Welcome Pax, a one year old Akita Shepherd Mix in our two week Board and Training program. Pax is friendly, a quick study, and LOVES other dogs. Problem is he hasn't figured out who does and who doesn't like him. He runs to the end of his leash in hopes to go play with his new found friends. When in the car, he'll start barking to let other dogs know where he is at and gets frustrated because he can't go see them. Pax also thinks he's still a small dog and freely jumps up on people, knocking them down. He knows sit and is very good to respond to it, but he doesn't hold his command. He believes that as soon as he sits, he's done to do what he wants. During our two weeks together, Pax will learn boundaries of both people and other dogs. Stay tuned to watch his transformation.
Pupdate 3/31/2024
Pax did really well for his turn over. I did Pax's evaluation on the outside of a dog park, about 100 yards from any of the fenced in areas. He didn't seem to care about the dogs in the dog park, he was more interested in engaging with the dogs going in and out of one of the areas. Â
Pax did a lot of marking, usually after he went to the end of the leash and couldn't go anywhere. The video shows the evaluation, there's a transition because Pax decided he had to defecate again and that was about two minutes of him going and me cleaning it up that didn't need to be shared.
When Pax and I got home, I brought my dogs out one by one so he could see them. When he went into the house he had the opportunity to go and sniff Diego in his crate. Pax needed to be in his crate for Kiki, my Akita, to greet him. All three dogs did great and I anticipate play time with the boys.
While outside a neighbor and his dog walked by. Pax did alert but I gave a stern OFF - off is the command used when we want them to stop doing something they shouldn't be doing - and he just sat and watched them. Â
As per requested, I tried feeding Pax when we got to the house. He refused to take any food from the bowl, but did take some from my hand. At that point he tried to shake, and did give me a down upon request. Pax also weighed in at 65 lbs, versus the 75 lbs reported. He is a little thin but he could also be a dog that is difficult to keep weight on. I will watch that closely.
Pupdate 4/01/2024
Day 1 of Pax's training camp - Pax enjoyed a car ride down to the Los Angeles State Historic Park. Some interesting things I noticed about Pax. He doesn't really pee, he marks a lot. One of the things I started doing on the walks is that he has time to pee before we work, and then after we work. He's not allowed to mark while we're working. After he pees, he is trying to 'scratch to spread his scent'. He hasn't quite learned how to do that yet. The hind legs are quite angulated and are definitely German Shepherd legs.Â
While at the park Pax focused in and alerted on other dogs, including some that were quite a distance away. Each time he was corrected with an OFF. At one point I turned a corner and found a puppy schnauzer in front of us. Behind us was a Belgian Malinois, Pax immediately turned around and started lunging and barking at the Malinois. At this point he was showing fear as well as trying to protect. I countered him with an OFF and then started working on his sit, turning to heel, basically engaging him with good behaviors that he needed to concentrate on. Â
Pax quickly learned that if we were heeling and I gave him an OFF command, that it was a warning that something was coming towards us and he needed to work on his focus with me. For example, we had a large Labrador running towards us, pulling an owner and out of control. I saw it, gave Pax an OFF command and then redirected our walk to add space between the Labrador and Pax. Pax never had a chance to react, he focused on me because of this abrupt change. When he saw the Labrador, he already knew he wasn't to interact with it and continued to follow my lead. So as not to leaving you hanging with the situation, the owner did finally get the Labrador under control before it got to us, and redirected to their friend that was running off. That was actually a positive dog experience for Pax, he doesn't have to play with everyone, and he doesn't have to interact with a dog that he sees.
Today was also Pax's introduction to the ecollar. It was used more for pulling today, he feels like he has to hurry up and get wherever, in case he misses something. Remember the ecollar is like a TENS unit, it works on a muscle level and is more of an attention getter. Pax didn't feel it or didn't recognize that the feeling didn't come from his own body. There were a lot of distractions of people, other dogs, new smells around him that a strong nudge had to be used for him to get it. Once he realized that the feeling came along a with a command and correction with the prong collar, Pax's whole attitude changed. He was very attentive to how he was walking and if he was pulling.
Pupdate 4/2/2024
Day two of Camp Pax was at the 'Boardwalk' along the beach in Ventura. I tried to think of where the most dogs would be on such a lovely day. We did about a 20 to 25 minute warm up walk, and the first dogs we came across were two noisy chihuahuas. As they were approaching, we stopped on the side of the path. This allowed me to have better control if Pax should get out of hand, and a chance to redirect him if needed. The chihuahuas went off as soon as they were about ten feet from us. Totally offended, Pax was ready to defend himself, I corrected with the ecollar and prong together and we moved away from the chihuahuas. Â
Pax is still getting used to the ecollar and doesn't always realize that's what he's feeling until it's higher. Once he's tuned into the feeling of the ecollar, I'll be able to rely on that instead of working with the prong collar.
In the video you'll see that he's started to heel, and we've started working on his Extended Sit's. I've been able to get him to do down's in the house, but he's uncomfortable in the outside environments. I will continue to work on that. Also, in usual Akita fashion, he doesn't like to repeat things - like Sit. I've seen him Sit correctly at my side, and now he's starting to face me instead of be at my side. You'll see several times that he does that and I start walking to reset him and do that sit again.
We also worked on watching and sniffing the air as dogs walked by. I found he was more eager to charge dogs that were barking at him, or that were running. In the video is a golden who had passed by us, this is his third time while we were there, and by far the best reaction from Pax. The first time Pax was ready to go join the run and a game of chase. This time, he's much more obedient and willing to watch the dog trot by.
Two funny things about this video - as soon as we were done and returning back to the car, Pax's heel went out the window and we were back to starting and stopping because he wanted to drag me. It was like he was on his best behavior for the camera. The second thing is that he walked right up to the camera and pawed it, almost as if to say 'it's a wrap'! Â
Pupdate 4/03/2024
Day 3 of Pax Camp took us to a path winding through Ventura and lots of Heeling exercises. We came across a few dogs and I noticed how stiff Pax gets looking at them. His whole body language is rigid which throws out warning signs to other dogs. Â
For Akita's, any dog that stares at them is challenging them. I discovered that Pax stares at everything; that's his natural gaze. That gaze paired with his body language probably has a lot to do with why other dogs are singling him out, they think he's challenging them. Â
As part of our training, I am allowing Pax to look and sniff the air for positive distance introductions. Anytime his body becomes rigid, I am correcting him with an OFF, it is better that he ignores the dog then watches them with a stare and rigid body posture.
Akitas are also known to be same sex aggressive and Pax will need to be watched closely around other male dogs. He has been very respectful of Kiki, my female Akita. On his first day, Kiki gave Pax a play bow which scared Pax. Not what I thought was going to be the reaction. Kiki keeps herself close to Pax to give him the chance to sniff and say hello.
By the end of our training time, Pax was close to perfect in his heeling position. His ears should be aligned with my knee. From time to time he forges a little further ahead, where his chest is at the knee. That is not the correct position, although I've noticed many akita's take that position with their humans. I will continue to work in getting him in the proper place.
He's doing the down command better around the house, although still not comfortable in new places. I was able to get him in a down position outside, where he could see the house. Pax also had a chance to say hi to the neighbor's seven year old daughter today. They have BIG dogs and she helps dad in the training, mainly so she knows how to handle the dogs in an emergency. Pax was very good, although when she tried to pet the top of his head, Pax would do a little hop. I suggested that she pet Pax under the chin which helped him keep four feet on the ground.
Pupdate 4/04/2024
Today’s lesson included how to coexist with male/female reactive dogs without going nose to nose or nose to rear. We did a pack walk at the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, and several of the dogs are reactive. Much like Pax where they bark or lunge at other dogs. The video is of a short pack walk and everybody is behaving well. At the end they do it 2+ minute extended sit which Pax didn’t quite make because there were people walking behind him and he didn’t like that. Both the Akita and German Shepherd are protective and like to be able to watch what's going on. Neither like their backs to movement.
Before the walk there were several groups of people walking up to see the dogs. Pax’s favorites were a little brother and sister, my guess was 7 and 9. Pax started out in a sit but quickly stood up in his excitement. The kids were great and took a step back to allow me to get Pax back in a Sit. We did this exercise a couple of times and the kids moved back right on cue. I think Pax was starting to get the idea he needed to be in a Sit for greetings.
In the video you'll see that Pax is still pulling, he's doing better but seems to feel everything is a race. Still a work in process. Â
I included a picture of the dogs hanging out. Three of the dogs know each other but are reactive to other dogs outside of their pack. At this point I have Pax a little away from the group. I'm leaving a bit of a gap should he decide he wants to go visit and I need to make sure he doesn't go into another dog's 'bubble'. That's the area around them that they're likely to feel threatened and will react. Also a picture of Pax working on Place. I said something about taking a picture for you - "Shall we take a picture for mommy?" and that's the look I got. Â
Pupdate 4/05/2024
Pax is trying his hardest to stay in a Heel position while we walk, but he continues to try and walk with his shoulder area next to my kneecap. Today I started doing more left turns so he understands he needs to walk further back or be more watchful so we don't have a collision. Â
We enjoyed a nice walk along the mountain line of Santa Paula, which is where a couple of the pictures were taken. Pax is getting more comfortable with Extended Sits and Downs as we are out at other places. Along our walk we ran across a noisy Japanese Akita. Pax started barking back but stopped after one correction. Â
Pax is also working on his greeting manners, he met a human male friend today. He tried not to jump up - would go to jump up and then drop back down to four paws on the floor. While he was enjoying the pets, Pax walked by Diego's crate to say hi, I noticed that his body is still going rigid. The boys were nose to nose and there was no growling or snapping. I'm waiting for Pax to relax and not be 'on guard' or expecting something to happen.
Pupdate 4/06/2024
Today's plan was to work at the High School's tennis courts off leash. I wanted to evaluate how Pax would do in open space and just how big his bubble was to be away from his handler. I wasn't worried about people playing tennis, that would make a nice distraction for him. What I didn't expect was the two little white puffy dogs that were not on leash and allowed to go wherever they wanted. Pax spotted them immediately. Â
I started working Pax outside the fence of the tennis courts to see what his reaction was going to be. His prey drive is too high and he wasn't ready to work in that kind of environment. At this point, in his excitement, he is able to ignore the ecollar. Instead, I found another area on the school grounds where I could test his off leash skills with less distractions, but also work with the ecollar to help him understand I'm trying to talk to him when he feels it.
Overall Pax did really well. He has difficulty with hard left hand turns, that's expected with dogs new to heeling. As you see in the video there are a few places he stopped to sniff something on the ground but quickly jumped back up to get in his spot on my left. Right before the transition between video's you'll see Pax really acting up and not staying focused. I've learned that it's usually a 'I have to go to the bathroom!' signal. Once I had him back in a Sit, I released Pax with a Break so he could go potty on the grass. It wasn't much and I think it could have waited. Oh well, and we continue working.
In the next part of the video I have him Place - designated area for the dog to sit or down for a period of time - next to the palm tree. It's something he can see easily because it's elevated, and it's big enough for his body. Problem? He wants to pee on the palm tree. Pax decides to Extended Place / Down as I had requested and was waiting me out. I released him with a Break and now he's ready to pee on the tree. I win and he doesn't pee on the tree, but now it's a game and he has checked out. I tried praising, playing with him, and going back to work with Heeling. Nope, Pax has checked back out and up the hill he went to go potty again. I did bring him back down and finish with a Come to Sit / Recall - Pax has to return to me on the right, circle behind me, and then Sit on the left. After the recall I released him with a Break to go to the bathroom on the little hill. Â
Again, more marking than anything else, but he's done working. Will pick it up again later in the day.
Pupdate 4/7/2024
Pax and I had a leisurely day testing his commands. We started on a walk downtown where he was anxious to show me how well he learned everything. His heeling was right on, he sat in an extended sit, he did hesitate on his downs but doing well there too.
My bubble bursted when we walked by a house with a barky Chihuahua, next was a barky cattle dog. As we were passing the cattle dog, Pax was back in focus and started thinking through his distractions.Â
We did some Place photos on our walk, I discovered Pax doesn’t like to be next to geraniums? Very bizarre, I tried hard to make that photo happened, but he just wasn’t interested.
Today was also a big day to play with Diego! I included a picture of them running together. The two were very considerate of each other, and I discovered Pax likes to jump. If you’re ever interested, agility might be a fun sport for him. And then the two boys started jumping over each other. I’m sorry I didn’t get that picture, I wasn’t expecting it.
The boys would play together for about fifteen minutes or until it was getting out of hand - which ever came first. Pax was very good at coming when called while they were playing. I would separate with an Off and have them lay down for a time out.
Pupdate 4/08/2024
Today started out with a switch of leashes. Pax continues to pull on the prong collar so I switched him to a nose and neck collar / leash combination. Pax responded well other than trying to get the nose portion off. Usually we use these leashes as stepping stones and to help guide them to understand what we're requesting. Pax knows what a heel is but wants to surge forward. This other leash helped show him the position I was looking for in a heel, I'll test it tomorrow to see how it does on the prong collar.
Pax and I were the first ones at the park so we started working on the OFF command with squirrels. Pax did very well and turned with me when I reversed directions away from the squirrels. We were practicing Place on the cot when Pax saw or smelled Jo, and he started scanning the dogs to figure out where she was. He did some pulling to try and go see her and I did a lot of turning around and going in the other direction.
It's important that we get the dogs to respond to us which will translate to responding to you. We don't want them feeding off each other and escalating whatever issues are happening in the moment. If one of them responds to you and goes to work Sitting, Down, or Heeling, the other will lose the momentum and follow suit.
I took over 30 minutes of footage but even speed up to double time is way too long. I was able to get it down to just under 13 minutes and sped it up so it's only a bit over six minutes. I tried to share how Pax was pulling towards Jo and how I continued to turn around. Pax was doing better on his Downs, but it doesn't show in this video. That's why I continued to work on them. His Come to Sits were almost always off with Pax turning to watch and see what Jo was doing. When they were really bad I had Pax do it again, sometimes leading him away so she was out of his bubble and I could get him to think again. Â
Overall Pax did really well, he didn't melt down, he didn't try and drag me to her, and sometimes took the lead instead of watching what Jo was doing on direction or sitting when we stopped. Â
Pupdate 4/08/2024
Pax and I want to know where this hot summer day came from!  We’ve been in and out taking little training trips around the neighborhood while working on seeing other animals and walking by.
Pax shows interest in cats but watches them walk by - that’s been an improvement. Pax doesn’t like barking dogs so some houses that have out of control dogs have been great training opportunities.  Words like Off paired with the ecollar have worked well while walking away from those houses.
Pax’s door manners have been improving although he continues to test the waters by sitting down and jumping right back up to run outside.  With help of closing the door before he gets there, we seem to be making some headway and that I’m serious when I say sit.
Pupdate 4/10/2024
Pax always seems to know when the camera is on him and does an awesome job. Today the only thing I had on Pax was a flat collar with a long lead and the ecollar. Pax did a great heel, stayed exactly where I wanted him to be, gave me some clean recalls, and strong extended Sits. He watched the people walk by him almost asking them to come say hi to him. Notice on the first two that walked by, she's walked behind her male friend. That's because Pax had that stare and she couldn't read what his intentions were.
He proved himself in a low distracting environment, so I increased the distractions by inviting Diego to come out and join us. Immediately Pax was on high alert, we've never trained with Diego around us. As soon as Diego got settled down in an extended down, someone across the street came walking by with what looked like a tick hound. Pax's alert was a little different with this other dog and I saw he immediately went rigid. I repeated OFF to him while pairing it with the ecollar. I wanted Pax to refocus on me, if he had I would have stopped with the command and ecollar. You'll see in the video I walked towards Pax, I'm actually on the leash and getting closer so he won't be able to pull far or get momentum. I'm also increasing the ecollar, attempting to interrupt the gaze / focus on the other dog. Â
Although Pax has calmed down, he continues watching the other dog until I put Diego to work going around Pax. Diego is nervous about it, I've never sent him around another dog, but Pax just watches Diego and wants to go run with him. Pax sits started getting sloppy, I'm guessing because of the Akita side thinking he knows how to do it, I (Trainer Debbie) should go practice if I have a problem with it.
My next step in training will be to continue training with the long lead so I have a hold on him, but will focus solely using the ecollar. I was pleasantly surprised how well he did, but it's based on the low level of distractions.
Pupdate 4/11/24
Welcome to another unusually hot day in sunny Southern California. Temperatures hit 85 where we are at, and Pax and I tried to stay cool in the house as long as possible. We ventured out in the neighborhood to practice place and extended sit.
While practicing door manners in the house, I apparently picked the highest value door because Pax had a terrible time staying in an extended down while it was open. I’m using Diego as a distraction because I felt doing this with no distractions would not be helpful for you. After a 10-minute cool off, I decided Pax needed a change of scenery, and out the house we went for pictures.
I have to say that Pax’s favorite thing to do is ride in the car, he’s always pulling to the van when we go outside for a potty break. His loading manners are doing well, except that he is anticipating when he’s being released to get in the car. That’s what I call excitement!
Pupdate 4/12/2024
Pax and Jo met up at the Westfield Mall in Century City. Pax found the mall overwhelming with loud music and a loud hum of human voices. When Pax first saw Jo, he was ready to run to her and possibly run her over. We walked the two dogs through the mall with Pax pulling the whole time due to all the distractions. Â
The first place we stopped had cement stools for people to sit on, I used them to help Pax focus by weaving in and out of them. That seemed to help until a little dog walked by and started barking at Pax. Back to an overwhelmed Pax but now he's focusing all of his energy on that dog. As I'm redirecting him to help him handle all the noises and a barking dog, he feels like he needs to deal with the dog and is able to tune the ecollar completely out. Once the owner had the dog under control, Pax was willing to relax, focus, and actually 'hear' me talk to him with the ecollar. Â
The video is focused on the interaction between Pax and Jo. We walked them around each other and made sure they were reacting and listening to our directions instead of feeding off each other. We did allow them to sniff each other but Jo seemed concerned about Pax coming up from behind and sniffing. I'm not sure if it was the environment and maybe she was worried how Pax was going to react. Â
As always, once the camera starts recording, Pax is on his best behavior. I have no idea how he does that! But Pax was willing to heel next to me, had some clean Come to Sit recalls, he even restrained himself from jumping on his hind legs at other dogs. At one point a white dog passed us and Pax stood there watching it, the dog barked at Pax. I'm sure it was Pax's stare that made it uncomfortable, he just can't help himself.
Pupdate 4/13/2024
Here we are on our last day before Pax goes home, we were rewarded with a little sunshine before going to meet up with Jo and her trainer Adrienne at Balboa Park for some more practice of working together.
Jo and Pax were so happy to see each other. Pax did really well following commands while Jo was around, although his anxiety got the best of him in his heeling, causing him to continually pull.
Pax had some difficulty with Place / Extended Downs when we first started training so we did a lot of practice on those. Sits were fairly good unless another dog was within eyesight. Pax did discover Canadian geese and wasn’t sure what he thought about them.
While working, Pax had several opportunities to work around other dogs. I’m seeing a pattern of Pax reacting to doodles, and while there were others, I was always ready for the guaranteed over the top doodle reaction. It took Pax about two hours to decide he was done reacting and would either sit and watch whatever dog pass by or backup about two feet to give more space.
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