Penny | Australian Labradoodle | Fullerton, CA | In Training
- Alex Kruse
- Mar 28
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 3
Meet Penny! She's a 1-year-old Australian Labradoodle from Fullerton, California, and she's here for our One Week Board and Train Program. Penny's had some previous training with her breeder, but she needs some refreshers on all her commands, and on her house manners. She has a tendency to jump up on people when she greets them, especially kids, likes to take things that aren't hers, licks and nibbles when she wants attention, and pulls a lot on leash when she wants to say hi to someone. Over the next week we'll remind her that she has to follow through on the commands she already knows, teach her some ones that'll help establish more boundaries, and show her how to properly behave if she wants attention from people. Stay tuned for Penny's one-week transformation!
3/28/26
Penny and I stayed at the park a little while longer just to see what she knew and what she might give me. I can see that she does have somewhat of a natural Heel, but getting her to do it on command needs some work! It took several tries to get her into her Sit, and the Down was almost there but she didn't follow through all the way. The Recall was a no-go entirely, so we'll definitely need to work on that one! I know it's always hard to perform for strangers in a new environment, though, so the fact she showed potential on most of these gives him high hopes! When she settles in more I think she'll work for me without too many issues. She was really quiet on the car ride home, no problem, but definitely anxious once we got there. Getting her on the scale to get her weight was an adventure in itself! I have several different sized dog yards and runs at my place, so for starters I put her in a space where she could see the other dogs playing, but she didn't have to interact with them just yet. I want her to have a chance to adjust to all the sounds and smells before I start introducing her to a play group. She did calm down relatively quickly out there, and seemed to relax even faster once I introduced her to the inside of the house. She's really sweet and I think she's going to fit in just fine here!
3/29/26
Penny was a bit nervous still for her first day of actual session. She was worked at a local park that isn't too busy and fully fenced-in, but she still tucked tail and hid when someone approached to say hello. Despite the anxiety, she was still willing to work for treats, and was able to perform her basic commands fairly well. I'm hoping to see more of her actual personality come out so we can work on the behavior issues she's been exhibiting, but for now we'll continue to build trust and work on refining the things she already knows. At home she's starting to settle in better. She made it out to the play yard to hang out with my dogs and she's doing well there. She didn't have any issues sleeping through the night, and she ate better today, which is always a good sign that a dog is getting more comfortable with their surroundings. She's been able to relax a lot more today, so hopefully by tomorrow we'll see some of her silliness actually coming through!
3/30/26
Penny had a much better day today! She finally started opening up at home and being really silly and playful this morning. She was pouncing on toys and getting the zoomies all over the yard! For our main session I took her over to Live Oak Park where there's plenty of distractions around, but it's a big enough park to make space if she got too nervous. The anxiety definitely came back out with the new location, but it only took a few minutes before I was able to get her to focus up and perform her commands. She really enjoyed our Heel work today with a cheese lure - she completely forgot for a minute that she was supposed to be nervous! Her Recall is a little more hesitant than I'd like, but she gets there, and her extended Sit is improving well. She's struggling a bit with lining up properly on the left side when she sits, but she's starting to get it with a lot of guidance. We also did a little bit of Place work today on the cot out there. She was a bit slow to catch onto that one, but I got a few solid efforts before we ended session. I'm sure she'll get it down by tomorrow! Overall it was a really great day for her, and I'm glad to finally get to see some of her hyper come out!
3/31/26
Today I worked Penny mostly on her Heel while out around distractions. I know she already had a decently firm base in the command, and now that she's comfortable with me, I went ahead and moved into a more advanced step of having her Heel while she was clipped to my belt. That means my hands weren't on the leash at all unless she decided to ignore my verbals and the collar. She was a little nervous with being at a new park, which we know is the norm, but despite that she actually needed very few corrections. She got a little excited when we were coming up on another dog, but she responded fine to a verbal correction and shifted back into proper position without any trouble. She was a little more anxious while we were passing the kids on the playground, but held position just fine. The only time we really struggled was when a loud, beeping garbage truck was making a u-turn in the middle of the street. She totally forgot where she was supposed to be there and we wound up just sitting for a minute and getting treats while watching the truck do its thing from a distance that would give her exposure, but not stress her out too much. Once she calmed down some, I got her back on her Heel and made her walk slowly to make distance away from the truck. No panic running allowed! She got over that hump and did just fine for the rest of the session. At home, the downside of her getting comfortable is that now I'm finally seeing a little bit of that jumping behavior. But on the upside, it means I can actually work on correcting it! She's pretty gentle about it so far. She lifts up slow enough where I have plenty of time to give her a verbal correction and direct her into a sit if she wants attention. She's been easily willing to work with that at the moment. Hopefully with establishing that as the rules right from the start she'll take to the habit and won't escalate it into anything too rowdy!
4/1/26
I intentionally pushed Penny outside of her comfort zone and made her hold her Sit for photos in a playground during a busy part of the day. Kids were zooming everywhere, playing tag, climbing on things right next to her, and generally being wild all around her. Despite all that, she actually did pretty good! She was a little bit nervous at first when they would run by behind her and she couldn't see them, but then she relaxed into the chaos and was able to pay attention to what I was asking of her. We worked on a lot of Extended Sits, and outside of the initial anxiety, she only broke the command once when a little boy bounded over to pet her. She was sweet and also wanted to say hello, so I put her back in her Sit and let the boy come over for a greeting. She was gentle and didn't try jumping on him at all, but she did want to follow him once he left lol. We got into our Heel and cruised all around the playground after that, worked on our Recall, and then did a lot more work with her Place. She did really great today considering, and honestly was a lot more brave than I thought she'd be. She's come a long way in the few days I've had her as far as her confidence goes!
4/2/26
For today's video I wanted to show off some of her at-home manners a little bit. She's been working really hard at waiting at doors before being allowed to go through them, the front door being the most tempting one. She still needs verbal coaxing and reinforcement to remind her to keep waiting, but she's gotten to the point where she'll hold it pretty firmly for several seconds without trying to break. If she does break, a simple verbal correction is all it takes to have her putting herself back in place. We also have been working on her food manners, meaning she needs to wait until released before she can eat. She's pretty good at that one naturally, so I challenged her with some yummy treats in that bowl that she was pretty happy to munch down once she got permission! And the last thing I'm showing is her putting herself into a sit for attention instead of jumping. I was trying really hard to get her all riled up, but she remembered to sit each time instead of going for the jump, and at no point did I ask her for that sit. She's learned she gets all the good things when her little behind is on the floor, and while it isn't 100% perfected just yet, she's gotten a lot sharper with it over the week. With a little more practice I think she'll have it down no problem!
4/3/26
It's our last pupdate in your one week program! Today was certainly an accidental challenging one for Penny! I took her back to Live Oak because I know she's generally gotten comfortable there, but it's still big and busy enough to be distracting. I wanted to drill her on her commands all together, which was supposed to be a breeze. It was not! All the things were there that made her nervous like loud trucks with power washers cleaning the picnic areas, lots of scooter chairs rolling by in the pathways, the garbage truck rolled in while we were practicing, and a rogue basketball even came at us when the guys on the court lost it! Needless to say, her anxiety was back up a little more than I've seen over the past few days, but she was still able to do her commands. They weren't quite as sharp as I know she can do, but I'll give it to her since there was an unexpected amount of activity happening all around us. She's still going to need a lot of exposure therapy to help her get past these fears, but she did really well with it overall!
I've only had Penny for a short time, but she's been such a great addition to the household. She's sweet, silly, playful, and everyone loves her! She's quick to catch onto things once she gets out of her anxiety shell, and he's very eager to please. Staying on top of her commands and showing her that she can trust you to be in charge and protect her when things get scary can go a long way with her. She'll get it down with some practice and patience! She's a great dog, and I want to thank you so much for letting Penny stay with me and letting me be a part of her learning journey!
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