Stitch | Terrier X | Long Beach, CA | In Training
Updated: 9 hours ago
Meet Stitch! She's a 10-month-old Terrier Mix from Long Beach, California, and she's here for our Two Week Urban Board and Train Program. Stitch is a funny little shelter rescue who is sweet and intelligent, but she could use some improving with her manners! She knows a few commands, but needs to learn to follow through when she's told and not just when she wants to. She also pulls on the leash, jumps up when she's excited, and gets a little bit reactive on leash towards other dogs. Over the next two weeks we'll make sure Stitch knows how to follow through on her basics, knows how to walk properly on a loose leash, and how to say hello to people without jumping. We'll also work on keeping her calm when she sees dogs passing by so her walks stay nice and pleasant! Stay tuned for Stitch's two-week transformation!
8/30/26
Before we headed for home, Stitch and I spent a little bit of time at the park just getting to know each other, and so I could test her on what she could do. She didn't pull as badly as I thought she might, but she was certainly all over the place while walking. She came when I called her pretty well, but always ended it with her jumping all over me, so we'll definitely work on that! I like dogs to be excited about their Recall, but they still need to have manners when they get to their person. In a backwards response for most dogs, Stitch did really well with her Down, but I had a difficult time getting her to Sit. Usually it's the other way around! So we'll make sure she gets really good with both before she heads home. And the last observation I made was when another dog passed by us. Stitch definitely stiffened up and locked in on the dog, but she didn't bark or lunge at all, so it was a good place to start. She was really quiet and calm on the car ride home, so no issues with that. Once there I put her in a play yard where she could sniff dogs through the fence, but she seemed a little too overwhelmed to try socializing just yet. She spent some time exploring around her space and settled into a nice, shady spot for a nap without seeming overly stressed, so I'm confident she'll fit right in in no time. Since we're also working on potty training, for now while she's inside the house she'll either be in the crate or being walked around on a leash so she doesn't have any opportunities to go find a corner to potty in. It only takes a second of taking your eyes off a dog for them to have an accident! We'll work on gradually shifting her to offleash free time inside while making sure she knows to promptly do her business outside if she wants to earn that freedom. It doesn't take them too long to understand routines, so I'm sure she'll be able to run around the house without any worries very soon!
8/31/26
Today happened to be one of our Off Leash group practice days, so we started Stitch with a pretty big challenge right off the bat. I kept her on a short slip leash today while I ran her through the beginning steps of her basic commands, all while having to work around the other trainers and their dogs. You can see early on when the first dog walked by, she was staring so intently that I think I startled her when I went to maneuver her into her Sit. She redirected on me briefly, but seemed to realize pretty quickly what was going on and calmed down. That being said, most of the session was spent on just having her sit and watch the other dogs so we could get some of that impulsiveness under control. She was able to maintain it for the most part, but there were a few other times when I saw that excitable lunging behavior towards the others. Typically those occurred when she was on break in between commands, but she did very well when I had her working on focusing on me so she wouldn't get too locked on to anyone else. The commands themselves, she was doing pretty well with. We worked on getting her to move into that Sit faster, and to hold it until she was released. We did the same with Down, and I worked a little bit of Place on the doggie cot. Like yesterday, she didn't pull too badly with the Heel, but she does have a tendency to want to be everywhere and check everything out in different directions around my legs, so mostly we just need to work on getting her to stick to just the left side when she's been given her Heel command. She was beginning to grasp that before we even left session today, so I think she'll pick that up quickly. And then I also worked with her on her Recall, adding in an extra step at the end of coming around into a Sit on the Heel side. She was also catching onto that one pretty quickly without much correction. As far as how she's doing at home goes, I did get her out into the yard with the other dogs. She was a little nervous only at first, but then quickly became best friends with a little Westie terrier mix I have in boarding right now. They chased each other all around the yard, and when they wrestled, she was exhibiting appropriate behaviors. She had no issues with any other dog, and listened to cues well if they didn't want to play with her. Mostly all I'm seeing there is typical puppy energy, and that'll even out some as she matures. As long as she keeps listening to those cues, she'll continue to be able to have fun with her friends in the yard!
9/1/26
Today we took a step back from the distractions so I could work more on just refining Stitch's basic commands. I took her to a park that's down the street from me that typically has kids here and there on the playground, but otherwise it's pretty quiet. Her Sit and Extended Sit are getting solid already, and she's picking up on where she needs to be when I ask her to Heel. She's also very quickly learned that I want her to sit when I stop walking, so she's beginning to anticipate it but then winds up sitting too early lol. She'll get her timing soon enough! With her Recall she's great at coming quickly, and knows to swoop around into the Sit by my side. She's just a little bit off-center though, so mostly I worked today on lining her up properly with my legs. I assume she's learned the "Roll Over" trick since any time I ask for a Down, she automatically rolls lol. I'll work on making sure she knows the difference between the two while she's here. And then you can see when I asked for the Down and began to move away that she broke position that first time. Note that I walked her back where she started and reset there. You always want to make sure they go back to their starting positions if they break a command. Then that second time I made sure she could hold her Down while I stepped back, and then all the way forward again. She was assuming I was going to call her, which was why she broke that first time, so I need to have her understand that she needs to stay put until she hears me either release her with her "Break!" word, or until I give her another command. Last we worked on Place on the picnic table. For that, it was mostly just about teaching her that when I give the command she needs to go lay down where I'm pointing. We'll work on the distance and duration once she's gotten good at promptly putting herself in the correct position. For it only being her third day with me, though, she's moving along very quickly and I know she'll be an expert at all these commands soon enough!
9/2/26
Stitch is a natural supermodel! We went to work at Monrovia Library Park today where there are often other dogs and plenty of people for distractions, but when it came to posing for her photos, she nailed it every time! It's very rare for me to get solid pictures on the first try, but she was working that camera! She stayed in her Sit, Down or Place with no issues, her focus on me was phenomenal, and she definitely knows how to make her face as sweet and cute as possible. She was great for me in general today, even with other dogs at the park. She certainly still watched them with a harder eye than I would like, but she didn't lunge or bark at anybody, so we're making progress. She's really catching onto her Recall very quickly, and I'm already using mostly just verbals to correct her Heel. Whatever mix she is, she is extremely intelligent and very willing to learn. I'm having a really great time working with her! At home, she's quickly catching onto her manners as well. She's a little squirmy while she's sitting and waiting for her food, but she'll hold it until I release her. She already knows to sit and wait at the doors when I ask her to, and she's gotten really good about getting into and out of the car with little chaos. Really the only thing we're still struggling with is the jumping. She just gets so excited! But she's getting better. She'll start to jump, I'll give her a correction, and she'll drop back down into the Sit pretty quickly, so she does know what she should be doing. She just forgets temporarily in the moment, but we'll keep working at it until sitting for attention is second nature for her. With how smart she is, I'm sure she'll catch on soon enough!
9/3/26
I took Stitch out to Rotary Park today, which is a park that is entirely fenced in and is where I usually take dogs to begin working on their off-leash manners. I didn't have Stitch off-leash, of course, but I was curious to see how well she'd do with as little leash pressure as possible. I started off with the long line held fairly short, as per normal, so I could gauge how many corrections I might need while we were in the Heel and practicing other commands. It was practically none, so I went ahead and let the line drag on the ground with only the loop around my wrist. That meant she really had to pay attention to my movements and listen to my voice as we were moving around. You can see where she gets lost a few times and lags behind, but she was starting to catch on pretty quickly to what we were doing, and I was already able to begin fading out the treat lures by the time we were finished. I know I keep saying it, but she's such a fast learner! Today she's also had her longest time inside with me still in the room with her, but without me needing to watch her like a hawk to make sure she's not having any accidents. She was happy to play with some toys, she napped in her crate voluntarily with the door still open, and she even went to the door to tell me when she needed to go out. I will note with the potty training that she's learning how to do all this in my house with my routines, so it may be necessary to take a few steps back in the process once she gets home so she starts off on the right foot. That means keeping an eye on her any time she's free for at least a day or two to determine if she's going to go back to her old habits. If she starts looking for a place to potty indoors, get her out right away, and then you'll also know that means she will have to go back to being crated when someone can't keep eyes on her until she gets the routine down again. She caught on so fast, though, I don't think it'll take long at all to get her back on track if she has any accidents when she gets back.
9/4/26
Stitch has been showing a lot of progress across the board, so today I took her over for a hike along Royal Oaks Trail, which is the most popular walking, biking, and jogging path in my area. What I didn't realize until I got there was that they closed part of the main path for repaving, which sent everyone up the smaller upper trail where I usually like to walk. It put us much closer to passing dogs than I was going to have her do today, but circumstance put us there, and she handled it just fine! She passed the tiniest Dachshund I've ever seen with hardly a glance at it, and while she did begin to stare down two passing Pomeranians, a quick verbal correction had her focusing right back on me. And then a big dog went by and she looked at it, but disengaged on her own without me having to do anything. She was also great with the bikes and scooters and kids, no problem. I'm really pleased with her today! Today I also let her hang out in the room unattended for a little bit (by that I mean I was watching on camera from the living room lol), and all she did was nap and play with toys. There were no potty incidents, and when I took her out a little later and told her to "Go Potty" she went right away. The only thing we're really still working on at the house is her jumping, but it's gotten a lot better. For the most part she'll begin to jump, catch herself, and then sit, after which I give her that attention she wants. When she doesn't catch herself, she still jumps upwards, but she doesn't make contact with me, and she drops back down when I give her verbal correction. So we're getting there a little at a time, but she's learning!
9/5/26
Stitch and I went for a nice little walk around Lucinda Garcia Park near Old Town Monrovia. I had her on a leash tethered to my belt so I was completely hands-off, but if she had decided to wander she'd still be safely attached to me. She didn't need it, though, as she was responding great to just verbal commands. She never tried to pull ahead at all, but at times she would start to dip behind my legs, or try to wander further to the left to go smell the grass, but she'd come right back with a quick verbal correction. She sat without any prompting any time that I stopped, and she didn't pay much attention to other people on the path. Normally people are walking their dogs there, but unfortunately we didn't run across any today to practice with, so we made due with the playground kids to serve as distractions. She was a little bit reluctant to go into the Down at first while on the sidewalk, but nothing a quick reminder didn't cure. Overall it was just a pleasant walk through the park with her behaving like the good girl she is!
9/6/26
It was raining today, so we definitely chose to do some indoor work and headed on over to PetSmart. Stitch did great wandering around the aisles and getting into her picture poses, as per usual, and she didn't try to steal any bones or biscuits that were at her face level. She was very interested in the birds flying around in their cages, but she remembered she was supposed to be Heeling with me after I gave her a quick prompt. We did pass other people with their dogs, and she didn't bark at anybody. There was one little terrier creature that was excitedly trying to come over to greet her, which got Stitch wound up so she did do a little pulling back, but it wasn't in any sort of aggressive way. Still, she was supposed to be minding her manners, so I corrected her, got her back into her Heel, and we went through the rest of the store without further incidents. And of course she got a cookie from one of the staff on the way out for being such a good girl! It was a great way to spend a rainy day!
9/7/26
I had planned on working Stitch inside the Santa Anita Mall today, but with it being the holiday, it was insane in there! I still took advantage of the crowds, but decided to work Stitch outside on the promenade where it would be just a little less hectic. She was a little distracted with everything going on so her coming around to sit wasn't as clean as it usually is, but after several times of running her through it, she remembered to stay at my side instead of popping around to the front. Her Heel was fine, as usual, and her extended commands were no problem. She didn't pay much attention to all the kids running around, and a big dog passed by behind the camera that she didn't even look at. She was a little slower going into her Place the first couple times we ran through it, but part of that was because she was figuring out how to maneuver into her down without stepping into the pond behind her! Overall, as much as she continues to surprise me with how well she's been doing, I honestly thought she would be more challenged today given how many people there were and how much noise was surrounding us. The only real issues we had with the crowd were people stopping right in front of the camera, but she was great!
9/8/26
Yet more rain meant another indoor day, so we headed over to Home Depot to work. Stitch worked her magic on everyone there and got lots of love and attention without jumping on anybody! She sat for people to pet her, then naturally had to roll over and get her share of belly rubs. Then as we were heeling around the store, we were surprised by that little Frenchie who popped out of an aisle. Stitch sat when I told her to, and even though the other dog was staring her down and she was warily watching back, she didn't lunge or bark at it. We all went on our way without any issues, and I gave her extra treats for that because I know she was holding herself back! At the Halloween decorations, she had one moment of, "What the heck is that?" But after she bravely went over to sniff at the animatronics, she realized they were just things and calmed right down. And then, as usual, she was able to get into all her photo poses without any problems at all, and always looked right at the camera like the superstar she is!
9/9/26
Rain for three days, then straight to 106 degree temps! So, yes, it was yet another indoor day. We went back to the mall, but thankfully it was less crowded post-holiday, so I was able to walk Stitch around in the busier parts of the mall. She was still a bit distracted here and there, but mostly it resulted in her lagging behind slightly, then scuttling to catch up again. I used a much smaller leash so she couldn't feel the weight of it on her as much, and she still responded entirely to just verbals whenever I needed her to catch back up and pay attention. She moved into positions just fine, and never tried to pull away even when she was interested in something. We did pass one other dog, but it was on the other side of the hall and she didn't pay it much mind. Basically, it was a nice, smooth journey through the mall, and she's really giving me confidence that she should be able to go pretty much anywhere dogs are allowed without any issues!
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