Sunny | Basenji/Pit Mix | Montrose, CA | In-Training
- Scott Hansen
- Feb 5, 2023
- 18 min read
Updated: Mar 13, 2024
Meet Sunny! Sunny is a three-year-old Basenji/Pit Mix from Montrose, CA. Sunny is here for our Two Week Board and Train Program. Sunny is a friendly pup who joins us to work on being more consistent with his obedience. Sunny knows some commands but is inconsistent. Sunny barks at people when on walks or at home, he does not recall consistently, barks at construction workers while in the vehicle, and can misbehave at the dog park. Stay tuned for Sunny's 14-Day Transformation!
Pupdate 2/5/23
Today Mr. Sunny, as my three-year-old has nicknamed him already, came to meet my family. We stopped at a local park to review what he knows. You were right, pretty inconsistent but also not a misbehaved puppy. I look forward to establishing consistency with him and seeing what he can learn.
Mr. Sunny was acclimated to the house and to the neighborhood. I took Mr. Sunny on a walk around the neighborhood. Mr. Sunny was sure to mark plenty of trees to let everyone know the new pup was in town. He wasn't pulling on the leash but he was definitely doing his own thing. No worries! We will be working on this. The last part was that I introduced him to Toji, my german shorthaired pointer. As I mentioned before, Toji is like the big sister around here. She doesn't mess around in her house but she is always for having a good time. Toji and he got to say hi and interact for a little bit. I think Toji likes him more than he likes her right now but they will be good buddies over the next two weeks. Keep checking in for his 14-day transformation.
Pupdate 2/6/23
Today Sunny and I loaded up and headed over to Whittier Narrows Park in Rosemead, CA. We met up with our fellow Off Leash trainers and their pups in training. Today was a big day for Mr. Sunny as we introduced several new things to him. I introduced the ecollar which Mr. Sunny is responsive to about a 13 which is great! I am pairing this with the prong collar when teaching the commands. As a reminder, the prong collar is great as it applies pressure all at once but it has a flat section in the front that goes over the trachea so it is not putting pressure on the airway. These two combined made for a great walk introducing the "heel". We did this away from the other trainers and once Mr. Sunny understood the pressure and the stimulation we went and hung around the other trainers. I had my fellow male trainers say hi to him and he was a perfect gentleman. We went around all the other pups and Mr. Sunny continued to behave well.
During our walk, I was introducing the proper "heel" and position while also reinforcing the "sit". When I stop, Mr. Sunny should stop and go into a "sit". From today on, he will be expected to perform these two tasks the most. He gave me a "down" and I reinforced that with verbal praise.
Per our conversation yesterday, keep this in mind throughout the training.
Stimulation + Response = Consequence
In the case of today, the pinch collar and ecollar paired with my voice giving the command "heel" or "sit" served as the stimulation. His response would be to perform the command. The consequence would either be negative or positive depending on his response. If he performed the "heel" properly, there would be no pressure on the pinch collar and no stimulation from the ecollar and also a "good boy" or maybe even a rub of the neck if he performed "sit". If he doesn't perform the task, then the pressure remains like if he lags behind or is distracted by something else and not keeping up. We also apply another stimulation with the word "heel". In the case of "sit", the upward pressure of the leash continues until he performs the "sit" and then everything is released and now we can go back to the positive reinforcement of the behavior with a rub of the head or neck or even a treat. I gave him a few treats at the end of the session and he seemed to enjoy them.
Overall, Mr. Sunny is a bright and intelligent pup who is picking up things quickly and will mostly need consistency to keep him on track. He is eager to please and looks to me for validation which is great!
Pupdate 2/7/23
Today Mr. Sunny and I loaded up and headed over to Rhynerson Park in Lakewood, CA to get him comfortable with one of my main training areas. I have been very impressed with Mr. Sunny's temperament and trainability. He is picking up on things pretty quickly; however, it's still not perfect at this stage in the game. I think he's going to do amazing with all of his commands once it clicks for him.
As you can see in the video, this is the very first exposure to "come" to "sit". He did well and my favorite part is that he wasn't trying to run or break free on our second day of training. We reinforced the "heel" all around the park. I varied it up by holding the leash in my hand, using one finger to support it so it feels like there was nothing there, and even spent a decent amount of time with the leash dragging behind Mr. Sunny. Very good! We even walked past males and other pups and Mr. Sunny was a well-behaved obedient dog. Definitely not like how he was when I picked him up. He is respectful of the ecollar and pinch collar. You can also see that he stayed in the "sit" while I walked away and put some space between us. Great job Sunny! Lastly, a few times he went to sniff something or possibly investigate to mark, and a quick "off" with stimulation followed by a "heel" and a "good boy" as soon as he was back in position resulted in great happiness from Mr. Sunny as he was looking up at me for validation and to make sure he was doing well. I started introducing the "place" and "down". I'll really push these tomorrow and then Mr. Sunny has been introduced to everything he needs to know to pass his training with me.
Tomorrow I will likely start with the pinch collar again and switch over to the flat collar at some point and start transitioning to the flat collar. A pinch collar is a temporary tool used to convey pressure in a more meaningful way than a flat collar.
Pupdate 2/8/23
Today Sunny and I had a session in my "lab" aka my backyard. Mr. Sunny is really smart and eager to please. The foundation you set for him is pretty good. He is willing to work and responds well to verbal praise. Sometimes too much praise gets him to break his commands so I'll have to manage the verbal praise. I decided not to use the pinch collar today as we are in a more controlled environment and he is less inclined to be distracted. He responds well to "off" which is a command you will be using a lot of when you get him back to establish what he can and can not do.
As you can see in today's video, we worked on his last two commands which were "place" and "down". Mr. Sunny has been introduced to all his commands. The next challenging item is the car manners and getting him to jump into the car. He's definitely agile enough to do it but we just have to get it consistently. Just like his food and door manners, car manners can be practiced almost daily when we leave to go to training. I also am working on his "come" to "sit". I tried a few times without holding the leash and he's still not quite there but he understands because once he goes behind me he is making the turn to come into position. He just cheats and tries to stop in front of me. If they stop in front of you, you just keep moving back until he gets to your right side. Once he is in position, you can either stop or take one step forward and use your left hand to guide him into position on your left side. I picked up the leash for this and some of the "heel" work as he was not fully getting it without a little bit of guidance from me. He's doing great with my guidance on the leash, so now we can start using the long lead or the small leash I was using today, which is so light that it simulates being off-leash, to drag behind him and give him a chance to perform the commands without my influence other than the ecollar stimulation. Even with him not fully understanding some of the commands, we started working around a 13 and never went higher than 18 on the ecollar today. Too high is distracting and takes away from training and too low isn't meaningful enough. I really like his operating range and his responsiveness. This is great, we've only been together three days and we're already preparing to be off-leash! Great job, Sunny!!
Pupdate 2/9/23
Today Sunny and I started working on a few more things. Before we loaded up and went to Rhynerson Park in Lakewood, CA, I had Sunny work on his indoor place on the dog cot. He was a little confused on this one and wanted to chill on the carpet under the dining table. This is not where puppies hang out when people are eating. I ensured to have him stay in the "place" and "down" while my little ones had their after-school meals. He eventually understood this and stayed in the "place" and "down" for an extended period of time.
Next, we went to Rhynerson Park with the little ones. Mr. Sunny did a pretty good job here. His "heel" is coming along and with more consistency and repetitions he's going to do well with this command. I tried to do leash dragging with the 15' leash for most of the session unless I had to show him something. Mr. Sunny was much better at his "place" on the benches and remaining in the "down" while I kicked the soccer ball around with my kids. He was a lot more comfortable hanging out in the grass in the down rather than on the bench but either way, he didn't mind if I was more than 20' away from him. His "come" to "sit" is still a little rough. He understands to "come" to me but I still have to move quite a bit to get him into the right position. Once again, just more repetitions and we will get there. Overall, a pretty good day once again!
Pupdate 2/10/23
Today Sunny and I worked on some more house manners. Sunny's "place" is still coming along. He does like to get up and be near me or anyone for that matter. This is typical of most dogs as they like to be by their owners. The difference here is that I am asking him to "place" and that means for him to remain there until I come back to get him or until I release him. This applies to the door manners which is covered in today's video. You can see that he wants to get up and either go under the table or come to me. Both are not bad problems as he isn't leaving to go tear up the house or jump on anything. He is a well-behaved pup but we are here to put a little bit of structure and expectations on that obedience. But as you can see in the video, after a few tries, Mr. Sunny figured out the expectations. The more time he spends on the dog cot, he is understanding. As you let me know, you usually send him to his bed. This is my version of that but he is used to the comfort of his soft comfy bed that he can ball up on. The dog cot is comfortable too but not as comfy as his bed so I am asking him to ignore all those comforts to just hang out on the cot. He's getting it.
I will also add that he hasn't barked at anyone or anything approaching my house. Usually, the dogs that are attentive and can hear the mailman or the delivery driver, will sit up and start barking but Mr. Sunny hasn't really done much of that here. He does bark a little in the backyard when hanging out with Ms. Toji but nothing incessant or excessive. He does bark differently when he is ready to come back inside or needs to go outside. He does a great job of sitting at the door until I open it and let him out. Good work Mr. Sunny!
Pupdate 2/11/23
Today Mr. Sunny and I headed over to El Dorado Park in Long Beach, CA. This was a great test for Mr. Sunny before I start cutting him off leash this upcoming week. There were plenty of distractors such as other people, dogs, skateboards, and scooters at the skatepark, baseball, softball, tennis, and even frisbee golf players making their way through on a busy Saturday. Oh, and did I mention the squirrels? Well, Mr. Sunny didn't miss them. But even with all these distractors and the leash dragging behind him, Mr. Sunny was attentive and obedient. I am now confident he can start practicing off-leash work even in high distractor areas.
His come to "sit" is probably his weakest skill at this point but it's more his positioning, he isn't breaking away from me or going for other distractors, he is coming to me just not always going in the right position. We worked on this and in the end, I think I kind of figured out how to get him to be there a little more reliably. He also does the come to "sit" motion when he is out of position on a "heel" or a turn. I am very proud of him and his progress, tomorrow will be a trial run for off-leash work.
Pupdate 2/12/23
It's a Super Sunny Sunday! Today Sunny and I headed over to Rhynerson Park to give his off-leash work a trial. As you can see in today's video, he did it! With a week left to go, that leaves us plenty of time to get in repetitions with more of his off-leash work. He is still a little skeptical about some of the commands such as the "down" and moving away from him. You get to see me reset him a few times. It is important in dog training to be persistent and consistent with your commands and timing. Allowing your pup to break the command without your input, even once, sets a precedent and the pup will exploit that on the next one. He will get up early and try to test what he can get away with. Dogs are like us in a lot of ways that they want the path of least resistance and the most efficient. They will try to get up 1-2 seconds earlier each time they are put in a sit to see if they don't have to stay as long as last time to receive our approval. If you allow that, then the next time it will be 1-2 seconds, and so on and so on. This will then wind up in an instant break and you'll be back at square one building him back up. Stay persistent and consistent with his obedience and you will reap the benefits in the future.
I also had my daughter take Sunny for a walk with the leash to make sure he was understanding the commands; regardless of whether it was coming from me or not. I have worked with her on her timing and training and she does a good job of reminding him to heel with an appropriately timed stimulation. He was looking at her for approval when performing the obedience command which tells me that he understands she has the leash and the remote and that she's running the show. She even had him "sit" and "load up" for his car manners and he performed the task without issue! Great job, Sunny!
Pupdate 2/13/23
Today Mr. Sunny and I headed over to Whittier Narrows Park in El Monte, CA. We met up with our fellow off-leash trainers and their pups in training. Mr. Sunny did amazing! He didn't like the cold tables when we were practicing "place" and "down" but other than that he was on it. He wasn't trying to go up to the other dogs or be intrusive. He was interested in the other trainers and saying hi to them but he was well-behaved. He was off-leash and as stated before, will be off-leash this whole week unless we are trying new things out, he will be on my tiniest, lightest leash because you can never be one hundred percent sure how a dog will react in new environments. It's always good to have a leash around or introduce new areas on-leash before allowing your pup to be off-leash.
I was thinking about how you were with him when you dropped him off to me and the importance of timing and the tools you use. You had Mr. Sunny on a harness. We don't use harnesses because you give up too much control of your pup. A harness is for a well-behaved pup who understands what to do. When the dog pulls on the harness, all the pressure is put on its chest. This creates an opposition reflex, think sled dogs. Sled dogs are motivated to keep running because the anchor of the sled puts pressure on their chest. The pressure being put on their chest instinctually makes them want to run or pull on the leash.
Now onto timing. Timing is important because you need to apply reinforcement or discouragement of behavior on the spot to ensure clear effective communication. As soon as Mr. Sunny tries to walk ahead of me, I let him know that is not what I want but as soon as he is back in the position I give him praise. This is important because you mentioned going on hikes and walks where he would break off. If you stop the behavior before the dog has a chance to run off, you can prevent the increase of stimulation or having him perform unwanted behavior. Sometimes in dog training, we let the dog commit the unwanted behavior so we can let them know that we don't want them to do it. But overall it is better and much more positive to encourage wanted behavior and continuously reinforce the positive behavior with verbal praise, physical praise, or a treat reward.
Pupdate 2/14/23
Happy Pup-entine's day! Sunny is doing well with all his commands and can't wait to show you everything he has learned. We headed back to Whittier Narrows in El Monte, CA today to continue our training from yesterday. Sunny is doing so well with sitting and staying. I also really like how his "place" is looking. He definitely understands this at home and in public places. You had mentioned his recall and wanting to be confident in it. I gave him the "break" command today and let him wander around while he took a break to see how well his recall would be. As stated before, he does come back! This is great. However; at greater distances, he tends to stop in front of me whereas when he is closer he does a better job of going around for the "come" to sit. I'll go over how to ensure he winds up in the right position during his turnover. Another great day for Mr. Sunny!
Pupdate 2/15/23
Today Sunny and I reviewed his house manners. We reviewed his food manners as we do every day with a polite sit and wait until a break. For the video, I had him in the "sit" position but if you want to put him in the "down" or he offers the "down", that's fine too. As long as he understands that he can't eat or approach his food until you release him with a "break".
During car manners, we have him politely "sit" and then he has been trained to "load up!" With the hand motion and movement as well. He did jump up on his own before starting because he was ready to head out. Good job, Sunny!
Last is the door manners. I have him on his dog cot for the videos but he does like to go under my table on the carpet as well. Once again, he is offering good behavior by going to what he considers a safe environment and not running out the door just because it is open. This can be fine but we do need to establish that we want him to "down" before you open the door and walk out of it. If you don't say anything, he will likely follow you right out the door. I have tested this and that's what he does with me unless I give him something to do such as "place" and "down". This is something you can practice multiple times a day. As noted throughout this training, Sunny isn't going out the door to run away but rather to come be closer to me or be able to see what I am doing. He really is a good pup who needs structure so that he knows what you need from him. My family likes having him around and they are going to miss him when he goes back home to you.
Pupdate 2/16/23
Today Mr. Sunny and I went over to Liberty Park in Cerritos, CA, and met Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Well, just a statue of him but nevertheless we said hi and introduced ourselves.
With that being said, Sunny did fantastic once again today. We practiced all his commands in succession. "Heel" followed by an extended "place" and extended "down". Next, after he successfully completed that, on the first try, I recalled him to the "come to sit", which he also nailed on the first try. Then we walked around in the "heel" to an area near the kids' playground where babies were crying, volleyball practice was going on, people were passing us, dogs barking within earshot and I had Mr. Sunny perform his extended "sit". He got up once around the twenty-second mark but I reset him and then he nailed the extended "sit" which is two minutes plus of staying there in the "sit" until I give him a different command. I ended the extended "sit" with a "break!" to give him some love and show him lots of positive reinforcement for his great work. We wrapped up our training by walking around the rest of the park getting closer to the loud noises, and the balls flying through the air from volleyball practice, being able to see the other pups and Mr. Sunny was great. I couldn't ask for anything more from Mr. Sunny than what he is giving me. Good job, Mr. Sunny!
Pupdate 2/17/23
Today Mr. Sunny and I headed over to Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, CA. It was a great Southern California day, a little cool in the morning then the sun came out without being too hot. The great weather brought out a lot of people, pets, performers, pedestrians, bicyclists pedaling, skateboarders, and people escootin' all over the place. Sunny was amazing! He was a well-behaved gentleman. I did spend most of my time with him on my tiny, lightweight leash just because I didn't want to throw him right into the fire of all the distractors. With the leash in hand, I can feel his tension go up and he can feel my calmness so it's a good way to communicate with your pup. They pick up on everything that you are putting out, especially through the leash. We say "it runs down the leash" when you are upset or nervous the dog can pick up on that. The same thing goes for if you are calm and relaxed but confident, then the pup picks up on that through the leash. This is why I recommend that just because Sunny can be off-leash doesn't necessarily mean that he should always be off-leash. There is a time and a place for him and for you to enjoy the freedom that comes with it. Remember to always follow leash laws and rules wherever you go.
With all that being said, we did conduct a good portion of our training off-leash and he did amazing as always. He is looking to me for validation and focused on me rather than all the distractions around me. Whenever he would lose focus, I would simply communicate with him verbally with a reminder to "heel", "sit", or "down" etc. and he would go back to doing the appropriate obedience task. As you can see in the video he did really well, even with people taking pictures of him and with him. The only thing that interrupted him was a skateboarder but then he grabbed a lucky ladybug off his hind quarter so I'm not sure exactly what got his attention but he didn't leave or bark. I reset him and he was perfectly fine.
We stopped by the bike trail and watched the bikes, scooters, rollerbladers, and runners go by. Mr. Sunny paid them no mind. On the way back to my vehicle, we almost came nose-to-nose with another pup and I gave Mr. Sunny a few "off" commands with stimulation and he went right back to being a good pup in the "heel". I looked down and the remote was at 0! Sunny was obedient to my voice and overcame a high-value distraction by simply following my commands. This is fantastic because it shows that the training has been effective and is imprinted in his mind. Great job today Mr. Sunny! Two more days until we can show off all the things Mr. Sunny has learned with me!
Pupdate 2/18/23
Today Sunny and I worked on a review of all his commands in my backyard in preparation for his turnover tomorrow. We made the video above so you can review whenever you would like. I wore a reflective vest throughout because you had mentioned that he was sensitive to or would bark at construction workers. We tried to work on all your concerns and with the foundation he now has, you two should be able to overcome and adapt to your future experiences and road trips.
Below is a list of the commands that Mr. Sunny has learned while with me:
1) Sit/Extended Sit
2) Down/Extended Down - lay down on the surface with his belly touching the surface.
3) Place/Extended Place - perform a "sit" or "down" on a raised surface.
4) "Come" to sit - Mr. Sunny should come to your right side, go behind you and come to your left side and perform a "sit".
5) "Heel" - come to the left side of you and walk at your pace without being in front or behind you.
6) "Off!" - leave the item or stop performing the unwanted behavior such as jumping or barking.
7) "Break!" - no stimulation, Mr. Sunny can do whatever he wants and be a pup. Usually, he will come to you first for some physical and verbal praise.
8) Door Manners - ensure Mr. Sunny is in a "sit" or "down" somewhere comfortable and remind him to perform the task while you go outside.
9) Car Manners/"Load up!" - properly performing a "sit" prior to entering a vehicle, and then giving the "load up" command for him to enter the vehicle.
10) Greeting Manners - sitting politely while people say hi to him. Remember to put him in a "sit" and then allow a new person to say hi.
You can review this whenever you'd like. We can't wait to show you what he has learned and what a good boy he is!
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