Meet Peanut, the French Bulldog from Los Angeles, CA, who is here for a two-week board and train program. Peanut is here because he potties in the house, displays a lot of puppy behavior, gets overly excited about life, chews up anything he can get his mouth on (including furniture and walls), lays down when he sees a person or dog he wants to meet and will not budge. Over the next two weeks, we will be working on basic obedience, house manners, greeting manners and teaching him a positive way to expend all of that energy! Stay tuned for Peanut's progress!
Pupdate 9/26/2022
Peanut is settling into his new environment and learning the new structure of his temporary home. He does seem to display quite a bit of separation anxiety and has been very vocal from his crate. Peanut is doing very well with the potty training and is understanding where he needs to go at the beginning of every walk. He pulls on the harness so we have begun using new tools to teach him better leash manners. He is eating like a champ and keeping up with the pack already. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Log: Peanut is settling into his new environment and we took a look at what he knew!
Today's Weigh In: 19.5 LBS
Pupdate 9/27/2022
Peanut and I went to the park today to meet with other Offleash SoCal trainers and their puppies! We worked on Peanut’s “heel” and “come to sit” and boy, did he impress! He learned very quickly to walk at heel and is eager to please. He was definitely a little stubborn about sitting but after figuring out that he gets lots of praise and physical touch after, he changed up his tune quickly! He is still a puppy so he does tire out pretty quickly but we made sure to make each short session fun and educational. He was eager to meet the other dogs but we worked on having him concentrate on our exercises during our training. We also practiced “off” whenever he made attempts to grab something he shouldn’t be eating, and the park was the perfect environment for it. Sticks and leaves galore! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: We worked on heel and come to sit with other Offleash SoCal trainers.
Today's Weigh In: 19.4 LBS
Pupdate 9/28/2022
Peanut and I worked a lot on confidence building today. I noticed that he is fearful of going up a full flight of stairs or anything slightly taller than him. I used treats on each step of the stairs to help encourage him to the top and once he got to the top, he got the jackpot of the best treats and lots of praise! We then worked on “place” on different elevated beds in the house as an introduction to tomorrow where he’ll begin working on place on different objects like flat rocks and benches. The “place” exercise is a great confidence building exercise because it challenges him to think about feet placement, builds a bond with me as a trainer guiding him through the exercise, and helps him feel like he has accomplished something cool! It also provides him a clear boundary of where he should remain for exercises with duration. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on confidence building and place.
Today's Weigh In: 19.2 LBS
Pupdate 9/29/2022
Today Peanut and I went to the park to work on “heel, come to sit and down”. He is a bit stubborn with the “down” exercise but has been doing well with treats and the leash to guide him. His heel is coming along nicely and he understands “off” when trying to pick up things off the floor to chew. His potty training is coming along as he gets several opportunities to go outside to potty every day. Peanut definitely prefers night training sessions more than day sessions because of how much cooler it is at night. Tonight we will be working on “place” again and incorporating “down”! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: We worked on heel, come to sit and down!
Today's Weigh in: 19 LBS
Pupdate 9/30/2022
Today Peanut and I went to a local park and worked on “place” on objects outdoors. It was definitely difficult to find spots low enough for little Peanut but we did it! It was a challenge to get Peanut to start climbing up on things but by the end, he was more confident and even laid down in his “place” spot! He is quite stubborn about what he likes and dislikes but will work for food and pets. Our “downs” have been getting so much better and we have already begun adding duration to his exercises. We will begin introducing the e-collar today so that we can work on potentially moving him off-leash. His potty training has been going very smoothly and he has never had an accident in his crate. He was able to ignore all the woodchips at the park today and hasn’t chewed up any of the Amazon cardboard boxes at the house! My next goal is to add duration to “place” in the living room while I prep his food. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: We worked on Heel, place, come to sit and down.
Today's Weigh in: 19.1 LBS
Pupdate 10/1/2022
Today Peanut and I began on our “load up” exercise. Being that Peanut is so small, he needs a pet ramp so we started with just introducing him to the feel of the pet ramp. He was very wary of it at first but with yummy treats, he started to feel more comfortable with the rough texture. As mentioned before, Peanut is very particular about going up onto objects and struggles to find the courage to start the exercise. With everything he’s been introduced to, it took some encouragement to just get him familiar with climbing up onto the ramp and I held him to guide him up to the top. Sometimes, he just needs to know that his fear is all in his mind and to trust his handler more to keep him safe. After having been semi-carried up and down the ramp, he did it on his own! He was very courageous today and I feel that he has become more confident with this exercise. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: We began working on "load up".
Today's Weigh In: 19LBS
Pupdate 10/2/2022
Today Peanut and I worked on “sit” and “down” on “place” on a sidewalk by a busy street. Peanut did very well until the very end. He’s still slightly wary about jumping onto the place spot in the beginning (like he usually is about jumping onto anything) but the exercise is still coming together nicely. He did very well while people were passing by until we were done with the session. When the session had finished and before we packed up, two kids on scooters passed by and he broke his “down” and went to “sit”. This tells me that we will need to work on “place” by a busy playground as he seems to fixate and get overly excited with kids. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on sit and down on "place".
Today's Weigh In: 18.8 LBS
Pupdate 10/3/2022
Today Peanut and I went to the playground to work on our exercise and introduce the e-collar. Little Peanut had big feelings about the e-collar and he was not happy with me for adding the foreign training tool at first. What a personality this pup has! As you can see in the video, he was very adamant about how he felt but with lots of pets and encouragement, he slowly opened back up to training with me. There were a lot of distractions at the playground but he still overcame it all like a champ! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: We introduced e-collar work outside!
Today's Weigh In: 18.7 LBS
Pupdate 10/4/2022
Today Peanut and I took a nice long walk to the park today and we moved to working with the e-collar with a long leash. There were a couple of occasions when he sat and did not return when called on the e-collar and so, I have to guide him back with the leash. We continue focusing on recall and come to sit tomorrow to see if he will be a successful pup off-leash. We also worked on doorway manners and extended down on “place” today off-leash and he did fantastic! His “down” is coming together very nicely but he also gets tired quickly. He has a lot of personality and isn’t afraid to side-eye you! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on fading out the use of a leash and doorway manners.
Today's Weigh In: 18.9LBS
Pupdate 10/5/2022
So today, we did something different, I took both of my board and train puppies on a walk together to the park for our session. Both Peanut and Marley get along fantastically and always get down time together when they aren’t training or sleeping. So to help Peanut be more cooperative, we brought out his sweet friend Marley to guide him in the right direction. They both practiced downs on place together and then worked off-leash separately. I think that did the trick because I was amazed at how well he adapted to all the noise and the foot traffic going by him while working on his exercises! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on off-leash exercises with his friend Marley.
Today's Weigh In: 18.8LBS
Pupdate 10/6/2022
Today Peanut and I had a phenomenal day. We went to the park and worked on all of our exercises off-leash and with how well he has adjusted to his work, all of his walks will also be off-leash. He has demonstrated amazing stability within the city and he has really bonded with me during our time together. Our extended sits still need work as he gets tired very quickly and transitions into a down on his own. His confidence has grown and he is now much more comfortable, climbing onto a low boulder for place. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Fully transitioned to off-leash walking and exercises.
Today's Weigh in: 18.6 LBS
Pupdate 10/7/2022
It is almost time for little Peanut to go home and I couldn’t be prouder of how far he has come. We went to Century City Mall to meet with other Offleash SoCal trainers and their pups to work on our exercises in a crowded setting. Peanut did really well on and off-leash throughout all of his exercises as long as he didn’t get too tired. Hi We made sure to take a lot of water breaks in the shade for him. The only thing that Peanut does need to work on is figuring out which leg to follow for off-leash heel in a crowd. It makes sense considering how small he is but he still did well to recall back to a come to sit once he followed the direction of my voice. We cannot wait for you to meet the new Peanut and shower him with love for successfully demonstrating all of his exercises at the mall! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Practiced on all of his exercises off-leash at the mall.
Today's Weigh in: 19.2 LBs
Pupdate 10/8/2022
Today Peanut and I polished up all of our off-leash exercises one last time before he goes home tomorrow. We worked on food refusal today on “place” which is important because little Peanut is so food motivated and will often break “place” for food. We also worked on his extended downs on mulch at the park and he did very well with “off” and not chewing on the wood chips. We are really looking forward to seeing you tomorrow for our turnover!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on all of our commands and food refusal!
Today's Weigh in: 19.1 LBs