Willow | Aussie/Pit X | Torrance, CA | In Training
- Alex Kruse
- Mar 1
- 19 min read
Updated: Mar 21
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!
3/3/26
I took Willow to a park again to continue running through her basics. She was able to extend the length of time she holds her Sit and Down, her Recall is getting cleaner, and I was able to take the nose band of the Sidekick by the time we were finished with session. That turns the lead into just a simple slip leash, and she was doing great on that with only a few corrections to remind her not to pull. The only setback we had was that she freaked a little bit when we were passing by the bathrooms on the way back to the car. The hand dryer was on and she tried to scramble away like it was some sort of monster! I let her calm down, then walked her back towards the door and had her sit and just take some treats. She settled down once she realized nothing was coming to get her, and we were on our way!
She's doing a lot better around the house already too. I was able to get her out for playtime this morning with just my border collie for now, and she greeted one of our corgis through the fence to another run. Her hackles were up a little bit at first, but she calmed down pretty quickly after getting her sniffs out of the way. And today she was much better at getting into the car. There's still some forcing, but it was not the struggle that it was yesterday!
3/4/26
I have to hand it to her, Willow moves quick! It's been less than four days and we've gone through anxiety phase, clingy phase, pretty much just right phase, then today we hit the phase where she wanted to test every single thing I asked of her. She also backslid from yesterday on how she was doing in the play yard, so she didn't get as much time out with her new friends. But believe it or not, this is a good thing! It means her real personality is coming out more for me, which actually gives me the opportunity to assess where the issues are coming from. That'll better help me to use the proper training methods to correct her. The stubborn streak aside, she really didn't do too badly overall. I was able to shift her from the slip lead to her regular flat collar while we were out working, and then from there to the long line. There was some pushback on a few things, but she didn't try to drag me around at all, nor did she jump up on me. More impressive though, was when I was working with her on her Place on a park bench. She was up on the bench when these two little poms trotted right on over to say hi. I hollered at the owners that she wasn't friendly, which of course began the game of 'chase the small fluffy creatures around the field,' but she stayed up on the bench where I had her. I was holding her collar at that point just in case because she was definitely interested, but she didn't bark or make any attempts to jump down. She got a nice piece of cheese after that one!
3/5/26
Today was a much better than yesterday, but I took her somewhere out of her comfort zone again, so she was more interested in being clingy than stubborn today! We went to Home Depot where they allow dogs to work inside just so I could introduce her to new things. This is good exposure therapy for dogs with anxiety issues, so we kept the training aspects light in favor of making sure she knew she was safe and all the new smells and noises and sights weren't anything to be afraid of. I had her just on a flat collar, no slip lead this time, but she stuck with me on a nice Heel the entire time. She sat when I told her to, and got up on the dolly just fine (which admittedly surprised me considering how much she fought me on the bench yesterday!), but she did hesitate a little with the down. It's understandable considering where her headspace was at, but overall she actually did really well. I'll continue to get her out and into new spaces so she learns to trust the fact that I'm not going to lead her into her doom lol.
3/6/26
I took Willow out to the Library Park in Old Town Monrovia today. Normally there are more dogs walking that park, but of course none of them were out today! There were plenty of people we had to pass by though, so there was at least some level of new distraction. We ran through all her basic commands with her only on the flat collar and short leash today. She's still a little iffy on where she should be at the end of her Recall command, but will come immediately when I call her at least. She moved into her Sit, Down, and Place just fine. Again, we need to work on refining her body positioning, but that can all come in the next couple weeks. The fact that she's at the point already of being able to do all these things in an open park on just a flat collar, and with no treat lures, is really great. Considering where we started, she's already come a long way! We just have to keep seeking out places with dogs now. And speaking of, so while she hasn't been getting along with my dogs, who are generally pretty mellow, she has been very interested in my other training dog who is an American Bully. Their crates are next to each other and they've been getting friendly through them, and today they were chasing each other along the fence in their respective pens. I decided to give it a whirl and see how they did with one another, and they are now the best of friends! So she gets to have a playmate now for the remainder of her stay, which is great. She did amazing overall today!
3/7/26
I brought Willow out to a dog park to see her work around other dogs (not inside the play area, just outside the fence and adjoining field). There weren't as many dogs as I was hoping there would be for a Saturday morning, but there were enough to see if I'd get a reaction out of her. You see early on in the video when she first spotted the dogs through the fence she did attempt to tug forward, but she settled right down after a short correction and didn't try it again the entire rest of the time we were there. She was only on the flat collar, no training leads, and there were no treat distractions involved. She walked on her Heel and performed her Sits well for me when instructed despite other dogs being very close to her. We went to the field after to run her through the rest of her basic commands, and there were no issues on any of those aside from still trying to correct her body positioning on some of them. She had a really great day today, and is also continuing to enjoy her new friend at home too!
3/8/26
It took one solid week, but we finally did it! Willow jumped into the crate in the car all by herself with no coaxing and no pressure! She went in so fast it surprised me! And it wasn't a fluke because she did it again on the way back home from the park too! It seems like a silly thing to be excited over, but this 100% made my day! It means she finally realized that the car crate is a good thing, that whenever she gets into it we're going somewhere she'll like. It's really good to finally have that trust from her.
That all being said, I took her to the biggest park in the area with lots of grass, trees, sports areas, picnic tables, you name it. There were volleyball games going on that I didn't expect, so naturally I had to take her over there for some exposure and to see if she would react. She had no problems at all there, even with all the heightened activity. As we walked around I challenged her to perform all her commands, and she's improving on all of them. We did run across other dogs, so I spent some time just working on getting her to stay relaxed as we got near them. She seems to do just fine now if the other dogs don't pay attention to her, but she gets a little antsy if they're staring at her. We only had one instance where she did that little hop towards a dog like she did yesterday, but the dog barked at her first and she calmed down instantly upon being only verbally corrected. Overall she had a really fun, relaxing day!
3/9/26
Today we had a group practice with the other trainers and their dogs, and this was the first time Willow has been around so many dogs in a cluster out in the open. I kept her on the flat collar, prepared for those little jumps she's been giving me here and there, but she never even looked like she might lunge at another dog! At one point one of the labs that was off leash came running right in front of her and she didn't even flinch! She was really great with all the people too. They all took turns coming over to chat, just being casual, and one of the girls braved petting her. She was totally fine! The only thing she got weird about was doing her Place on the cot of all things, which she normally does just fine at home. She's clearly used to me having her do it on picnic tables when we're out and about since she had no issues doing that one for me! And she's continuing to hop into the crate in the car without any issues. I was really impressed with her today!
3/10/26
I gave Willow a big challenge today and took her inside the Santa Anita Mall. We weren't working with dogs today. I was more interested in how she would do around people. While she hasn't directly lunged at anyone while I've had her, I've noticed she does tense up and lock in when she thinks people are approaching her directly. In the mall, there is of course lots of that in the hallways, so I wanted her to get more comfortable in situations where she has to approach people and be approached head-on. She was nervous, of course, with all the new things in the environment, but she still did really well with all of it. Any time she even started to look like she was having questionable thoughts about anyone, I gave her a simple "Leave It" command and she settled right back into focusing on me and her Heel work. She was also able to give me all her other commands cleanly without hesitation despite being anxious. I took her during a time when it wasn't too busy, so next time we go I'll make sure there's even more traffic to expose her to. She really did great with it overall today, I'm proud of her!
3/11/26
Willow and I went out to Live Oak Park today to work on her long line more, and because I know there's a playground there that's usually pretty busy. I went during a time when things wouldn't be too crowded so we'd have some space if I needed to move her away from people quickly, but she showed me that I had nothing to worry about. There wasn't a single person she looked at funny, and she didn't mind the kids running around at all. On the way back to the car we did have a jogger run up right behind us, which startled her, but she didn't try to lunge towards him or anything. She just jumped a little and then continued on her way like it was no big deal. The only part she even semi-struggled with (aside from still refining her end position during her Recall) was now it seems instead of pulling ahead on her Heel, she was lagging behind a little. We went too far the other direction! It was a little warm today though, so I don't blame her for not wanting to hustle. I'll try her again at this park next time when it's the early morning hours and there's a lot more foot traffic and dogs. So far she's been passing all my expectations in how much exposure I can give her, so I have no doubt she'll ace it with a bigger crowd!
3/12/26
I moved everyone inside to beat the worst of the afternoon heat today, and then realized that for whatever reason, Willow was anxious in the small playroom. So naturally that meant let's have a session in there! I wanted to get her to focus up on me so she'd stop worrying over whatever had her worked up, and while it was a little bit of a slow start, she did begin giving me the commands when asked. It was also a good opportunity to show her work inside the home without a leash on. That way you know she's capable of doing these things while at home where you wouldn't typically have her leashed up. The only thing that had her a bit perplexed while we were working was the Heel. It was her first time doing that one off leash, plus we were doing little circles in a small space, so it wasn't as clean as it normally is. But she still managed it! When we did the Place at the end she realized that cot was right under the air conditioner, so when I gave her her release word, she chose to just stay right where she was and take a snooze! Which was really what I was aiming for anyway, for her to be comfortable in the room. She had no issues the rest of the time she was in there!
3/13/26
We headed back to Live Oak Park today earlier in the morning in hopes of catching more traffic. There were definitely a lot more people! Still not nearly as many dogs as I was hoping to come across, but we did pass a rowdy little Bichon that was lunging and barking at Willow. I slowed that section of video down so you can see how much Willow did not react. What was even better is that you can see I'm not holding the leash for the most part. I have it clipped to my belt for safety, and I did hold it lightly as we were passing the dog just in case, but otherwise she was following my cues without me being hands-on at all. She kept at her Heel, was able to do her sits, downs and her recall, and didn't make a move towards any of the people despite how active they all were. And I never had to touch the buttons on the e-collar either. She did all of that with verbal and hand signals alone. She's really shaped up over the last couple weeks!
3/14/26
Of all the shiny, new, loud and busy places I've taken Willow, I was surprised to find that she was the most anxious I've seen her at PetSmart of all places! I had to walk her through the aisles several times just letting her sniff and explore before she calmed down enough to actually work her on her commands. Once we got there she was doing well, but I had to take the corners of the aisles slow and wide as she seemed nervous about not being able to see what might be on the other side. Still, she was able to follow through on her commands, she didn't try to eat anyone, and that one picture I could grab without posing her has a teeny little fluff in the background. She's usually most interested in the busy little dogs, but she hardly even looked at that one. She was interested in the guinea pigs and the fish though. They distracted her enough to actually take her mind off the nerves for a few minutes at least! She got her cookie on the way out and seemed pretty happy with that, so maybe next time she goes she won't be so worried!
3/15/26
I took Willow to the Santa Fe Dam today. On a Sunday afternoon. That means I threw everything I could think of at her to see if she'd react. Everything. There were parties all over the place, kids running, people grilling, people playing all sorts of really active games, lots of other dogs, bikes, fishermen, scooters, and geese. She didn't react in a negative way to a single thing. I even made a point to go out of my way intentionally to take her closer to any dog I saw, and she only ever looked with interest even if they were barking and lunging at her! I'm scratching my head a little at how all of this was totally fine with her today, but she was so nervous at the pet store yesterday when nothing was going on! Whatever it is, she doesn't have any issues at parks anymore it seems, even when I gave her the full length of the line to let her run around for a little while too. She passed this session with flying colors!
3/16/26
We wandered out to the outdoor promenade of the Santa Anita Mall today just to get her back into that busier shopping center environment. The music was loud and there were a surprising amount of little kids running around for a random Monday afternoon, but she kept her cool regardless. One of the automatic doors startled her a little as she was sitting near it, but she only jumped slightly and then shook it off as if she were thinking, "You didn't see that." We worked quite a bit on her extended Sits and Downs on the long line, which was actually a good test for her because for some reason at this particular mall everyone just crowds right past people and dogs without really paying attention. So some of the shoppers walked pretty close by her without her having any reaction to them. There was one guy coming up behind me that she was looking at with a little too much hesitation so I called her in before he could get too close, and she came right over without giving him a second glance. There were also other dogs walking through, large and small, that she barely looked at. It was just a nice, relaxed little shopping excursion!
3/17/26
It got hot early today, so we headed back to the mall to work inside where it was nice and cool, but I could still give her the level of distractions she's been used to lately. It actually worked out well because apparently other people had the same idea with their dogs. We walked by many a small, yappy creature, and she didn't react to any of them! I ran her through all her main commands for the video all in one go today, and she was able to do that with no problems on the first take. That very first man who passed us in the food court, though, you can't see from the back but she did tense up as she turned her head towards him. I was quick on the Leave It command, and she snapped right back inline, no problem, but it is a really good example of needing to continually watch her body language when she's encountering new people or dogs. She may not have intended to actually do anything, but the signs were present that might've been thinking about it, so it's important to stay on top of that when she's in close quarters with someone or something she may decide she doesn't like. She's become very responsive to her cues and corrections, though, so she should be totally fine as long as she gets those reminders that you're there, you can handle it, and she has nothing to worry about!
3/18/26
Today we're showing off a little bit of what Willow can do in the house. These are just a few of her expected manners generally working on her impulse control. The first is the car manners where the dog is asked to sit and wait before jumping into the car. In this case it was less about the sitting and waiting and more about showing how much she really doesn't mind getting into that crate anymore! Right in she goes, no hesitation! She's also been the same way with her overnight crate. I'll have her just out in the bedroom cruising around but she'll pick up a chew or toy and still choose to go hang out inside the crate on her bed. She likes the sense of safety it gives her, which same, I'm an introvert too lol! The other manners shown are her ability to sit and wait at the door before going out, even if it's left wide open. People should be able to go in and out without worrying about her darting after them. And then last is waiting before she's allowed to eat. I actually put cheese in that bowl which is one of her favorite things, so she was having to fight her impulses to jump up and to dive for the bowl more than usual. She's a pro at all three of these now!
3/19/26
So yesterday we did her Wait manners. Today I wanted to show what I know were some general home concerns. First I put her in her Place on her cot and just moved about the house around her. I did a couple small things in the kitchen (opening the fridge, cabinets, turning on the faucet, etc. Pretended to watch TV, went into the hallway, and went outside a couple times. The second time I rang the doorbell and there was only a minor reaction from her, which was great! After that I put her in her Place again and had my friend knock on the door and come in. Willow was clearly a little more alert, especially when the knock came, but she kept on her cot and watched with interest as I had my friend go to the couch, get up, walk past her, etc. While Willow is capable of behaving and holding her Place when people come over, her body language is still a little tense, so I recommend keeping an eye on her still just in case anyone does something she doesn't like. If she's going to be out while guests are over (especially newer ones), I still recommend everyone move a little slower, give her space, and stay seated more than moving around just so she can get comfortable. Once she's decided the person or people aren't a threat she's fine, but give her that time to acclimate before throwing too much at her. She's not a mean dog, just a little nervous, so working with her on that can go a long way!
3/20/26
Today I took Willow out to Rotary Park, which is my favorite park to start working on off-leash manners. It's the only park I know of that is fully fenced in but that isn't a dog park, so if the dogs take off on me, they have nowhere to go. I didn't do too much with it since we haven't worked much on hands-free outside of the home and that one day at the park where she was tied to me, but I think with some more practice she could do alright with it. I worked on the long line and did a few of her commands with me lightly holding the end of it, and then I dropped it altogether so she was dragging it behind. She was a little iffy on her Heel at first when she realized she was no longer attached, but with a couple corrections she got the idea. She also went back to being uncertain of her final position of the Recall without the leash guidance, so she would need more practice on that one for sure off leash, but otherwise she had everything else down. For a little while a lady with another dog even came in and Willow didn't react at all or try to run over to it. And when I brought her back home my roommates had some friends over, but she just pranced on by with her tail wagging at everyone who said hello! She was a happy girl all around today.
3/21/26
It's our last pupdate in your three week program! I took Willow to the park one more time today for mostly just a fun session. We of course worked on all her commands, but I let her have a lot of free run time (still on the long line, but let her generally just decide what she wanted to do). She mostly just sniffed around a lot and then chose a shady place to chill out in, which fair lol. A few other dogs came by and she just watched them casually, no guarding or reactive behaviors, and enjoyed her morning in the grass.
In general, Willow has been a sweet, loving addition to our home over the last three weeks. While there were a few hiccups early on while she was adjusting, she settled in well and seemed to really enjoy hanging out with us and her chosen dog bestie. She plays nicely, she adjusted to the crate very quickly, she's smart, and mostly just wants to be loved on. Her anxiety around new things, while not extreme, is still going to be a factor in her day to day life. A little patience with her and letting her adjust to places, people and things she doesn't quite trust on her own time helps a lot. And if she seems extremely uncomfortable with a situation, it's best to simply remove her from it than trying to force her to like it. She's a fantastic dog all around, and we're certainly going to miss her at our house. I want to thank you so much for trusting me with your baby and for letting me be a part of her learning journey!
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