day, then took our nap at my house. Nora loves to move, but she definitely can use a lot of energy before she is perfect.
Pupdate: 4/18/2024
Nora and I went to Santa Monica Pier today for training! She was off leash after the first few minutes and a great job, despite it being very busy!
When we first arrived, we kept the leash on for her warm up, but she was performing very well so we took her off leash after only a few minutes. We practiced each of her commands off leash around all the distractions, and she nailed each one! We went to the park later in the evening to have some fun in a more relaxed environment. She's been doing very well!
Pupdate: 4/19/2024
Nora and I went to Almansor Park today for training! It was a fun day for her. She's been capable of much higher difficulty areas for a few days now, so our day at the park was a great time for both of us. In an environment like this, she needed very little warm up to be allowed off leash. As long as I was on top of her from the beginning with her E collar, she didn't need a whole lot of warm up today. That being said, this is a park she has been to almost every day at least once per day. In most places, I would still recommend having a nice warm up session with Nora, until you are absolutely positive she'll behave perfectly in that environment for you!
Pupdate: 4/20/2024
Nora and I went to Almansor Park today for training! She did just as well as she typically does. For her video today, I wanted to show us working on her door manners. These manners are essential for Nora's safety when it comes to any threshold that she might be met with. The front door is the most important threshold, but this can be applied to any gate or fence that Nora might come across in or around her household! Ideally, I want to be able to open the door without her feeling the need to rush through. We want her to respect these boundaries both for her safety, and to make our lives easier! For example, I want to be able to carry in my groceries with the front door open without having to worry about Nora trying to come out and "help" me! This impulse control is great for these threshold boundaries, but also can be applied to any other aspect of her training. From holding a Sit command to respecting the personal space of someone new coming into her home!
