Pumpkin | Chihuahua | Los Angeles, CA | In Training
- Alex Kruse
- Mar 22
- 19 min read
Updated: Apr 11
Meet Pumpkin! She's a 1-year-old Chihuahua from Los Angeles, California, and she's here for our Three Week Reactive Board and Train Program. Pumpkin really loves being around her people, and is generally sweet and loving at home, but like many chihuahuas, she isn't a big fan of strangers. When people come close to her she'll lunge and bark and generally let them know she doesn't appreciate their presence. She also has a hard time being left alone and will bark nonstop whenever her people leave without her. Over the next three weeks we'll work on getting her more acclimated to people so her immediate response isn't to lunge or try to bite, teach her all of her basic commands to give her a more solid foundation to work with and build up some of her confidence, and show her that it isn't the end of the world if she has to hang out by herself for a little while. Stay tuned for Pumpkin's three-week transformation!
3/22/26
Before we left the park today I spent a little time walking around with Pumpkin just to get her used to me a bit more, and also to see if I could get her to do any commands for me. She was a bit reluctant to walk with me at all, but once I did get her moving, she wasn't too bad at sticking close. She didn't do any pulling until we got closer to the cars again and she was trying to find her own. Not unexpectedly, she wouldn't give me any sort of Sit or Down or Come, but she also did wind up letting me touch her a little bit before we left the park. She was giving me the stinkeye, but she didn't try to bite lol. The only time she growled at me was when I was taking her photos. She apparently was not okay with the camera being in her face!
She did bark pretty much the entire drive home, but once I got her inside, she actually settled down with me better than I thought she would. I let her explore her surroundings a bit, then brought her over to sit with me in a penned-off area where she did lay down and let me pet her behind the ears. She did some grumble-rumbling at outside noises and when she'd hear the voices of my housemates, but generally she wasn't quite as grouchy as I thought she might be. Basically she's off to a pretty good start considering!
3/23/26
After a little bit of a rough start, I finally eased Pumpkin into trusting me enough to handle her. I was letting her hang out in the room with me last night before bed and she kept slinking off into little hidey holes. I had to loop her up with a slip lead to get her out, but she finally settled in near me and allowed me to pet her. It was a little bit of push and a lot of give and reading her body language to see if she was actually thinking about biting, or just giving me some warning signs, but as of today she did let me actually pick her up! Then we set about the process of discovering what treat she might take from me while she's still a little anxious so I could find something she might want to work for. Naturally, she went for the cheese (they always go for the cheese lol), so we set out to the park to start doing some light work. Once there, I started working her on her Sit and a little bit of her Recall. We went from being pretty (cautiously) hands-on with guiding her into the Sit, to her doing it for me without me having to help her into it outside of using the treat lure. For the Recall, the first several times I had to use the leash to reel her in, but those last few rounds she realized it was better to just wander back over to me on her own so she could get her cheese. After that I let her wander around the park for awhile and just sniff around, then we headed on home. She seems to be pretty smart, so I think once she gets comfortable and trusts me more, the rest of her training should go pretty smoothly!
3/24/26
Today I think Pumpkin has officially decided that she likes me. While she still gets a little stiff when I reach around her or move to pick her up, she relaxes pretty quickly into it, and I even got a few kisses from her today on my hands. She comes over to sit with me automatically when I'm just hanging out, and she's eating better today. I also had her with a couple of my dogs this morning for a little bit before they went out for the day, and she had zero issues with anybody there. She wasn't even afraid of my border collie, who is gigantic compared to her! So I think she's settling in well into the house finally. For her training work, I introduced Wait to her at the doorway, which means she has to sit and wait there for me to release her before she goes through. We're still working on the sitting on command part, but she only broke the Wait a couple times before she seemed to grasp what we were doing. She's also still very much learning what the release word even means, so it wasn't bad at all considering how new to all this she is. For session we went out to another small neighborhood park. There were other dogs around, but again, she didn't care at all about them even when they were barking and lunging at her. We worked more on her Sit command and getting her to hold it until I released her, we did a little more work on getting her to come when called, and I introduced her to the Heel a little bit. We worked more today on learning about leash pressure and mitigating her pulling more than the formal Heel position, but I made sure to capture and encourage the moments when she wound up walking by my side where she should be on Heel without the leash being tight. She definitely was more cooperative with me today than yesterday, so I'm sure her learning is only going to get faster from here as she gets more comfortable with me. It was a good improvement day for her!
3/25/26
We had our weekly group training practice today, so I took advantage of everyone being there by having different trainers take off with Pumpkin to see how close they could get with her. She's gotten attached to me now, so she was reluctant to get pulled away from me and kept her eyes on where I was the whole time, but she didn't lunge at anybody or try to bite. She definitely tried to pull away, but there was success in other people getting to touch her. With the dogs she was totally fine until they crowded her space while she was with me only. I don't want to say it's a good thing, but I was glad that I got to see her do it. As I said when I picked up, I can't fix an issue that she isn't showing me, and by her snapping a little at the other dogs when they came into my space, it means I have a better idea of what's going on and how to work with her on it. So with her mild reactivity with the dogs today, and what I saw when I picked her up that first day at the park, it feels like there's two things happening at once. First, she's feeling brave because she knows she's with someone she trusts will back her up. Basically she's acting big and tough, going, "Yeah, my person here will kick your butt if you try something! I dare you!" But on top of that, she's showing some possessive tendencies. She doesn't want to share her person with other dogs or people, and she's going to tell everyone about it. To work on both things, we need to expose her to more situations where she can learn to be around strangers confidently on her own, and then also work on balancing out how she views the relationship between herself and her chosen person. She doesn't own the person and doesn't need to guard them so thoroughly! Outside of that, she's coming along well with her training. She's already catching on that if she gives me a Sit (even if I don't ask for it), she'll get good things. She's coming when I call her, so now we're working on making sure she gets into the proper position for the come-to-sit that we teach. I busted out the spatula lure hack for the Heel today, which sets up the idea that all good things happen when she's walking on the proper side. And then at home we worked a little more on her Wait command. So far I'm pretty happy with the rate at which she's learning. She seems eager to please, so I think she's going to do great in the coming weeks!
3/26/26
Today we worked at the park near and on the playground where there were a few children present just to see how she'd do around small people running around and being loud. I didn't get so close where any of the kids would run up on her, but she did eyeball them curiously and a little warily here and there. Once she realized they weren't coming over to her though, she totally relaxed and just let me do our thing with the commands. I had her on the long line today to get a little more distance from her on her Sit, and I put the e-collar on her just to get her used to how it feels. I didn't use it yet, just had her wearing it so she could adjust. She didn't seem to mind it at all and didn't fight me putting it on, so next time she's wearing it I should be okay actually using it on low settings. At home she was very playful this morning! She ran around with her toy and was throwing it here and there, and also picked out one of our chew toys she settled down with. It's great seeing her personality come out more and more each day, and to see how happy she is when I come back after being out for a bit. It's making the training go much more smoothly now that she trusts me!
3/27/26
Today Pumpkin and I headed out to our Library Park to do some work around more people on the long line, introduce her to the functions of the collar, and get her working on her Down. She was great on the long line, didn't care about the people walking around, and actually didn't seem to mind the collar too badly. She startled a little bit, but didn't fuss about it much like I thought she might. She just caught on that she needed to respond to commands or she'd get a correction, no problem. Her Extended Sit is starting to look really nice - she can be a little slow about moving into the Sit, but she'll stay there without too many issues until I release her. She's grasping the concept of where she should be at the end of the Recall command, her Heel is looking a lot cleaner now, and we didn't have to do too many tries to get her into that Down. You can see where I'm very hands on at first, then lighter, then she was doing it on her own while I was at her level, to finally getting her to do it while I was standing. She's really sharp and super eager to please, so she's moving along with these commands quickly!
3/28/26
I took Pumpkin to Old Town Monrovia to walk through a shopping district. It's narrower sidewalks where we have to pass closely by people, dogs, and between dining tables, which meant she had to stay on a clean Heel the whole time. We were a little heavier on the collar corrections today to get her to stay in place, but she took to that without issues. She's so smart, she understood what we were doing within the first block, then I didn't need the corrections anymore. She knew where to stay until I switched her into position for the photos. She even sat before crossing the streets without me even telling her to! As far as the people and other dogs went? She couldn't have cared less lol. Her only issue was trying to pull ahead just out of excitement and wanting to explore.
I've also begun using the collar at home now. She's gotten to that point where she starts to bark when I leave her alone, so I worked on putting her in the room, then standing outside the door and waiting for her to bark so I could give her a correction. She got quiet real quick lol. We're on very low levels of the collar to where she's not jumping when I correct her, but she'll stop what she's doing in response to it and give me the appropriate behaviors. I have cameras set up so I could see that it didn't stress her out when I corrected the barking either. She just went and found a place to lay down, no problem. That tells me her separation anxiety isn't actually bad. She's just learned that when she barks it gets people to come back, so she's going with what works. It isn't working now, so she's not fighting it. I don't think it'll take long before I can go back to not having her on the collar when I leave her. She just needs to learn it first and she'll be fine!
3/29/26
Pumpkin went out and got some more exposure with strangers today. I had another trainer work her a little bit, and while she was a little nervous at first, she never tried to bite or lunge. She did all her commands for the other trainer and only broke her position once during the session. She worked everything like she does with me on the long line and the e-collar, and she settled into the routine quickly enough. She's been much more friendly at home with my roommates and guests as well. She does seem to actually like people, she just needs a chance to meet more where she feels safe, but not coddled. It's a little bit of "tough love" where you have to back up and let her experience things without the safety net. If she wants to be loved on, she's going to have to get it from that other person, which means she needs to not be snappy at them. It's still a good idea for strangers to move slowly and offer treats to build trust, but she does warm up pretty quickly beyond that.
3/30/26
Today I took Pumpkin out to Live Oak Park. There's usually more going on at that park between people walking the track, soccer games, basketball, and a new playground. Pumpkin was able to work around all the distractions without any issues at all. I introduced her to the Place command for the first time outside of the house, and while it took her a minute to realize that yes, we're doing the same thing we always do inside, she caught on quickly enough. The only thing she struggled with some today was her positioning on her Come-to-Sit after the Place. It seemed to be a little too much to remember between the new distractions and different cot from her inside one, but overall she did really well! A man did also walk up right up to us to ask what sort of dog she was, and despite the fact that she was actually sitting on my lap at the time, she didn't growl or jump off and try to chase him away. She stayed cool and calm while we chatted, the perfect little lady while we finished our conversation and he went on his way. Her confidence has really grown over just this past week, and I can't wait to see how far we get in the weeks to come!
1/31/26
I challenged Pumpkin today to a visit at the Santa Anita Mall. Mostly I just worked her on her Heel and having her Sit when I stopped walking while we did exposure therapy. I had her leash clipped to my belt so I could be mostly hands-free with her, relying more on verbals and hand signs than anything else to keep her on the Heel. I only had to reach down to check the leash once, otherwise she was very responsive to just my voice throughout the session. I thought she would be a lot more nervous than she was, but honestly she handled it like a total pro. I've had larger dogs with no anxiety who still trip up their first time at the mall! She did absolutely amazing! At home I've been making sure she's spending more time with the other dogs and with other people so she isn't solely reliant on me. It's helping her be less snappy in general when she gets jealous since she knows if she does that near me, I'm just going to get further away from her anyway. She's come out of her shell a lot more with everyone and the other dogs in general, and is enjoying playtime with toys a lot more frequently. She just needed a little work with her confidence and she's been great!
4/1/26
We did it. We went to a busy playground that had lots of running, shouting children, several of which darted right past Pumpkin at full speed. Granted none of them made any attempts to reach down and pet her (I wouldn't have let them if they tried), but several kids were playing very close to her personal space. She did not care even a little bit lol. She understood the assignment fully today - sit here and look pretty for my pictures! I never had to repeat a command at all, didn't need to give any corrections, and didn't even need to ask her to Heel. She just did it on her own the entire time we were at the park today. She seems to be very content with having her boundaries and expectations, knowing exactly what those are, and not having to do much thinking outside of that. She trusts that I'll keep her safe so she doesn't have to worry about anything, which is exactly what we want. She's been able to keep her cool in every situation I've tossed at her lately, but today she really outshined all my expectations. Gold stars all around today!
4/2/26
Pumpkin and I practiced out at Rotary Park today. It's a nice park with a little preschool inside it and a playground, and it's fully fenced in, so normally I bring dogs here when I'm working them off leash. We didn't quite go that far with Pumpkin, but I did work her mostly with just dragging the long line so it's very similar to those off-leash steps. I feel like I could've dropped the line entirely and she still would've stuck with me on everything! I don't think I caught them in frame much, but there were two big dogs off to the side that were barking and fussing at her as we were working. She totally ignored them. And after we were done there was a little boy who came running up to us (his mom nabbed him in time before he could try to grab for her), and while she was watching, she still had no reaction. She's doing fantastic while we're out and about! Today at home I got a little frenchie who just came in for boarding. Pumpkin did try to snip at her when she got jealous, but that frenchie snipped at her right back and she ran! And I did not go try to save her. She came back a couple minutes later looking sheepish, and then the two got along great the rest of the day and were actually playing. It was a small correction from the other dog, but it certainly did the trick! It was a great example of how a little tough love and a simple 'knock it off' can go a long way lol.
4/3/26
Pumpkin and I headed over to PetSmart today for a little bit of a different challenge. While I can't just ask random strangers generally to pet a dog that has a potential for biting, I can super ask other dog experts to do it! We started off just cruising around the store to let her get comfortable, then I brought her to the veterinary receptionists where they'd be the most used to handling reactive creatures. They were all about testing the hands-on approach, and busted out some cheese for it when I told them that's what she likes best. Pumpkin was just a little nervous at first about stranger danger, but she saw that cheese and decided touching was super okay if that was the reward. The girls didn't believe me when I said she was a lunger those first few days, she was so sweet lol. Then we wandered to the daycare and boarding folks, and the groomers, and finally just store employees. She didn't react to a single person. There were definitely a lot of check-ins with me to make sure all was well, but she accepted her pettings like a pro. Just know the next time you take her to a PetSmart she's going to think she deserves magic cheese from everyone!
4/4/26
I took Pumpkin fully inside a mall today and, as was honestly expected, she was the most nervous I've seen her since I brought her home. Malls have a lot of foot traffic moving very close, and the halls are wide and ceilings tall, which means echoing noises. She didn't quite get the full experience the last couple times I brought her, but I'm glad I at least did slower introductions. I feel like if I hadn't brought her partway in and out before she would've been overwhelmed. Still, she did pretty good with her Heel, only a couple incidents of tugging when she got anxious. She was really slow moving into her sit, though, and she's normally sharp with that one. I think she might've been afraid of getting stepped on! But she started getting into it before we finished out session, so I'm hoping next time she won't be as nervous. More good exposure is always encouraged, so we'll be back to try again!
4/5/26
Happy Easter! I had to go back out to Griffith today so I brought her right along to do some work at that park. I thought it was late enough in the morning for all the Easter chaos to be over, but I was wrong! There were so many people there today, and dogs! Pumpkin didn't mind any of it. She did all her usual things just fine without any anxiety. She always seems to do really well when we're outside, she just gets a little more nervous inside the stores and malls. But she hasn't lunged or barked at anyone since those first few days. I've still got one more week with her, so we'll see how much I can get her confidence up in those indoor areas before she goes home!
4/6/26
It was another group practice day today, so this time I mostly just handed her off to the other trainers there and made them hang out with her a little bit. A lot of petting was involved, as you can see! She did absolutely great with all the people and the dogs, and while she kept an eye on where I was at all times, she was able to do her commands for other trainers as well. The only time she got even a little bit grumpy was when I was holding her to my chest and one of the other trainers tried to pet her there. There weren't biting attempts or growls, but the stink eye was definitely present! So then I put Pumpkin down and handed her off anyway lol. She doesn't get coddled for being possessive. There were no other issues the rest of the session. Not only that, but you can see by the look on her face that she actually seemed to enjoy getting all the love from everyone! It was a great day for both of us!
4/7/26
It was back to the mall for us today! Once again, she was very anxious at first and had some trouble holding her extended sits if I walked too far away from her. But we stayed for much longer this time and mostly just walked around, I gave her treats, reassured her when she needed it, and took breaks in quiet corners when she looked like she was getting overwhelmed. It all paid off in the end when by the time we left she was just as comfortable cruising around inside as she normally is outside! She was able to give me all her commands with ease once she realized she was fine and there was no reason to be nervous. She'll be a regular shopping pro by the time she goes home!
4/8/26
For today's video I just wanted to show off some of Pumpkin's house manners. The rolling theme through all these is to "Wait" until released before partaking in activities that could otherwise be troublesome if a dog just barrels its way through. The first clip is waiting before getting into the car so they don't just launch in when you're not ready for them. It makes me laugh that Pumpkin can do this no problem, by the way, because I've had bigger dogs who wouldn't make that jump up onto the seat. She's got super springs in her legs! This is also, of course, why we've been working on her not jumping up for attention when she wants it. She needs to come up and sit politely if she wants to be held or pet. She also needs to sit and wait by open doors before going through them. I have her on leash for the video but she should be able to do this off leash as well. It's a great safety precaution in case someone leaves a door open, or so she doesn't dart out when someone's coming or going. And then she also waits for her release word when it comes to feeding time. This not only prevents potential flying kibble messes, but also helps to establish the fact that you're in charge. She's really good at this with her normal food because she's a bit of a slow eater anyway, so I made sure she can do it with high value snacks as well. There were jerky treats, cheese and bits of chicken in that bowl she was waiting for in the video! She did great with it! Now that she's not trying to eat everyone, she's been a well-mannered little lady all around.
4/9/26
Today was a huge success! We've conquered the mall! Pumpkin was only a little nervous this time, much better than she was the first few times. I drilled her through all her commands and she nailed everything! She wasn't too nervous about the people, only a little jumpy when a floor cleaner machine went by, didn't care about other dogs at all, and mostly just stayed focused on me. The only thing she continues to wig out about is anytime we get to a certain section of mall, there are these really glossy, mostly white tiles. It creates a whole different sort of shiny reflection that's clear even from my angle. I'm sure for her it must look like she's about to walk on water or ice lol. I can get her onto it and once she realizes it's floor, she's fine, but just be aware with super glossy surfaces she might freeze up for a moment and need some reassurances. Otherwise she did great!
4/10/26
I took Pumpkin over to our largest local park just to explore and to see how she'd do around squirrels lol. As usual, she was an absolute angel for me. I let her have the lead quite a bit so she could do her own thing, but she never pulled on the leash and always came right back into her Heel when told. She stayed where I put her for photos, and didn't mind any chaos happening. In the last photo there were actually a bunch of kids kicking a ball around and yelling just a few feet from us, and she totally ignored them. She also didn't seem too interested in even the squirrels running around, and there are a lot at that park! As long as she has her person nearby, she doesn't seem to mind much about any distractions anymore!
4/11/26
It's our last pupdate in your three week program! I took Pumpkin on a nice little walk up a horse trail I really like, mostly just letting her have the lead again and practicing on calling her back into a Heel here and there as we walked. She had a tendency to stick close to the Heel position anyway even when she had been released; and when she did venture ahead, she never pulled on the line. She had a great time sniffing all the farm animal smells and getting a new outdoor experience where her anxiety tends to come out less than it does indoors.
Pumpkin has come an impressively long way over the last three weeks in general. She still has some nervous moments, but she's grown into a much more confident little girl, and she got to be so much more friendly with strangers than I thought we'd reach. She still needs to be monitored for signs that she's not comfortable with a person touching her, but have people take it slow and gentle and she melts in no time. She has been an absolute pleasure to work with, and I'm really going to miss having her around the house. I want to thank you so much for letting Pumpkin stay with me and letting me be a part of her learning journey!
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