Willow | Aussie/Pit X | Torrance, CA | In Training
- Alex Kruse
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
Meet Willow! She's a 1.5-year-old Aussie/Bully Breed Mix from Torrance, California, and she's here for our Three Week Reactive Board and Train Program. Willow is sweet, but she's very anxious, and that tends to lead to reactive responses towards strangers and towards other dogs when she's on leash. She's had previous training, but she's very selective on whether or not she'll follow commands and on how long she holds them for. She's also a major puller on the leash! Over the next three weeks we'll do some confidence building work with her, reteach her old commands and give her some new ones, and show her that she has to follow them on our time, not on hers. We'll also work on some proper greeting manners, and definitely get her nice and solid on her Heel. Stay tuned for Willow's three-week transformation!
3/1/26
Willow was really quiet and calm for me on the ride home, and was very curious about everything when she hopped out of the car, but she's definitely still pretty anxious. I took her on a walk over to my local park to test out her commands, and while she did give me her Sit pretty nicely most times I asked, that was about the only thing she would do. I think once we curb some of the anxiety some she'll start catching on, so we're going to take it a little slow and start with the easy things while she adjusts to her new environment. I didn't try her with the other dogs today just because, again, the anxiety. I've had her in the house where she can go in and out at will, and things are a bit quieter so she can take her time to relax. She's been really sweet with me handling her, no problem, and she hasn't barked at the other dogs or any people. She's also taking treats, which is a good sign. She's not that anxious to override her food motivation! I'm sure she'll acclimate fairly quickly, and then I'll get a chance to work with her real personality!
3/2/26
Willow and I went out to a park just to warm up some of her old commands where there wouldn't be too many distractions. We focused mostly on her Heel today, and I used a Sidekick from Heather's Heroes to give me a little bit of an advantage over her strength. She took very well to it with only a little bit of trying to paw it off her nose, then she pretty much fell into step with very little issues. I also teach them to sit any time I stop walking, and she was picking that up very quickly! Outside of that we worked on her general Sit and Down, and a little on extending the time she's held in both. I began teaching her the Recall too where she has to come around and sit on the Heel side when she's called, and she started to get that with very little assistance. She's very smart once she gets over the anxiety! Now getting her to the park was a whole different challenge. She fought getting into that crate in the car as if I was asking her to do the scariest thing in the world! I was hoping she would be better about it today since she actually did sleep just fine in the crate overnight, but it was not to be. Getting her back into the car when we were leaving the park went much faster, though, so I'm hoping she'll learn very quickly that getting into that means she gets to go out somewhere fun! Outside of that, she's taken to me quickly enough and is already rolling over for me to get some belly rubs. It's a huge improvement over yesterday!
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