Odie | Australian Shepherd | Ladera Ranch, CA | In-Training
- Scott Hansen
- Jan 19
- 19 min read
Updated: Feb 1
Meet Odie! Odie is a two-year-old Australian Shepherd from Ladera Ranch, CA here for our Two-Week Board and Train Program! Odie is friendly, playful and loves belly rubs. Odie’s parents recently adopted him and are looking for Odie to be a well-behaved member of the family. Odie is not good at walks, can be reactive towards other pups, and isn’t the best-behaved pup. Odie can perform a command or two, however, he lacks impulse control and will perform the tasks inconsistently. Over the next fourteen days, Odie is going to learn to be a confident, obedient pup through consistent, clear communication, and balanced training in areas such as at home, in the car, and in discovering new people and places. Odie is going to learn how to perform all these things off leash through a positive and balanced training environment. Through structure and consistency, Odie will demonstrate how great a pup he can be! Stay tuned for Odie’s two-week transformation!
Pupdate 1/19/25
Today Mr. Odie was welcomed to my home and family. We stopped at a local park on the way home to review what commands Mr. Odie knew. Big surprise, he is not very good with his obedience commands. That's fine because over the next fourteen days, we are going to instill a solid obedience foundation into Mr. Odie.
When we got home, I let Mr. Odie sniff around the house and meet everyone. He was friendly and let everyone give him a belly rub. I let him meet Ms. Toji, my German Shorthaired Pointer. Ms. Toji is like the big sister around here. She lets the pups know how things work here. I played fetch with Ms. Toji while Mr. Odie watched. He played a little bit with us and even was able to get one ball before Ms. Toji. Next, we went for a walk around the block with my mini-trainer. Mr. Odie made sure to let every tree in the neighborhood know that he was there.
After our walk, I brought him into his crate for a small break to relax. He was guided into the crate and drank his water while he was in there. I let him relax in there for about an hour and then let him hang out with Ms. Toji for the remainder of the day. At night, I brought him and gave him a chance to eat his food and relax in his crate. Today was his "free" day to adjust to the new sights, sounds, and scents of his home away from home for the next two weeks. This also gives me time to assess Mr. Odie on what he may or may not need from me for his training. He seems like a happy-go-lucky pup and a lot of love and positive reinforcement will get us a long way. He is skeptical of the car and loading into the crate but that will come with time and proper positive reinforcement.
Tomorrow we will introduce the e-collar and get him going on all his commands. Please review the video above a few times before Mr. Odie's return. He has shown that he lacks impulse control. He will perform something like "sit" but will immediately jump up. We have to make it clear to him what our expectations are and that performing these obedience tasks will get him even more love and attention, maybe even a treat!
Pupdate 1/20/25
Today was a busy day for Mr. Odie! We got the day started off with introducing the e-collar to Mr. Odie. I started off with putting the e-collar on him. I started at 0 and work our way up 5 levels at a time. I am looking for any reaction from Mr. Odie as we move up. Mr. Odie showed a response around 10 and 15. He was not a fan of level 20. We will keep his levels between 10 and 15 for all commands going forward. If he doesn't follow through with a command, then we move up 5 levels and ask him again. These are great levels considering that the e-collar system goes up to 100.
Once we had a baseline, we loaded up in the car and headed to Whittier Narrows in El Monte, CA to meet up with some of our fellow Off Leash trainers and their pups. This is why I wanted to introduce the e-collar system prior to meeting up with everyone because I wanted to ensure to start working on Mr. Odie's reactivity towards the other pups. Mr. Odie did great around the other pups. We had a disruptive student at the meetup but Mr. Odie paid him no mind and let me teach him all his new commands. I was able to introduce "place", "down", "sit", "heel", "come-to-sit", and "off". Mr. Odie will be practicing "off", "heel" and "sit" a lot. We will work on his recall command "come" in different distraction levels.
When we got home, we continued to work on his door manners. For all doors, Mr. Odie needs to patiently sit or down until we open the door and go through first. Then we can say "ok" or "heel" and then he can follow us through.
He didn't eat much of his food but you said that he's a grazer. I'm going to try to sprinkle some water on the food to try to release some of the flavor, scent and make it a little softer and see if he likes that.
Overall, a great day of training for Mr. Odie!
Pupdate 1/21/25
Today Mr. Odie and I picked up right where we left off yesterday. We continue to work on all his commands in low-stimulation environments while rewarding all his good behavior. Mr. Odie did a phenomenal job today! I wanted to see how long he could hold the extended "sit" and the extended "down". Well, he made it to just over two minutes on both! This is great! I also wanted to ensure he remembered how to perform the "place". Of course, he remembered and did a great job! I was worried that Mr. Odie already mastered everything but the recall or the "come-to-sit" was not so good. This is good news that we have something to work on! I used treats to shape him into the correct location and to motivate him. Overall, a great day of training for Mr. Odie. We will start getting out to other locations and working on his commands around varying levels of distractions. Also, we need to work on his car manners which is where he loads into the car on his own. He did jump into the vehicle on his own yesterday but not into the crate. This tells me that he can do it and we need to find a way to reinforce that behavior.
Pupdate 1/22/25
Last night Mr. Odie and I headed over to basketball practice at Mayfair Park in Lakewood, CA. Mr. Odie is doing so well! One of the main issues that remain is his attentiveness and fixation on other pups that are around. When he didn't see or hear the other pups, he was relaxing in the grass minding his own business. When he would see one, he would sit up and fixate on them. If the other pup barked, he would bark. He was able to be reset after a few of these encounters. By the end of practice, he even went into the "down" while the other playground pup was being rambunctious and barking and pulling his owner all over the place. Good job Mr. Odie!
Today we went on a long "heel" and worked on his recall when he would be out of position. Tomorrow I am going to introduce the leash drag "heel" and if that goes well, I will then introduce my smallest and lightest leash to simulate him being off-leash. As long as both of those things go well, we should be off-leash in no time!
Mr. Odie has a few things I am going to try to work on with him since he's doing so well. I would like to see him come up to a person or stranger and not immediately roll over onto his back and expose his belly. I have started working on this by not petting him when he does this. It might seem cute but it could also be a sign of something called "learned helplessness" which means the pup is simply giving up at a human's feet because he doesn't want anything bad to happen to him. I want him to be a confident, strong pup. One that says "Look, I am here and I want you to give me attention!"(without being intrusive or overbearing). When he does well and we're playing, I don't mind giving the belly rubs but simply throwing himself over at anyone's feet is not the most confident pup. As stated above, I'll keep working on reinforcing him with lots of love and attention when he sits or stands patiently and confidently, when he flops at my feet or someone else's, we aren't going to reward that behavior with more belly rubs. We'll have him stand up and then give him attention.
The other two things I'd like to see Mr. Odie perform are a far recall due to the hikes and trail riding you plan to do with Mr. Odie. On that same note, if time permits and Mr. Odie continues to excel, I'd like to dust off my bike and see how he does in a "heel". This will only be if he can master everything else by early next week which will put him ahead of the curve. If not, no big deal, I will ensure that he has a strong enough foundation to learn this task and go over a training plan with you to optimize success with the bike riding.
Lastly, he isn't too keen on his food, even at the end of the day, I let him roam around in my office and he can eat as much food as he wants but he rarely eats more than half. I leave the bowl of food in the crate with him while he sleeps and he only eats a little more. Maybe he doesn't want to mess up his pretty white teeth? He is drinking water, peeing, and pooping just fine. I am monitoring his weight and ensuring he's not losing too much. He is getting plenty of snacks and other tidbits. I even threw some treats in his food bowl to try to motivate him to eat more but that only gets a few more bits of kibble out of him. I tried wetting the food and that didn't make a difference in his interest in the food. There are tons of food options available because not all dogs enjoy all foods. I have seen quite a few pups use a topper or something mixed with the food to incentivize the pup to eat more. I'll keep ensuring that he has plenty of opportunities to eat.
Pupdate 1/23/25
Today Mr. Odie and I headed over to Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA. It was quite a warm day! Good thing there's some rain coming this weekend. We worked on a lot of fun and wonderful things for Mr. Odie. As you can see in the video, we worked almost exclusively with the leash dragging. I walked regularly, jogged, and even did my old-man walk, and Mr. Odie stayed with me. Even after running and getting our heart rates up, I had Mr. Odie stop and sit. This was to test him. Let's get ourselves worked up and see if he is continuing to gain his impulse control. He knocked it out! I then had him "place" and "down" after that activity. Once he was comfortable in the "down", I backed up about 30' or so and he recalled to me. He did great again! Lastly, he has been doing well jumping into the car (not for the reason you would think) but he's doing it so I wanted to show you him loading into the car. He didn't want to come out. We went for a walk around the park after the video reinforcing the leash drag "heel" and practiced placing on things other than the cot. I also tried to get another 30"+ recall out of him but he was getting tired and kept breaking the sit and down commands. I think he has the cot as his safe space so we need to practice having him sit and down in all types of areas and on different surfaces so that he understands that he can be asked to perform the extended down and sit anywhere and at any time.
This leads me to a little insight on what I believe is going on with Mr. Odie. He exhibits a lot of avoidance behavior. This is behavior that is trying to avoid being uncomfortable. He wants to jump in the car so that he doesn't have to perform all the obedience tasks. He doesn't want to get out because he doesn't want to perform all the tasks. He rolls over on his belly and becomes defenseless as if to say, please don't make me uncomfortable, I only want your love and affection. A pup that is willing to perform the obedience tasks is great, but we do not want them to be sad or simply doing them so that they are avoiding being held accountable. With all that in mind, my goal is to just make it as fun as possible for him when performing all these tasks.
Right before we loaded up into the vehicle, you could see him get a little tangled in my feet because when I was moving around with him, I accidentally moved the remote up to 20. This was too intense for him and led to a little overstimulation. As a reminder, it goes up to 100 and Mr. Odie does well around the 10 range. We were not in excessive range but for Mr. Odie who wants to avoid being uncomfortable at all costs, it makes him a little confused as he's trying to figure out what to do to avoid that happening again. This story is an example to always check your gear if he's not performing at an adequate level for our expectations. If he's not responding at all, maybe we forgot to pair the e-collar system, maybe it's too loose and not making contact with his skin, it's on too tight and the numbers are way too low and overstimulating him, or the remote is at 0 or as in today's case, the remote levels are too high. We want to make sure our equipment is functioning properly before we blame Mr. Odie for not listening.
This also leads to another reminder, as long as he is fed, hydrated, had potty breaks, and is well rested, we have a reasonable expectation for him to be able to perform his obedience tasks. If you go on a long run or ride with him and then you're trying to get him to perform all these tasks when all he wants to do is sleep and drink water, he won't perform well. We should always consider the pup's mental and physical condition when hanging out with our pups. If he seems overstimulated or something is not jiving, it's perfectly fine to take a break, put him in his crate, let him play in the background, and then try again later.
Pupdate 1/24/25
Today Mr. Odie and I headed over to Liberty Park in Cerritos, CA. We reviewed all his leash commands with the leash dragging. Overall, it was pretty good. We had to reinforce his "place" and his "come-to-sit". I also really wanted to see him perform a "down" on something other than something he "placed" on so I spent a few extra minutes working on getting him to "down" on the concrete. He wasn't a fan at first and if I went too high up on the e-collar remote, about 20-25, he wanted to run to the grass and "down" there. We reset several times and with some encouragement and a little bit of luring him down with a treat, I was able to get him to perform the "down". I feel like Mr. Odie has all the basics down well but has not mastered them yet. His "come-to-sit" is sometimes perfect and other times he cheats to go to my left side. This is pretty common as dogs want to do the least amount of work possible to get what they want. The "come-to-sit" does require a little more effort. It is important to position yourself in the correct position as well. If you see in the video, he jumped off the bench and came to me but he was already approaching to my left. This means he would have had to cross me, then go around behind me and then get into the "sit". Being the smart and efficient pup that he is, he just went directly to my left and was like "I'm here". Although the result is for him to be there, we still want him to go to our right and around us and wind up on our left side. This is why I repositioned and had him do it correctly. Other than that, I thought it was another good day!
Mr. Odie finally ate the rest of his dinner last night and consumed all his breakfast this morning. When I present his food, he usually eats a little and I leave it out for him and even put it in his crate overnight but he doesn't overeat. His weight is doing okay for now; hopefully, he will eat a few good meals and stabilize for the remainder of his stay with me.
Pupdate 01/25/25
Today Mr. Odie and I squeezed in a little backyard session before the rain comes. Since I figured I am going to lose at least one day and possibly two training outdoors, I needed to introduce the off-leash work to Mr. Odie today. Overall, he did great! I was a little confused as to why he was avoiding my patch of fake grass but with a little encouragement, we were able to get him to follow me onto the grass. It continues to be the same issue with Mr. Odie where he is avoiding anything that he thinks may be the cause of his uncomfortableness. If I pressed the stimulation button when his paws were on the grass, he could've understood that as "don't step on the grass" because he received a stimulation. That's why I kept asking him to do it so he would understand that the grass wasn't the reason why the stimulation was coming. Once again, we are operating between 10 and 15 for most of his training. Sometimes we even work around a 7. The level rarely changes unless he is purposely not attempting to perform the obedience task. With that being said, the avoiding the grass was not an issue. Usually, a pup breaks off completely and runs to my dog run gate, but Mr. Odie attempted to perform his tasks despite being cut off leash. He still tries to anticipate often but this isn't surprising. Most pups want to perform the least amount of work to gain the most reward. My goal and job are to make it clear to him that all he has to do is perform the "sit", "down", "place" or "heel" and everything is fine. It's when he doesn't do those things that we have to shape his behavior into the correct form. Although I took the time today to introduce the off-leash work, we will still go back and forth from leash to off-leash based on how well he is doing. This also keeps him guessing if he is on leash or off-leash but the expectation will be the same. He will show me when I can fully trust him for an off-leash session in a less controlled environment such as the park or mall.
Pupdate 01/26/25
Let there be rain in so-cal! As predicted it rained today which meant not a lot of outdoor training opportunities. That's perfectly fine as Mr. Odie and I needed to work on his door manners. His door manners can be conducted one of two ways. The first way is for him to sit at the door before we either go out together or I go out first and then he can come. Regardless of the method, he does not go through the door until we allow him to. The next way is that we place him on a dog bed, cot, or even on the floor in the "down" and he is required to stay there and not follow us out the door. The obvious strategy is to simply close the door behind us and not let him follow us outside but he should stay anyway. The door manners are going to be a crucial step when you take Mr. Odie home. This will let him know from the minute he gets out of the car, that the structure and rules that I have been working on with him will apply everywhere he goes.
Usually, when I work on indoor manners and manners around the house, I also include the car manners where he loads into the car. I demonstrated that to you when we were at Rynerson Park a few days ago. The other indoor manners we like to show the pups is how to patiently sit and wait for their food. Unfortunately, Mr. Odie isn't a food hound so we haven't worked on that. I've purposely avoided it because I don't want to ruin the little bit of excitement he has for his food when I do present him his food. When it is less rainy, we will work on the "off" command and what we call food refusal. This means that he has to ignore the food on the ground such as hot dogs or even the treats I have been giving him while maintaining his "heel" and other obedience commands.
He did have a few good meal sessions in a row but has slowed down again. I continue to give him as much as I can and give him every opportunity to enjoy his food. His weight is still good and he likes eating treats.
Pupdate 1/27/25
Today I had one last backyard off-leash session with Mr. Odie. As you can see in the video, he started off to the side by the dog run next to Ms. Toji and Mr. Mylo, my new board and train. Once I called Mr. Odie over, he was ready to go. We practiced everything and Mr. Odie did so well! He does get a little confused on the "heel" sometimes but I am asking a lot out of his "heel". A regular, walk-by-me "heel" has been going well and should be fine for 90% of your needs. As I stated before, I am trying to push Mr. Odie and challenge him with our training. I am really happy with all of his progress. I am glad we got a rain-free day today to stay on course with his training regiment.
As a reminder, just because I can perform off-leash with Mr. Odie in the coming days doesn't mean you should run out and do the same. I will be providing you with a long line similar to the one I have been using to build the structure into Mr. Odie. Once you are confident and comfortable with all the obedience skills on the long line, then you can start to practice the off-leash skills. Mr. Odie is pretty smart so it's more for you to be comfortable with all the commands. Lastly, ensure to follow all leash laws, regulations, and policies wherever you go.
Attached is the picture of your e-collar which came in. I installed the 3/4" hypo-allergenic titanium contact points due to his longer fur. The e-collar has a warranty. Please ensure to register your product.
His eating and weight are stabilized. I would recommend looking into something that he may be more excited about like fresh food or even a fresh food or canned topper to get him motivated to eat his food.
Pupdate 1/28/25
Today Mr. Odie and I headed over to Rynerson Park to put to test the last few off-leash sessions from my backyard. Mr. Odie was placed on my smallest and lightest leash to simulate being off-leash at first. We performed a nice long "heel" over to the park. I guess it was too cold so there were no kids to try to distract Mr. Odie from showing off his awesome obedience. There were the usual dog walkers, bike riders, motorscooters, and joggers running around though. Mr. Odie did such an amazing job!
I was impressed at how attentive and obedient he was. We performed everything that he needed to do to go home successfully with you. His foundation is solid and we will keep reinforcing all the commands more frequently off-leash than on-leash for the remainder of the time that he is with me. I might use the leash at first when we go to a new place to see how he is taking it in and as long as he is doing fine and not showing aversion to anything, we will let him be off-leash and show off how great he is!
At the end of the video, I tried to get as far away as possible while staying in view to show you how far his recall can be. I even practiced his "come-to-heel" which is where I put him in a "sit" or "down" and then keep walking away. At a certain distance, I press the low-level stimulation and say "heel" and he comes running into the correct position. This is something we usually do for our three-week board and trains but Mr. Odie has been doing amazing so I want to keep challenging him. It's fun to work with a pup like Mr. Odie!
Odie Pupdate 1/29/25
Today Mr. Odie and I headed to Home Depot to practice our commands around various distraction levels. Mr. Odie was a little skeptical of the floor cleaning machine but other than that he didn't have any other issues. We continue to push Mr. Odie and ask him to be the best pup that he can be. I am really proud of how far he has come and I think you will be too. I don't think there will be any issues with the lifestyle you wish to live with Mr. Odie.
Pupdate 1/30/25
Today Mr. Odie and I headed over to Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, CA. I walked around the entire mall with my smallest leash hanging through my backpack strap and I wasn't holding it all. I only used treats for the "come" command just to make sure he is solid on that command. He would take physical praise such as a head rub or a side rub as a reward for performing the task. This is my goal for the next few days is to minimize the treats. Lastly, Mr. Odie has quite a few fans at the mall and we were able to work on his greeting manners. Mr. Odie sat there confidently and let a few strangers pet him without rolling over to his belly!
Treats aren't bad, but if you are out on a run, bike ride, or at Lazy Dog, and you don't have a bag of treats, we expect Mr. Odie to perform all his tasks. I will review when a good time to give them and how much to give him during our upcoming turnover. Keep up the great work Mr. Odie!
Pupdate 1/31/25
Today we headed over to Stearns Park in Long Beach, CA. We focused on his recall from long distances. I hope you can see how far apart we were. It was maybe 50' or more and he was recalling beautifully. Mr. Odie is going to be a great pup with all this new structure in place. He is lovable and fun to be around. He didn't even pay attention to all the squirrels that were running around the park. Tomorrow we will review his door manners, car manners and food manners and he'll be ready to be back on Sunday!
Pupdate 2/1/25
Today Mr. Odie and I headed to Santa Anita Mall in Arcadia, CA. We had a full off-leash session reviewing all his commands. What a great job Mr. Odie! He did get car sick and threw up in the crate. Once I let him walk around, take a potty break, and smell the new area, he was settled in. We practiced greeting manners with strangers and Mr. Odie did fantastic again. It was a pleasure to train Mr. Odie and I think you guys have a bright future with a well-behaved, happy-to-please pup.
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.
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 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 pup inside
"Off" + black button "S" to stop the pup from performing unwanted behavior. Always press the black "S" when using this command.
"Break!" - no stimulation and the pup can freely sniff or go potty.
Bonus command: "Come-to-heel": When Mr. Odie is in a down or sit, walk away and say "heel" and Mr. Odie will return to the "heel" position.
We will be reviewing 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!
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