Meet Stella! She's a ten month old Labradoodle from Artesia, California. Stella is here for our Two-Week Board and Train program! She is very sweet and friendly, but has issues with jumping, pulling on her leash, obeying basic commands, and darting away when off leash. Stay tuned for Stella's fourteen day transformation!
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Pupdate: Sunday, April 24th 2022
After picking up Stella, we went to Vincent Lugo Park to start training! We started off working on Heel and Sit. For Heel, I'd like Stella to be able to walk nicely on my left side with her ears in line with my knee. She is doing well with this for her first day, although she tends to try to pull forward or veer off if she sees or hears something that interests her.
After training, we went home where I let Stella sniff around my residence and spent some time bonding with her!
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Pupdate: Monday, April 25th 2022
Stella and I went to Almansor Park today for training! She's starting to get the hang of Heel, and I introduced her to the Come To Sit command today! For this command, I ask Stella to come to my right side, around my legs, and sit down at my left side with her ears at my knee. She's doing well with this command so far.
In the above video, you'll see Stella Heeling at my side, and performing Come To Sit a few times. Other than a few hiccups, she does fairly well throughout the video. Towards the end of the video, you'll see me use the Break command to release Stella! This is what I use to let Stella know she's allowed to sniff around and be a dog for a moment. I also use this as a reward after she performs a few commands!
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Pupdate: Tuesday, April 26th 2022
Stella and I went to El Dorado Park today! She learned a new command: the Place command! For this, I want Stella to hop up onto an object and hold her position there. As you can see in the above pictures, she is getting the hang of it pretty quickly!
Also, I noticed Stella was shaking her head a lot in the last couple days she's been with me, so I looked inside her ears. Her right ear appears to be irritated. I cleaned it out and I'll continue to keep it clean so it doesn't get any worse.
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Pupdate: Wednesday, April 27th 2022
Stella and I went to Home Depot today! It was a good test for her being around all the loud shoppers, workers and machines, especially in the lumber section. She seemed a bit skeptical at first, but she did very well overall!
I also started showing Stella the Down command. This one might take some time for her to get used to, because it seems like she really wants to be up and moving most of the time! She's starting to get it though!
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Pupdate: Thursday, April 28th 2022
Stella and I went to Citadel Outlets today! We were training around several other dogs and trainers, but Stella still performed very well! Her ear seems like it's making it hard for her to focus, but she's managed to push through so far!
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Pupdate: Friday, April 29th 2022
We went to Citadel Outlets again today, and Stella did a really good job with all of her commands! In the above video, you can see how much she's improved with each. I'm especially happy with her Down command, as she is going into a Down position when asked with very little to no downward leash tension! She's also improving the amount of time she can hold each position without moving!
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Pupdate: Saturday, April 30th 2022
Stella and I went to Almansor Park today! It was fairly crowded, but Stella behaved well and followed all of her commands! There were a few times when a jogger would come up from behind us and startle Stella a bit, but for the most part, she performed well! She spent most of the day working and playing with my other dog, Beans, and they are becoming great friends!
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Pupdate: Sunday, May 1st 2022
Stella went to Home Depot today! I noticed she was getting a little startled by some of the close movements of others as we Heel the last couple days, so to help that, we went back to Home Depot to Heel near the patrons and their carts. She is still a little weary of movement directly behind her. If we approached a cart, she didn't seem to mind, but if a cart approached us from behind, she gave it a little too much attention. After Heeling around for awhile this seemed to wear off, but I'd like to continue working her in this type of environment to help!
The video for today's pupdate is from yesterday. I asked Stella to Heel, and had an off leash dog Heel on the opposite side of her. The extra distraction threw her off a tiny bit, as you can see when she goes to sniff the other dog, but she maintained her composure overall!
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Pupdate: Monday, May 2nd 2022
Stella and I went to Legg Lake today for training! She did very well on leash. I'm starting to practice some commands with her while the leash is dragging on the ground to get a feel for how she would do off leash. She still has a bit too much trouble staying with me to take the leash off yet.
Stella's ear is still bothering her. I'm cleaning it twice a day, but it's still giving us trouble.
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Pupdate: Tuesday, May 3rd 2022
Stella went to see the vet to have her ear checked today! Hopefully it will start to feel better soon.
For training, though, we worked at home on Stella's household manners! The most important one for her is her door manners, as she's been known to run through open doors. I'd like Stella to sit nicely at the door while I open it, and hold that position until I allow her to follow me out. She's doing very well so far, although you can tell in the above video she is leaning forward in anticipation of being allowed through. I'd like to get her to the point where she is more relaxed and the door being opened isn't a big deal for her, but for now, holding the sit is quite an improvement!
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Pupdate: Wednesday, May 4th 2022
Stella went to Home Depot today! She did much better today performing her commands with the leash dragging! She still likes to veer off and pull ahead of me sometimes, but if she performs well again tomorrow I might be able to take her off leash.
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Pupdate: Thursday, May 5th 2022
Stella was off leash at Almansor Park today! She was performing very well, so after about half an hour of on leash training, I decided she was ready to be off leash. She stayed with me and performed all of her commands! There was one moment where she started to walk away to try to play with a goose, but when I called her back and applied a light stimulation, she immediately responded and came to me!
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Pupdate: Friday, May 6th 2022
Stella was off leash at Citadel Outlets today! She did very well. She didn't have any major hiccups, even when other dogs were barking at her! She stayed with me and proved to me that she deserves to be an off leash dog!
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Pupdate: Saturday, May 7th 2022
For my last full day with Stella, we went to Santa Monica Pier! It was extremely crowded and Stella was a bit more on edge than she usually is. She still performed all of her commands, but that's something to keep in mind when taking her to heavily populated areas.
For today's pupdate video, I wanted to showcase some more of Stella's household manners! You've seen her door manners, but I'd like her to behave well in other areas too! For her food manners, I want Stella to be able to sit nicely when presented with food, instead of rushing it and gobbling it up! She has done a pretty good job with this. For car manners, I want Stella to hop up into the car and go directly into her kennel and stay there until I close it! She's been good with this one!
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