Meet Stevie Nicks! She is a 2 year old Lab/Pitbull from Los Angeles, California here for our one Week Board and Train program! Stevie Nicks was just recently pulled from a shelter so we do not have to much history on her. Her new owner said that she struggles with her leash manners and will pull her to the ground if she smells something that she wants. Over the next week Stevie Nicks will learn how to behave on leash, how to properly greet people and other dogs, and how to be the best pup she can be! Stay tuned for Stevie Nicks one week transformation!
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Pupdate 03/03/23
After pickup, Stevie Nicks and I headed off to a local park to spend some time bonding and see what she knows. She wanted to chase the birds that flew by and almost pulled me down. She did well getting into a sit but did not seem to understand her down command. She came when called but would quickly go back to sniffing or pulling. She is very loving and sweet but does show some general anxiety in the form of panting and whining. She did bark at a group of dogs that passed by us but then paid no mind to the next few that came by. We then headed home to let her get adjusted and settled into her new environment. She is a sweetheart who loves to play and I am looking forward to working with her!
_______________________________________________ Pupdate 03/06/23
Stevie and I headed off to meet up with some other trainers and work around some distractions from a distance to see how she did around other dogs. She showed some slight reactivity in the form of barking, whining and pulling excessively towards the other dogs. We started working on her come to sit command and was able to gain some focus from her but she tired out mentally quickly. Sometimes for a dog that has had little training and had all the changes she has had recently, the shorter sessions with quality repetitions will show more improvement then the extra long sessions as she will be able to retain the information easier. She is very friendly towards people and I do not see any aggression in her towards other dogs, just more overexcitement and lack of clarity on how she should behave. That over excitement can rub another dog the wrong way and can cause an issue so we will focus on teaching her calmness around other dogs and that we have something more valuable then the dog in front of us.
_______________________________________________ Pupdate 03/07/23
Stevie and I headed off to a local park to work on her come to sit command along with her loose leash walking. She picked up on things much better today but was quite distracted when any bird or dog got anywhere near us. She had a tendency to let out a low growl and would get stiff and start to pull every time we saw a smaller dog in particular. We worked on keeping that focus and attention from her from a distance and that was much better for her. She seems to struggle with “spatial pressure” when it comes to other animals. From a distance she does fantastic but as soon as we start to close that gap Stevie gets overexcited and wants to go towards them. We will continue working on pushing her to be the best she can be and asking for that focus from her! Overall she did great with her training today and is so sweet to everyone she meets.
_______________________________________________ Pupdate 03/08/23
Stevie and I headed off to a couple local parks today to work on her heel command as well as her come to sit command again. She was tired by the time we did some filming so she is moving a bit slow in the video but did fantastic overall today. She has gotten much better coming all the way to me but still needs a reminder to get into a sit at times. She walks well in short periods but once we head out on the longer walks she gets more distracted by the smells and starts to pull. A couple u turns and she gets back into position quickly. She is a blast to work with and has made great progress in a few days!
_______________________________________________ Pupdate 03/09/23
Stevie and I headed off to two different local parks today to work on adding some distance and duration to all of her commands. She did much better remaining in a heel for longer distances today as well as an overall change in her attention staying on me. We also worked on her holding her sit command for longer periods as well as her come to sit command from further distances. She did still struggle today when we saw other dogs but paid little to no mind when we passed people and remained walking loosely on my left side which is a huge improvement!
_______________________________________________ Pupdate 03/10/23
Stevie and I spent most of today training indoors due to the rain and her still having staples in. Today we focused on her place command as well as practicing her heel command in tighter spaces. Place is any elevated object or surface within a defined boundary. Place is great to use when we have guests come over or just need a safe spot to let our dogs relax on. She picked up on place quickly but struggled holding that command when we first started but by the end of our third session of the day she was hanging out for a couple minutes at a time before I would release her.
