Tina | Labrador Mix | Culver City, CA | In-Training
- graceatoffleashk9
- Sep 11, 2022
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 25, 2022
Meet Tina, the Labrador mix from Culver City, CA, who is here for a two-week board and train program. Tina is here because she displays resource guarding behavior, nipping tendencies when excited, pulls on the leash, bolts out of doors and likes to have her way when she is outside. Over the next two weeks, we will be working on boundaries, obedience exercises in and out of the home and her toy possessiveness. Stay tuned for Tina's progress!
Pupdate 9/12/2022
Tina is adapting well to her new environment. We took a nice early morning walk today to get her acquainted with the new part of the city. She did pull quite a bit at first, displayed nervous behavior around loud garbage trucks and buses but generally was eager to see and smell her new surrounding environment. Tina was initially very vocal in the house but settled in quickly after a nice treat and enjoyed the nice cool temperatures. She initially came to us wearing a front clip harness but we will be changing up her walking tools so we can begin working on better leash manners. We also have started on some of our door manners already and she listens quite well. She is great pup with lots of energy and willingness to learn. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Updates: Tina's adjusting well into her new environment. Began door manners!
Today's Weigh In: 50.3 LBS
Pupdate 9/13/2022
Today Tina and I worked on heel, place, extended sit, doorway manners and car load up manners. We are having an exciting day with other trainers tomorrow so I wanted to make sure Tina could show off some of her newly learned skills at the park! We walked through the city to a park next to a primary school. She walked at a nice heel past rowdy kids behind the fence and worked on her extended sit on a slippery rock. “Place” is a great exercise for confidence building because it encourages the pup to jump up to an elevated surface, think about their feet placement and trust me as a handler to ensure their safety! As agile as she is, Tina tends to hesitate a lot when jumping onto something new and when the texture is something she isn’t used to, she requires positive encouragement to follow through. As you will see in our pupdate video, Tina takes time to warm up to jumping but with enough practice, she gets more confident with the exercise. I noticed that Tina is very hesitant to “down” and we will be working on that extensively. I have also observed that Tina is very wary of strangers and fixates on anyone walking within the vicinity. We will be working on better engagement and “off” to teach her to ignore the distractions. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Walked by primary school today and worked on heel, place and extended sit.
Today's Weigh In: 49.8 LBS
Pupdate 9/14/2022
Today Tina and I went to Whittier Narrows Recreational Park to meet with other trainers and their pups! It was an exciting experience and we began working on a longer leash to give her more running room. We worked on “heel, place, come to sit” in this new environment close to other dogs and she did great. She held a nice long extended sit while all the trainers were talking in a circle and even began holding a down for a little. There was a playground at the park, so I went on the swings while she held a sit. I took note of the behavior she displayed as I swung higher and higher and believe that her behavior is based on her high prey drive. Her desire to chase and catch is a genetic predisposition for working dogs. She is gaining confidence and even jumped up on a nice boulder today! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: We worked on heel, place, sit and down with other Offleash trainers and pups at Whittier Narrows Recreational Park.
Today's Weigh In: 50.1 LBS
Pupdate 9/15/2022
Today Tina and I went to Rancho Cienega Recreational Park to work on “heel, sit, extended sit, down, extended down and come to sit”. She is learning to practice down without rolling over and I am learning that she does better without the hand to guide her to a “down”. Tomorrow, we will be putting the e-collar on her to get her used to feeling the collar around her neck. She is very responsive with her training and absolutely loves to run. We still need to work on her “loading up” into the car as she hesitates to jump up into a vehicle that is slightly higher than what she’s used to. Her door manners are being polished up nicely so our next step is to see if she does well on the e-collar so that we can try our hand off-leash! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Today we worked on all of her commands. We will be transitioning her to an e-collar after seeing today's results.
Today's Weigh in: 50.2 LBS
Pupdate 9/15/2022
Today Tina and I worked on e-collar introductions. We went on a 2 mile walk in the city with the e-collar buckled in while we worked on “heel, sit, place and down”. When we arrived back home, we started doing low stimulation conditioning with “place”. Tina was asked to move between 2 place spots without having any leash guidance. She was confused in the beginning but with slow introductions, treats and praise, she did amazing! She still struggles to down and often confuses “off” with “down” but we will continue to work on it. What she showed me today made me very happy as she is smart and willing to learn. We will continue to do some more work before bed and we will move e-collar work to the outside tomorrow!
Daily Training Notes: Moved to the e-collar and practiced "place" without use of leash.
Today's Weigh-in: 49.4 LBS
Pupdate 9/16/2022
Today Tina and I worked on introducing the e-collar outside. We worked on “heel, place, sit, extended sit, down, extended down and come to sit”. Her “come to sit” and “down” are improving and her goofy personality is starting to shine. During her recall, she will get excited in the middle, speed past me (unable to stop because she’s going to fast), then come to sit like nothing ever happened. She is understanding doorway manners very well now and has impressed many people in the elevators of my apartment with her skills. We will begin introducing off-leash work tomorrow! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Introduced e-collar outside and worked on Heel, Place, Sit, Extended Sit, Down, Extended Down and Come to Sit.
Today's Weigh In: 49.4 LBS
Pupdate 9/18/2022
Today Tina and I went to a park and began our session with on leash exercises next to the children’s playground and Tina did very well. Towards the end of the session, I began fading out the use of the leash and utilizing more e-collar work in the same location and Tina continues to impress me. I have realized that Tina does a cleaner “come to sit” with noise guidance and snapping my fingers in the location I want her to be at is a lot more effective. We still need to continue working on her “down” because she likes to roll over. Overall, I think this was a great session and demonstration of her improvements. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on all exercises by a playground and then introduced off-leash work!
Today's Weigh In: 49LB
Pupdate 9/19/2022
Today Tina and I went to a park and worked on our exercises while having a long leash drag along. This is our next step to fading out the use of a leash and into off-leash work! I only had to use the leash a few times to help direct her to “come to sit”. We did some long-distance recall paired with extended sits and downs. She did well with the other dogs at the park being distractions and had a blast running back to “come to sit”. Tina is a phenomenal dog with great energy and has truly started to shine with her work. Her “downs” are becoming clearer and I am learning to better guide her to my side with touch and sound. We will begin moving her to off-leash work with more distracting environments. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Tina worked on all of her exercises off-leash!
Today's Weigh In: 49.2 LBS
Pupdate 9/20/2022
Today Tina and I went to Pan Pacific park to work off-leash in a highly distracting environment. There were a lot of dogs off-leash in the field and kids at the playground, making this a challenging work environment for Tina. However, Tina did quite well considering all these factors. Without leash guidance, she did wander here and there but came back to sit when called. Our recall practice really made a difference and Tina successfully walked around the whole park without reacting to the stress factors. We practiced "place" on the field with dogs running around and, on the playground, when it quieted down. We also practiced greeting manners for the first time with some people at the park and now Tina has a fan club! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked off-leash at a park with lots of distractions!
Today's Weigh In: 49.3 LBS
Pupdate 9/21/2022
Today I put Tina to the test. We had a very different, but just as important, training session. Tina is a very driven dog with an innate desire to chase fast moving objects/people and knowing that, I have tried to center a lot of her training sessions around parks and playgrounds. However, this training session was entirely different. I recruited the help of two skateboarders who agreed to skate around Tina while we worked on some of our normal exercises. The purpose of this highly challenging session was to ensure that our exercises were solid before she headed home at the end of the week. In the beginning, she did react to the skateboarders, but with reinforcement of the e-collar, she was able to successfully complete “heel, sit and down”. My goal was not to modify her reactivity; it was to teach her that she could overcome this challenge through training. An important factor to take note is to help build Tina into a confident dog whose prey drive is fulfilled through other means so as not to turn that drive into reactivity.
Daily Training Notes: Worked on heel, sit and down in the presence of triggers.
Today's Weigh In: 49.5 LBS
Pupdate 9/22/2022
Today Tina and I met with some trainers at the park! Tina and I practiced all of our exercises off leash and even got to show off our extended sit in place for a long distance recall to a sit at heel. We need to touch up on heel off-leash since she tends to forge forward a bit or get distracted with what’s around her. Another amazing exercise we got to do today was having another handler walk with Tina! Tina and I have built a great bond together but I would like to see Tina succeed with anyone handling her. She was able to walk with two other Offleash Trainers. She wasn’t sure of herself at first because of the change but did very well when demonstrating what she knew. Soon she will be going home and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Tina worked on all of her commands off-leash around other Offleash SoCal trainers.
Today's Weigh In: 49.2LBs
Pupdate 9/23/2022
Today Tina and I met with some Offleash SoCal trainers at Westfield Century City Mall to touch up on her off-leash work. Tina goes home in 2 days so we want to make sure her exercises are clear in different environments. Tina started our session slightly nervous at the mall with the different flooring, loud music and all the people walking by her but settled in by the end. We sat people watching for a bit after a session to end the session on a nice calm note. She settled in with the other trainers a lot quicker than yesterday and it’s nice to see how well she adapts. She also practiced her greeting manners with some strangers at the mall who were very happy to pet her and she did really well. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Tina worked on her exercises at Westfield Century City Mall!
Today's Weigh In: 49.9LBs
Pupate 9/24/2022
Today Tina and I worked on polishing all of her exercises before she goes home. We worked a lot on place for food refusal as she does have a tendency to get slightly impatient when food is involved. I could not be more proud of how far Tina has come and I can’t wait to see how well she does back home. We’re looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow!
Daily Training Notes: Polished up all exercises in preparations for going home!
Today's Weigh in: 50.0 LBs
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