Stella | Mini Aussie | San Dimas, CA

Meet Stella! Stella is a 21-month-old Mini Aussie from San Dimas, CA. Stella is a sweet pup who has joined Off Leash for our Three Work Board and Train Program. Stella came to us not knowing very many commands. The commands she does know are inconsistent. Stella likes to chase and bark at golf carts and bicycles that go past her house. Stella can pull on the leash when distracted. Stella is here to learn proper manners and become an exceptionally well-behaved pup through structure and obedience. Stay tuned for Stella's 21-day transformation!

Pupdate 4/30/23

Today I brought Ms. Stella home to get familiarized with my pack. I stopped at the park on the way home to see what commands Ms. Stella knew. She wasn't very good at them and was a little skittish. I was able to get her to pose for a few photos for her profile picture. Although I am a dog trainer, I do dabble in puppy photography but I think I'll stick with training the pups! Ms. Stella was a little nervous coming into the house and I didn't know I had the tiny human brigade at the house so Ms. Stella was greeted with several little humans. She was a bit overwhelmed. I took her outside to meet Ms. Toji and Mr. Franklin. Ms. Toji was being a bit intrusive but Ms. Stella was willing to let her investigate. After the car ride home and the interactions with everyone, Ms. Stella took a nap. Later today, I'll take her for a "free" walk around the neighborhood to see how she behaves on a leash and to acclimate to the sights, sounds, and smells of her temporary new home.

Pupdate 5/1/23

Today I introduced Ms. Stella to the e-collar and a few commands in my backyard. Ms. Stella has been a little skeptical of me so I wanted to make the training light and fun. Once she's on the leash, she's fine and happy to work with me. When she's not on the leash she's running away or avoiding me. I'll keep working on gaining her trust and we should get there sooner than later.

Overall she did really well. I think she's going to do great things while here. The first two to three days are the readjustment days but she's eating all her food and her poop and pee breaks are fine so we just need to get her emotionally comfortable here. Tonight I'll be taking her with me to my son's soccer practice where we can continue to work on her training around distractions. We are still focusing on "heel", "sit" and "Break!". I will see how she does around the distractions of a dozen tiny humans running around chasing soccer balls.

Pupdate 5/2/23

Yesterday Ms. Stella and I headed to Norwalk Park in Norwalk, CA. We worked on reinforcing "heel" and "sit". We also worked around some distractions. Next, I was able to even introduce the "down" as she was giving me that behavior. Ms. Stella likes to work for the food which I will capitalize on in the early stages of her training but eventually will give her less and less until she will perform the tasks without needing the treats. This is a good way to gain her trust and for her to continue to work with me. She jumped in the car on her own yesterday which was a big deal as it makes her car manners a lot easier to teach. She is getting along well with Ms. Toji and seems to be enjoying her time here.

Pupdate 5/3/23

Today Stella and I headed over to Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA to work on her obedience outside of the house some more. I was impressed with how Stella performed today. We reinforced her "heel" and we worked on her "sit". I also reinforced her "place" on the dog bed, her "down" and extended "down". We also worked on her extended "down". I even was really impressed with her "come" to "sit". The only thing Ms. Stella needs to learn is "under". She knows how to "load up" into the car. As you noted, our cars are similar in nature and dogs are good at generalizing objects such as these. Before I conducted the training you see in the video, I did take Ms. Stella on a nice long walk around the park practicing the "heel" and working on her stimulation levels with the e-collar. Keep in mind that she does have long hair and that the e-collar contact points need to be touching her skin and not the hair.

She isn't really eating her breakfast at this time. I had her separated from the other pups on my regular backyard side and she was much more willing to eat her food like that for dinner. I'll do the same again this evening as she skipped breakfast again.

Pupdate 5/4/23

Today Ms. Stella and I headed over to the Del Amo Fashion Center in Carson, CA. Ms. Stella was a little anxious in the mall despite it being early and not too busy. She was still willing to perform all her commands and wasn't a misbehaved pup. I will work on introducing "under" tomorrow and she will have everything she needs to complete her 3-week-board and train program! Good job today Ms. Stella!

Food note: Ms. Stella isn't eating her breakfast when I present it around 0700 AM. I try to bring her back in for lunch break and she still ignores the food. She is willing to eat her dinner. She is full of energy, her coat looks good, using the restroom fine, and appears to have nothing wrong with her. I'll keep an eye on her weight to make sure it doesn't go down too much but as advised, she is getting a lot of activity and is a little stressed in the new environment as are all the pups. If needed I'll add water or some pumpkin to the food to get her motivated to eat the breakfast.

5/5/23

Happy Cinco de Overcast and Rain! I know I was going to work on "under" today, but the outside is soaked and I don't want Ms. Stella learning something new and having to get wet when there are other things we can work on. We focused on her door manners, "place", "down" and "come to sit". Ms. Stella is really intelligent and I enjoy her shiny brown eyes staring back at me. It reminds me of Puss N Boots from Shrek when he makes big cute eyes. Anyway, back to training!

Pupdate 5/6/23

Today was the day! We finally introduced "under" to Ms. Stella! She is one smart cookie! I had two different tables out as you can see in the video. One was a standard party, plastic table and the other was my mini-trainers everything table. Ms. Stella was brave enough to do both tables and I will take what she gave me for today. Ms. Stella now has all the tools she's going to need in order to be successful as a 3-Week Board and Train. I will continue to repeat the tasks in a variety of environments with and without distractions. This week we will start our off-leash adventures and as you can see in today's video, I practiced a little bit with her off-leash at the end. She's showing great signs of learning and willingness to perform the tasks. She does still show signs of being nervous or skittish around new things such as me just moving the table a little bit made her get up and move. I didn't want to make it a negative experience going under that little table so I didn't push that too far. But now she has officially been introduced or taught every command needed for her journey!

Pupdate 5/7/23

Today Ms. Stella and I headed over to Discovery Park in Downey, CA. Ms. Stella was a little nervous to come out of the vehicle today but once we got outside she was having the time of her life. We swung by the space museum but it was closed. It's all good, we got to check out a boilerplate from an official NASA mission! Ms. Stella showed no adversity to any of the unusual objects. We made a lap around the park checking out softball practice while practicing her "place" on all the benches. I varied the "place" time so that she wouldn't get guess how long it was going to be. When finished, I would mix it up with "come to sit" and "come to heel". I did all this with the leash dragging and Ms. Stella was doing amazing!

Since Ms. Stella was doing so well and there wasn't really a place to reinforce her newly learned "under" skill, I walked over to the Downey Promenade and there were benches everywhere to practice "under"! Yeah for me! Ms. Stella was not as excited as I was but it gave us a few chances to try what she learned and she did great. She was a little reluctant at first but with some leash pressure she was willing to go "under" and after about the second or third bench she had it figured out. Good job today Ms. Stella!

Food note: Although Ms. Stella isn't eating 100% of her food every meal, her weight is still on track. She still has healthy bowel movements and is looking healthy and fine. It doesn't seem to matter if I work with her first or give her two hours of playtime before presenting the food. I've tried outside by herself or pumpkin to get her to eat it and it's the same result. As long as her weight stays on track for the next two weeks, I'll just expect the same from her but keep presenting the 2 cups at a time.

Pupdate 5/8/23

Today I gave Stella a chance to show me what she can do Off Leash! It went ok overall. Was it perfect? Nope! But I didn't expect it to, it's only been one week since I picked up Ms. Stella! But I was really impressed with her recall. She isn't the kind to stay stuck to my side but she is willing to listen with enough stimulation. This tells me that she understands the tasks but just is reluctant to carry them out. As long as I stay persistent and consistent with what I am asking her to perform, she will continue to learn and will understand the new structure I am building for her. What's great is that you guys let her roam out and about and she comes back home. I am trying to be understanding of that because she is used to that lifestyle and I want her to know she can still be a free puppy but there is a time and a place to behave like that. With that being said, I am pleased when she breaks off and then is willing to recall with enough stimulation. This means that she can be molded into a good recall and good heel.

Pupdate 5/9/23

Today Ms. Stella and I headed over to Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA. I had Ms. Stella perform everything with the leash dragging. She did well with the Off Leash work yesterday so the next thing is the leash dragging with lighter and lighter leashes in public places. I used the long lead attached to her as my emergency lifeline. I didn't need to use it which was awesome. I will have to work on shaping her come to "sit" more as she is taking shortcuts. We ran through all of her commands without me holding the leash except for the send away to "place". The problem with "place" is the timing. If I press the stimulation too late, she won't want to go up on the item because she thinks she's getting in trouble. Her numbers were way down from when we started so it's kind of a balancing act of using enough to get her attention but not so much that she doesn't want to do the task. Once we worked on that, we performed the extended "down". Then we went on and she did great with her extended "sit". As you can see in the video, I went about 30'+ away from Ms. Stella when I gave her the "Break!" command. She recalled to me fantastically. I know the recall was one of your biggest concerns and requests. Ms. Stella does show little signs of anxiousness before we start the training in the form of excessive drooling but once we get going she locks in and does well. I try to mix up when she has the e-collar on so she knows that it can be on at any time for play or obedience time.

Pupdate 5/10/23

Today we worked on Stella's door manners and car manners with my smallest leash, working towards that off-leash life! Ms. Stella has been quick to pick up on everything; however, she just has to learn more consistency through repetitions. She understands that the e-collar is meaningful and she is required to do something when I say the command + press the stimulation. However; Ms. Stella tries to guess what I want her to do instead of actually performing what I just asked. Take for instance the "place", if I press it too early she won't know where to go, if I press it too late she will think it's a correction and won't go. But if I just tap on the cot with my hand and say "place", she goes up there with no problem. This wouldn't be a big deal except that we have to do send her away to "place" so we have to work away from me tapping on it every time or she won't be able to perform that task.

Next, we reviewed the car manners, and on that, we made it to off-leash! Ms. Stella is doing well with all her commands and is showing good proficiency at being off-leash. I know I observed at your location that she is allowed a lot of freedom and she absolutely loves that freedom. I am balancing giving her freedom but also asking her to reign it every once in a while. You can see in the video how I played with her and got her really excited than right into a "place" and "down". This wasn't an accident. I wanted to see her super amped up and then have to carry out a command and she did fine! Good job today Ms. Stella!

Pupdate 5/12/23

Last night Ms. Stella and I headed over to Rio San Gabriel Park in Downey, CA. I only had Ms. Stella on my tiny 6' lead which is the lightest, smallest lead I have. I use this one right before going fully off-leash. Of course, Ms. Stella is super smart and nailed it! My favorite part was the super long recall. It was not a perfect come to "sit" but she recalled to me from so far away and I am happy with that. Today we focused on being a good pup around the house. Her training is coming along well. Over the next few days will be a ton of repetitions of place and working to that send away to a place and perfecting that come to sit. Everything else is looking really good. Even if she gets a little out of place, we're able to reset and get back on track. Good job Ms. Stella!

Pupdate 5/12/23

Today Ms. Stella and I headed over to Hacienda Park in La Habra Heights, CA. We met up with Off Leash SoCal's Training Manager, Ms. Sheena. Our main focus was working on the send away to "place" and the come to "sit'. Ms. Stella can be a little stubborn when it comes to doing some of the tasks like the send away to "place". The goal is for me to be about 5' or more from her when we say "place". Ideally, Ms. Stella will generalize certain objects to go up and "place" on wherever we are. I'll keep asking her to "place" on various objects. I will set up the "place" obstacle course in my back yard and hit those repetitions. In conjunction with that practice, we worked on the come to "sit". Ms. Stella is pretty good about this but sometimes she wanders off behind me a little bit. It's a combination of me working on my timing to get her attention and her trying to get out of performing the task. More, more, more will be the name of the game all this week before she heads back to you in a little over a week!

Pupdate 5/13/23

Today Ms. Stella and I headed to Rio San Gabriel Park in Downey, CA. We had one of the dog areas for a little bit but then we had company so that didn't last very long. We did work on the tables next to the dog park as those are great distractions, puppies running around free and wild and she has to behave accordingly. Once she understood it went a little better than yesterday. The one issue is that she is anticipating the commands so she breaks the "down" or "sit" too quickly. Nothing a quick reset can't fix. We hammered the come to "sit" and it was starting to look a little better. We will continue to reinforce the send away to "place" and come to "sit" all week. I went ahead and did a few really long and far recalls once again as Ms. Stella is doing great with these! Last note, there was a pet goat at the park which was wild to see but she didn't pay it any extra attention.

Pupdate 5/14/23

Happy Mother's Day to Cindy! I know you are at least the fur-parent of Ms. Stella! And a Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in your lives!

Last night, Ms. Stella and I headed over to a local carnival. Ms. Stella was quite overwhelmed which is understandable. You guys live in a large open space that doesn't quite lend itself to giant carnival experiences. Pups can pick up on everything including the vibrations in the ground. So not only are the carnival rides giant metal objects making all kinds of strange noises, they are shaking the ground. This was a lot for Ms. Stella and we didn't stay too long. I wanted to expose her to the high stimulus environment. I worked her on a short leash in case she did get overwhelmed. The later it got, the busier it got and the louder it was. She was willing to perform most of the tasks and as you can see, we kind of stuck to the outside of the carnival where she was more comfortable. It is important to be cognizant when your pup gets overwhelmed. Applying more stimulation to try to make her do something is also unproductive because that is more stimulus and one more thing in her already full mind. It's better to take what you can get and try again another time. Overall, pretty good for her obedience in such a stressful environment.

Today, we will continue to practice all her commands in my backyard to hammer on the send away to "place" and come to "sit".

Pupdate 5/15/23

Today Ms. Stella and I continued to work on her send away to "place", come to "sit" and a tighter "heel". I was doing some research last night on inducing some of the send-away to "place" behavior and I decided to use some of Ms. Stella's treats to motivate her. If you have been paying attention, I haven't really had the need to use treats throughout her training but they are a nice positive reinforcer, and for something she has been reluctant to do, I figured it's time to break them out. Even though I used them today and might use them one more time this week, Ms. Stella will be able to do these tasks without needing to constantly carry treats around with you to reward her. We like our pups to be able to perform the tasks without the constant reward of treats but part of balanced training is that we can mix up the reward system with their favorite treats occasionally. Although Ms. Stella isn't a food hound, she does love her treats! I figured let's use that to my advantage and make this a super fun positive learning day.

I had the short lead attached to her in case she messed up at all. I wanted to be able to immediately guide her into the correct position. For example, with the "heel," I held her close to me and rewarded her with the occasional treat. She's really good at checking back at me but I want as much of her attention focused on me. The treats are really good at that because now she's going to be looking at me for approval and that's exactly what we want. Now for the send away to "place", I don't want to hold the leash. Ms. Stella is very visual so I made a sweeping motion with my hand and tossed the treat towards the dog cot. This way she saw my hand and saw the treat go over there. She was more than happy to go by herself to go get it. After she picked up this game, I only threw one treat for every other send-away to "place". Then she caught onto the game and was like "Hey, you didn't throw anything". Then I used the low-level stimulation to remind her that she's still supposed to "place". There's a lot going on there but she was picking it up. But you can see why we don't rely on the treats because if there's no treat, she didn't want to do the task. The timing is also very important because if we give her a treat when she's not doing the task like when I would throw the treat over the dog bed, then that kind of makes it confusing for them. But! You can see that she would go past the bed to get the treat and then hop on. She's intelligent and understood that sitting on the dog bed would trigger the next sequence of events where she gets more treats. The great part about Ms. Stella is that she enjoys the interaction with me just as much as any treat could mean to her which is why I haven't had to use them at all. Overall, I am really pleased with where Ms. Stella is and we will continue to repeat these all week until you get her back.

Pupdate 5/16/23

Today Ms. Stella and I hit those repetitions again. More, more, more! That's all there is to it at this point. Ms. Stella has been really responsive and is doing great with her commands, doing great with her excitement and energy, and great hanging out with Ms. Toji! I used the leash for a little bit today only to tighten up her "heel". This is definitely a strategy you can use if you need to get her back in line or remind her where she is supposed to be. She is still relatively young and this is really new for her overall. It will take a long time for it to be permanently set in her mind. Even then, she is still a pup and will sometimes decide to do her own thing. Not every battle is worth fighting with your pup so that's up to you to decide if it's worth having but realistically, Ms. Stella has everything you could ever ask for especially considering her home life. You guys have one special pup!

Pupdate 5/17/23

Today Ms. Stella and I headed over to Rynerson Park for a thorough review of all her commands. What can I say, Ms. Stella is on fire. She is eager to please, intelligent, and loves being outside. Once again, I made sure her "heel" was nice and close to me which it was. We practiced "under", "down", then send away to "place"(still a little rough), extended "down", come to "sit", come to "heel", more "place", extended "sit" and of course "break!".

As far as her recall goes, I know ya'll have an expansive area for her to play in. What I really like about where Ms. Stella is at with her training, is that she is constantly checking in with me to see if I need something from her or for positive feedback. This is a fantastic trait. I gave her the "Break!" command and kind of let her wander off, we ran around the grass with no commands or anything. Just being a playful pup. As soon as she was 50' or more from me, I gave her the "Stella, Come!" command with low-level stimulation. She looked like she was shot out of a cannon and came bolting back full speed. Ran past me, hit the brakes, and came right to the "heel" position. Not every pup is capable of doing this far of a recall even after three weeks. I am impressed with Ms. Stella and we can't wait to show you how much she's matured.

Pupdate 5/18/23

Today Ms. Stella and I headed over to Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, CA. Ms. Stella performed amazingly once again. I could not have been more happy with her performance. She's going to be so happy to show off all her new skills when you see her again. Quick side note, she did get confused at one point and kind of went in the opposite direction but with enough stimulation and encouragement, I was able to recall her even in the sea of people that were amassing on the pier by that point in the day. Now all we have to do is teach you how to maintain this high level. I'm sure she will be excited to hop onto that golf cart and ride over to the market or whatever adventures are in store for you all!

Pupdate 5/19/23

Today Ms. Stella was reviewing her house manners as she is all set to go, I wanted to do a quick refresh of door manners and car manners, and food manners. She's all locked in and ready to go. Tomorrow we will conduct one last comprehensive review of all her commands before you get her back. I hope you have enjoyed her journey as much as I have.

Pupdate 5/20/23

Today Ms. Stella and I headed over to Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, CA. We reviewed her commands in a very busy, high-distractor area. Ms. Stella is nice and tuned in to me and performed well as usual. Below is a list of commands that Ms. Stella has been taught over the last 3 weeks:

Sit/Extended Sit
Down/Extended Down
Place/Extended Place
Send away to Place
Heel
Come to Heel
Come to Sit
Under
Off!
Break!
Door Manners
Car Manners - "Load Up!"
Greeting Manners
Canine Good Citizen Certification

Ms. Stella has been busy the last few weeks and it has been my pleasure to teach her all these new things. One more day and she's back home!

Stella | Mini Aussie | San Dimas, CA | In-Training

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