Meet Pearl, a sweet, wiggly, goofy 1.5 year old pitbull from Burbank, CA! Pearl is joining us for our Two Week Board and Train Program. Pearl has a very hard time walking on a leash and tends to pull her owner around while on walks! During her two week stay, Pearl will be focusing on Leash Manners, Door Manners, and Basic Obedience! Stay tuned for her progress!
Pupdate 5/22/22
Today after picking up Pearl, we headed home to let Pearl start to acclimate and I gave her about an hour or so to settle down in the crate before taking her to the park! She was very well behaved on our ride home and didnāt cry at all! When we went to the park near my house, Pearl was very well behaved and only pulled a little bit when she got excited about a smell or sound! We spent about an hour or so at the park because I wanted Pearl to spend as much time exploring her new surroundings and be as comfortable as possible around me! Later we relaxed around the house because it was starting to get too hot to be outside. So far she did very well and was really well behaved her first afternoon!
Pupdate 5/23/22
Today Pearl and I started our day with a morning walk around the neighborhood to let her stretch her legs and sniff her surroundings! She woke up so energized and goofy! Due to her intense leash pulling while on our walk, I decided to put her on a prong collar to help quickly teach her that pulling gets her nowhere! Later on we went to a quiet park to start introducing Place and Come! She picked up place very quickly and would eagerly get on! She did shake her head quite a bit during our session even when I wasnāt using the e-collar. So far I am very happy to see Pearl enjoying her training and in very high spirits!
Pupdate 5/24/22
Today Pearl and I started the morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood to let her stretch her legs out and work on Heel! She was very energetic and alert to her surroundings. She did try and lung at a squirrel during our walk and I gave her a firm correction and told her āOffā she responded quite well and focused back onto me! Later we went to a park and focused on Heel, Place, Sit, and Come! She did very well with her Heel and wasnāt pulling as hard today! Pearl is very eager and energetic while working on her Come command and would sometimes run into my legs. To prevent her overly exuberant energy while training, I used a more relaxed tone of voice and stayed calm while asking her to come! It seemed to work well and would help keep her calmer! Very good progress today!
Pupdate 5/25/22
Today Pearl and I started the morning with an early structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Sit, and Come! She did pretty well overall with her commands but her excitability would sometimes get the best of her. When I asked her to Come, sometimes she would be so excited and would bulldoze right into my legs. To try and curb her enthusiasm a tad bit, I make sure to use a calmer tone of voice when giving her the command! Later in the day, Pearl and I went to Janns Marketplace and focused on Heel, Down, Place, Sit, and Come! She did fairly well with most of her commands but struggled a bit to remain in her Down command. She needed a bit of guidance with my hand to get her into the command and struggled a bit to remain! Iām not too worried about it since its only her 2 day of training! When we were walking back to my car, she did get reactive to a person holding their kid in their arms and tried to lung slightly. I gave her a firm correction and told her āOffā
Pupdate 5/26/22
Today Pearl and I started the morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Sit, Come, and Place! She was very energetic while on our walk but was still following commands! Her only real struggle so far is that she loves to lunge at small animals while on walks. When this happens, I give her a firm correction and tell her āOffā she responds pretty well but still has her moments. Later we worked on Door Manners at home due to her liking to run out the house when I open the door! After about 30 minutes of working on Door boundaries, she settled down a little bit and stopped trying to dash outside.
Pupdate 5/27/22
Pearl and I started our morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood to work on Heel, Down, Come, and Sit! Overall she did very well with her commands and was full of energy! She did however try and go after a few squirrels during our walk and didnāt get very far due to being on leash! Her desire to go and chase smaller animals (squirrels, birds, rodents) rather than listen to a simple command is very high. Later we went to The Collection and focused on Heel, Down, Come, and Place! She started out with a minor hiccup by reacting to a dog passing by but once I gave a correction and we kept moving! Once she was pasted them, she performed her commands very well and was back to being her normal goofy and attentive pup!
Pupdate 5/28/22
Today Pearl and I started our morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Sit, Come, and Down! She was full of energy and very focused! Later we went to Lowes to work around higher distractions. She did very well around the loud noises and machinery. During our session we ran into another dog and Pearl got very upset. So I took the opportunity to work Pearl through her feelings. We spent about 20 minutes just following the dog around the store and anytime Pearl got overly agitated I would turn around and walk away from the dog. This helped quite a bit because it broke Pearlās intense fixation on the other dog. Once she calmed down I walked back towards the dog. I repeated this process quite a bit before Pearl started relaxing.
Pupdate 5/29/22
Today Pearl and I started our morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Sit, Down, and Come! She did very well and was not too distracted by the things happening around her! Later we working dog reactivity at my home with my personal dogs! In the video I explain how I go about building Pearlās confidence around random dogs while on a leash! She did super awesome and even listened to her commands while in the company of my dogs! Tomorrow I will be meeting up with other trainers to keep exposing Pearl to as many dogs as possible and giving her the best experience possible!
Pupdate 5/30/22
Today Pearl and I started our morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Sit, Come, and Down! She was very well behaved and was quite focused! She only reacted one time because a dog inside someones yard barked. Once I said āoffā she was back to being attentive! Later we met up with some trainers at a park and focused on Heel, Sit, Come, and Down! When I arrived and got her out of the car, she instantly locked on to a dog and started to react. I spent about 15-20 minutes walking Pearl past the dogs. She eventually calmed down and was back to focusing on her commands. After a bit of downtime, I decided to test Pearl by having one of the trainers walk her with 4 other dogs next to her. I had the remote on me so that I could control her still even though I wasnāt physically walking her. Since Pearl was very responsive to my verbal queues, I wanted to see if Pearl would react when someone else walked her. She walked very well and didnāt react once while walking with other dogs! I believe Pearl reacts based on how the handler is feeling. If handler is constantly stiff, nervous, or overly sensitive, Pearl feeds off of that as a sign of āweaknessā or that she needs to āprotectā the handler. So far Pearl made huge progress today!
Pupdate 5/31/22
Today Pearl and I started the day with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Down, Sit, and Come. She was very focused and happy to work on her commands. She was better about not reacting while on our walk but definitely has her moments where she āthinksā about reacting. As long as I stay calm and donāt add tension to her leash she does very well! Later we went to Petco and focused on Heel, Down, Come, and Sit while there were dogs around. She did pretty well and only tried to react one time. In the moments where she āthinksā about reacting I tell her āoffā firmly and press the ecollar remote and she quickly pays attention back to me. Itās super important to prevent her from exploding and that is what the āOffā command does. She did very well today and is making good progress!
Pupdate 6/1/22
Today Pearl and I started our morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Sit, Come, and Down! She is doing such an amazing job staying calmer while around other dogs on leash! Pearl definitely reacts less when you stay calm and not in a mindset of āshe is going to react.ā Later in the day we met up with other trainers to work on finalizing her commands and working on some dog desensitizing! She did fantastic and only reacted once! I am beyond proud of her progress and how far she has come!
Pupdate 6/2/22
Today Pearl and I started our morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood and worked on finalizing all of her commands! She did very well and had no issues during our walk! She even passed a couple small dogs that were barking at her! Later in the day we went to a tennis court and park to work on some distractions! She was very well behaved and wasnāt too distracted! We worked on Place, Down, Come, and Heel! Pearl was super focused during our session and even listened while there were dogs walking past her!
Pupdate 6/3/22
Today Pearl and I started our morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on finalizing her commands! She did fantastic with each command and very focused. Later we went to Santa Monica Pier with other trainers to work on Pearls dog socializing! She did very well and never once reacted to any of the other trainers dogs! However 10 minutes after working her around them, as we were walking back, she decided go react to a random personās Boston Terrier. I firmly told her āOffā and she settled back down.
Pupdate 6/4/22
Today we started with our usual structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on finalizing all of her commands! She did very well and was super focused! She does have moments of āzoomiesā when she gets too excited. I usually keep a mellow voice tone when praising her or giving her attention! I sometimes notice that when she gets really excited it ends up turning into a reaction if she sees another dog nearby! Later in the day we worked on dog socializing in my yard with my personal dogs! She did very well and didnāt react once! We also finalized Door Manners and Food Manners! Very proud of her progress today!
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