Remy | Rhodesian Ridgeback | La Crescenta, CA | In Training
Updated: Aug 21
Meet Remy! He's a 7-month-old Rhodesian Ridgeback from La Crescenta, California, and he's here for our Two Week Urban Board and Train Program. Remy is super smart and had a lot of training as a young pup, so he already has most of his basic commands at the ready, plus some other fun tricks. But, as most puppies do when they get into that teenage stage, he's deciding he doesn't want to actually do any of his commands, particularly when there's distractions. On top of that, he jumps when he greets people and his play with other dogs is a little too rough. Over the next two weeks we'll get him back on track with doing all his commands when told, make sure he doesn't yank on that leash, that he knows how to sit when saying hello to people, and we'll help guide him on his appropriate puppy play. Stay tuned for Remy's two-week transformation!
8/8/26
After pickup, Remy and I spent a little more time at the park getting to know one another. While it was obvious he does still know what he's supposed to do when asked, he was definitely not interested in listening to me with so many new things around him to go check out. I did eventually get him to do all the basics besides the Heel, so we'll be sure to do a lot of work on how to walk properly on that leash! For everything else, it'll just be a matter of refining everything so he's quick about following through, and that he knows to hold all the commands until he's released. The car ride home was pretty quiet so he didn't seem to mind that too much. I introduced him to the pack one at a time so he wouldn't get too overwhelmed, and it took him all of five minutes to decide who his new best friend was. I could see watching him with her that he does need to be reigned in at times, mostly when she started running and it basically kicked in his prey drive. Outside of that, though, he was actually pretty good at backing off when she looked a little overwhelmed. And he took corrections from my border collie well, so I think he'll learn pretty quickly with a bit more guidance. Inside the house was a non-issue. I let him check everything out and then introduced him to where he'd be sleeping. He was quiet and calm and settled in just fine. He did do some of that jumping when it was time for dinner, so we'll work on that, but he sat just fine and waited until I released him before he ate. It's common for dogs not to eat on the first day because of nerves, but he gobbled his dinner down, no problem. I think he's going to fit in here just fine!
8/9/26
For Remy's first real training day I brought him over to a quiet corner of a nearby park where there'd be few distractions and plenty of shade. For the most part today we worked on his Heel because he's definitely a strong puller! I put him on a prong collar for now so he gets the idea of where he should be, and I'll gradually work him back off it over his two weeks. I also quickly remembered you guys use "With Me" instead of "Heel", and I noticed when I gave him the command he kept moving to my right side instead of the standard left. Once I was using the command and the side he's used to, things got quite a bit easier! I still had to do quite a bit of directing with leash pressure, but that wasn't bad for Day 1. His Down and Extended Down were both pretty good today, and he only needed some small corrections with his Extended Sit to make sure he stayed put where he was supposed to. What he struggled most with was the sitting when we stop walking, which I know was requested. He was very stubborn about going into that Sit, so we had to do several rounds before he started to get the idea, but he was also struggling to stay by my side instead of trying to move around in front of me. In the video when I take him over to the wall, I was making sure he didn't have an option on where to position his body. He had to stay next to me, facing ahead. We did that a few times over so when I brought him away from the wall again, he was able to keep his body inline with mine as he sat down. He got there in the end, and we'll keep working on it! At home he's doing well. He's a quiet player and has zero signs of any separation anxiety. He's been playing nicely and taking his cues from the other dogs well. I think mostly he just needed some solid doggie mentors! On the other side, he definitely does some pulling going to and from the play yard, so we'll be working on that a lot too, and of course the jumping. He does wait for his food and despite the pulling he does wait at the door. We'll be working on making him wait before he gets in the car, though, since he wants to barrel right in there the second I open the door! All that being said, I think once we break through the overexcitement and the teenage stubbornness, he'll be able to fly through these commands. He's very smart!
8/10/26
I brought Remy over to Library Park today to see how he'd do around a busier crowd. There's typically people eating or walking dogs or just milling about in the grass, but it wasn't too busy to distract him much. He's Heel is already starting to become much cleaner. I had to do far less checking him on the leash today than I have been, and he's really starting to grasp that Sit is a thing I want a lot. He did great posing for my phones, and he's even starting going into his Sit unprompted at home when I come into his space (once he remembers not to jump!). His Recall is improving, and we started working on his Place command a little bit. On the other side, between trying to get him to Place on the picnic tables, and just working on his standard Down, I've noticed that he really doesn't like laying down on any sort of hard surface. He'll lay down in a blink in the grass, but I really had to fight to get him all the way down on pavement or the tables despite it being morning and in shaded areas where it wasn't hot yet. I know it's not the most comfortable, but he does need to be able to lay down when you ask him to wherever he's at (as long as it's safe to do so), so I'll be focusing on that one quite a bit over the next several days until he can do it cleanly without the struggle. On the playing with other dogs front, he's getting much better. He's gotten a little feisty here and there, but a quick verbal correction from me, and a correction from the other dog typically settles him back down. He's taking the cues well, and even full on submitted today to our Corgi. Loki, my Border Collie, plays yard police and will also step in to correct him if he's playing too rough with the others. All that being said, being in a pack with different levels of dominance and play styles has been beneficial for him. He's quickly learning how to socialize properly and safely, and hopefully that'll carry over to how he treats his big brother once he gets back home!
8/11/26
The heat didn't die down like it was supposed to today, but we made the best of it and went to work inside the Home Depot. There's good, unusual distractions for training and exposure purposes, plus that hard floor for Remy to practice his Down on. We did a little walking around the aisles for a bit before setting up for the video because he was a little anxious in there, and I switched him from the prong collar to a slip lead today so we needed to practice his Heel on that a bit. When he seemed less nervous and ready to roll, we got ready and began working, but then of course almost immediately the guys at the end of the aisle started up the big, noisy saw to cut wood! We could've moved, but I thought we'd just stay and work right on through it because, again, it's good exposure practice. He was a little distracted with the noise, but he found his groove and we were able to get through all his commands, including that Down! All that work we did on it yesterday really paid off today! I did a little extra treat luring to get him into his Sit at the end of his Recall, then was able to fade it out and just use hand signals by the time we finished. He really did very well today despite all the new, overwhelming things he had to contend with!
8/12/26
Remy and I headed over to the Royal Oaks Trail today still on the slip lead to see how he'd do with a bit more distraction. There's usually other dogs being walked, bikes, scooters, strollers, and joggers, but Remy wasn't bothered by a single one of them! I took two pics with the bridge in the background just to show the moment when we caught a jogger going right by us while he was in his Extended Sit and I was about ten feet away from him. He had the best opportunity to get up and run over to the man, but he just watched for a second and then looked back at me without ever breaking his position. I walked him at a Heel for the most part, and only released him here and there to go sniff things and potty, then called him right back. He didn't pull much and was easily corrected, he held all his positions, and did his Place on that concrete barrier under the bridge without fighting me too much (you can see in his face he isn't particularly thrilled with having to be in a Down right there, but he did it for me!). I was pleased with all that, of course, but was also thrilled to note that in the times that I did release him and give him the lead to go do dog stuff, he was constantly checking in on his own. He'd look back at me, slow himself down if he was getting a little too out on the line, and would voluntarily come back into his Heel without being asked to just to make sure he was still being a good boy. It was a very enjoyable little hike overall, he did amazing!
8/13/26
For today's session Remy and I headed out to Live Oak Park, which is usually one of the busier parks in my area. I was a little surprised to see there were no basketball players out considering it was cooler today than it has been, but there were still plenty of kids running around on the nearby playground and lots of people picnicking in the covered areas to act as distractions for Remy. He didn't struggle with any of that, but he wasn't as clean on some of his commands today simply because I worked him down to clipping the leash only to his flat collar for the first time while on an outing. With the prong and slip lead he knows to quickly reply to the leash pressure high on his neck, but with the flat collar acting as a buffer he tried to weasel out of doing things a few times. I got him walking on his Heel by the time we left without any hiccups, and his extended commands were still pretty good, but he gave me a tiny bit of trouble going into his Place, and got a little lost again coming around into his Sit position after the Recall. But it hasn't even quite been a week yet, so I'm pretty pleased I was able to already get him working just on the regular collar without too many issues. It's all refining from here until he gets it right!
(Also, apologies for the kinda glitchy cam in the video! I didn't realize it was acting up until I downloaded it to my phone, but I did my best to crop out anything too distorted and to stabilize the shakes!)
8/14/26
I decided to dial it back a little bit on the distractions today while I continue to work with Remy on the flat collar, so I took him to a small, fenced neighborhood park that doesn't typically have too many people. We had it all to ourselves today, so mostly I drilled him over and over and over on that come-to-sit command until he had it down more smoothly without relying as much on the leash pressure, and worked on having him at his Heel going in circles on the path around the playground until he remembered that he can't try to step ahead even without the extra training tools. That didn't mean we didn't get some playtime in though! Between practice and pics I let him roll in the grass, and turns out he really loved digging in that sand! He very happily had it all over his nose between picture poses! His Sits and Downs were no problem today, and I am very pleased to report that when I put him in his Place on the picnic tables, he went right into that Down up there without any fight. You can tell by how he's posing in the picture that he still isn't willing to let himself get fully comfortable on those harder surfaces, but at least he'll go into position now without putting up a big fuss. Fingers crossed that by next week he'll understand that yes, he can relax on concrete surfaces too, so when he gets taken out to outdoor cafes, etc, he'll know it's okay to just lay down on the ground by the table and take a nap!
8/15/26
Remy and I went on another stroll through the Home Depot today. He still gets a little bit anxious while we're inside, but surprisingly he didn't seem to care about the noisy, moving Halloween things we ran into! Typically dogs are weirded out by those things, but he acted like they weren't even there! He was also very well-behaved in general despite the little bit of nerves, and that is with me being entirely hands-off. You can see that his leash is clipped to my belt so he doesn't have an opportunity to wander off anywhere, but I have one hand on the remote and the other holding the phone extension. He is depending pretty much entirely on only my verbal cues as we make our way through the store, and he did fantastic with it. On the way back out we passed by a dog who began barking and lunging at him, but we just walked around it and Remy barely gave it a glance. All those good manners and we only hit the one week mark today! He still acts out with me here and there, testing me to see if I'll still stay on him, but with as fast as he's learning I have high hopes that by the end of next week I'll have curbed even that behavior, and he'll be well on his way to making it out of his teen months without too much rebellion left!
8/16/26
Today I took Remy over to work in Santa Anita Mall, and it was just a little bit too crowded for him. He was definitely anxious and distracted so I had to flip my leash back into slip collar mode to keep his attention. Once I did that, though, he was much more solid in his Heel instead of trying to tug around. I walked him around a bit to get him more adjusted before I moved into doing his pictures and poses. He was still clearly nervous, but calmed down enough to pay attention to me again. That just means I need to get him over there more often for more exposure, but I'll pull back a little bit and take him when it's less crowded than a Sunday afternoon, for one, but also take him to the less busy areas of the mall and ease him into it more slowly. It's mostly to help him build confidence and be able to go out pretty much anywhere with you without being scared so he can be a more well-rounded dog as he gets older. By the time this next week is over he should be much more comfortable with those crowded spaces!
8/17/26
Remy and I went to work today up and down the main street of Old Town Monrovia. It's full of little shops and cafes and restaurants where people can eat outside, so there's usually plenty of people and dogs around to serve as distractions, plus narrower passing spaces on the sidewalks. Remy was much more comfortable with this today than with the mall crowds, so we were back to working on the flat collar without issues. He stuck to his Heel no problem, he got into his Place poses quickly with no fuss (even though you can see by his face he wasn't so certain about the narrower bench, but he did it anyway!), and he didn't bother anybody we passed by. A couple of ladies stopped me to chat because one of them had a Ridgeback of her own, and she was commenting about how well-behaved Remy was! What pleased me most, though, is how fast Remy now does his Down on the sidewalk without any issues. That was the hardest thing to teach him over the time I've had him so far, but now he goes right into it just as readily as he'll go into his Sit. At this point I'm pretty confident that once I get him less nervous about going into the mall that he'll be good to go just about anywhere!
8/18/26
I brought Remy back to the mall today but only up to the AMC area where it was a lot quieter than the busy halls downstairs. He did much better this time and wasn't nearly as anxious. I have the lead clipped to his flat collar again, and he didn't do any of that nervous pulling like he did the other day. You can see how loose it is while I'm working his Heel, so he was much more focused on me and what I was telling him than worrying about any of the people passing by us. He sat every time I stopped walking without me having to ask for it, and I think he actually liked the cool mall flooring since he had no issues or awkwardness laying down on it. And of course his Place was no problem, especially since he had a nice, cushy bench to jump onto! At home we got in a new boarding dog that taught Remy some more good body language. Remy had been playing with mostly doodles all of last week, but they've since gone home. This new dog is also a doodle, but much bigger than the previous two and has a little less patience. Remy tried to jump straight at her to get her going like his other friends, but she gave him a warning bark and stiff stance that she did have to repeat a few times before he caught onto what she was telling him. After that, he left her alone until she was the one to initiate play, and then they played very nicely with each other. He's still learning, but he's really come a long way in how he should behave around other dogs, when it's okay to have fun, and when he needs to back down. Hopefully when he gets home it'll continue to apply to his older brother!
8/19/26
As we're winding down to our last couple of days, I wanted to show off some of Remy's manners and expectations around the home. First, I took him to the wash behind my neighborhood to show that he can do his Recall just fine even when he's off-leash. The wash is fenced on both sides to form a narrow path, and comes to dead ends both ways so it's a safe place to practice in case he ever did try to take off on me, but he always sticks close when we're back there. I do recommend you find similar environments if you want to keep working on his off-leash manners in more public spaces. When he's really good at following all his commands in the fenced areas, then you'll know it's safer to begin practicing in more open areas. The rest of his manners essentially deal with him simply waiting before he's allowed to get what he wants. This ensures that he's not barreling over or through people when he gets excited. He loves our little adventures, but instead of trying to leap into the car before I've even got the crate open, he needs to sit and wait until he's released before he can get in. He also needs to wait at doors before we go through any of them, especially when they're open. This'll not only prevent him from knocking into guests as they're trying to come inside, but will also make sure he doesn't try to dart out whenever people are coming or going. And then last we have his food manners. As we know, he's a pretty eager eater, so he's made to sit and wait until he's released before he can dive into that bowl. This way he isn't jumping all over anyone when they're bringing the food out, or sticking his face into it and getting kibble everywhere before the bowl is even on the ground! He does amazing with all of this impulse control now, even if you can see on his face that it's hard for this excitable pup! Just continue to keep it up, and as he gets a little older it'll be plain old routine without all that eager anticipation.
8/20/26
I tried Remy one more time inside the busier part of the mall to see how he'd do, and while he was definitely less nervous, he was still going into overwhelm a little bit. He was pretty enthusiastic about giving me commands (I was trying not to crack up when he practically threw himself on the ground for that Down!), but while we were Heeling I had to give him constant reminders to focus up. He was very much in squirrel brain mode with wanting to look at everything and everyone who was passing by. Basically, when he's stationary he's pretty good, but trying to walk and focus at the same time in an indoor space as busy as a mall is still something that's going to need a little more work until he's matured a bit more. I'll certainly take that over the anxiety he was displaying the first time, though! I'd rather he be excited and curious about where we're at than afraid, so it was good. Plus, he was very popular with people, so we had a lot of chances to practice on him sitting like a good boy when people wanted to come up to pet him. He did want to give his paw to some of them, but he didn't jump on anybody and maintained his sit until he was released. Considering where we started (where he wouldn't even lay down on a hard surface!) vs where he is now, I'm pretty pleased with how he did in there today!
8/21/26
It's your last day in your two week program! I like to let the dogs have a bit of a fun day for their graduation, so we went out to Santa Fe Dam where he could roll around in the grass, dip his toes in the water if he wanted to, check out some ducks, and the most fun thing for him, of course, was getting to dig in the sand! I remembered how much he was into that when we went to the playground last week, so I brought him to a whole beach to play! He is definitely not a water dog so he wasn't into getting wet at all, but he was fascinated by the ducks. Despite that, I made sure he knew he still had to Heel and Sit around them, and come back when I called him to remind him that even with other fun critters around he still has to have some manners. He was good about switching back and forth between work and play modes just fine, and he was more than thrilled to get his permission for a place to dig. He had tons of fun today despite still having to behave, and took a nice, long nap once he got home! He's been a fun guy to have around in general. He learned how to play very nicely with the other dogs, and that he wasn't allowed to jump whenever anyone came into his space. He's still very much an excitable puppy, and that impulse control is still very hard for him, but he responds well now to those reminders to just calm down a little and he'll get what he's looking for. With continued practice, I think he'll be a great dog when he matures out of his puppy stage and isn't quite so distracted by everything around him! We loved having him around the house, and thank you so much for letting me be part of his learning journey!
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