Meet Yuki! She's a seven month old Golden Retriever from Long Beach, California here for our Two-Week Board and Train Program. Yuki is a super sweet and friendly pup, however, she has issues with following basic commands. She also loves to pull on her leash, jump on people, and pees when she's excited or nervous. Over the next fourteen days, we'll work with Yuki on her obedience skills, confidence, show her how to properly greet people, and help Yuki become the best pup she can possibly be! Stay tuned for Yuki's two week transformation!
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Pupdate: 5/14/2023
After picking up Yuki, we hung around Bell Gardens Park to get to know each other. She's a very sweet pup, and she seemed to take a liking to me quickly. After the park, we went home! Yuki was a bit nervous to walk up my stairs, but got through it with a little coaxing. I let her sniff around my house and get used to staying here! It seems like she's adjusting well and settling in nicely. Yuki also asked me to wish you a happy mother's day from your furry little girl!
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Pupdate: 5/15/2023
Yuki went to South Park for training today! We started off fairly easy and began working on her Sit command as well as her Heel command. She's a little nervous being out in the world, she did a great job on these commands for her first full day. She seems to like me a lot, but she's still settling in as far as being comfortable in these new environments. She didn't have any issues sticking close to me while walking around the park. Later this evening, we will be walking to the park near my house to get a little more exposure to the outside world before the day is over!
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Pupdate: 5/16/2023
Yuki and I spent the morning and evening at the park! It was a little hot, so we went home for the middle of the day. Yuki has been improving her Heel fairly quickly. We started working on her Come To Sit also! For Come To Sit, I want her to come to my right side, walk around my legs and sit at my left with her ears at my knee. She is picking up this command very well. As far as Yuki's demeanor, she was still a bit nervous while walking around the park, but not too bad! The most notable incident was when we walked past a vendor selling snacks, and Yuki pulled away from his cart very hard. After this happened we walked back by the cart and she started to walk normally after a few passes! Yuki piddled a little bit when I first let her out of her crate this morning. I believe it was a submissive response, so I think building her confidence will help with this!
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Pupdate: 5/17/2023
Yuki and I went to Garfield Park today for training! She did a good job with the commands she's learned so far. She has a hard time holding her sit for very long, as she usually wants to sit, and then get up to move closer to me. Her goal is going to be to hold her sit for about two minutes around distractions. She made some good progress today, but she still has a long way to go! Her Come To Sit, however, is getting very good very quickly. Great job Yuki! No piddles so far today!
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Pupdate: 5/18/2023
Yuki went to the Santa Monica Promenade today for training! She's been getting more comfortable at parks but this was a big increase in difficulty for her. She started on her Place command today and her Down command. Placing her on the ledge next to the fountain took a lot of time and coaxing, but she finally succeeded and once she did she would hop back up with no trouble. She remained uncomfortable, though, and any time I tried to create distance between her and myself, she would stand up and try to come to me. By the end of the day, I was able to take several steps away without her moving, but I'd like to increase that distance, as well as the time she's able to hold any given position
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Pupdate: 5/19/2023
Yuki and I went to Home Depot today for training! She was fairly nervous, especially in the high distraction areas like the lumber section. She really didn't like the carts and noises at all, and had a hard time with some of her commands and holding her positions there. While in the garden center, she did much better though! She calmed down a little and seemed more comfortable in that quiet section.
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Pupdate: 5/20/2023
Yuki and I went to Almansor Park today for training. She behaved well, although she was still a little nervous in the more noisy areas, such as the basket ball courts. She started to calm down after a while, and I decided to start working through her commands with the leash dragging. Allowing the leash to drag gives me some idea of how she might perform off leash while still having access to the leash should I need it. As you can see in the above video, she's doing well with this! One of the things she still struggles with is her ability to hold her positions for longer than a few seconds, but she made a lot of progress today.
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Pupdate: 5/21/2023
Yuki and I went to Almansor Park today! She continued to practice her commands with the leash dragging. It was a little more crowded today than it was yesterday, so Yuki had slightly more difficulty performing her commands. Her Heel and her Come To Sit are still spectacular even when she's nervous, but she has trouble with anything that involves her being away from me. I'm continuing to have her Place on various objects and I'm trying to be as encouraging as possible to raise her confidence! She piddled just a little bit this morning when we first woke up.
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Pupdate: 5/22/2023
Yuki and I went to the Santa Monica Pier today! She was very nervous, but she actually did better than I expected. I held the leash for a lot of the time, but there were several instances when I felt comfortable letting her leash drag. Each time I did, she followed through and succeeded even though she was clearly uncomfortable. The above video was taken fairly early on in our time at the pier. She performs her commands well throughout the video, but has trouble holding her Down position. There are two times in the video when someone stops to pet Yuki. When someone asks, I tell them that, "she's a little nervous but very friendly." She backs away a little when the person approaches but then sniffs them and allows them to pet her. As the day went on, Yuki got a little more comfortable in the area. The crowded pier was a big leap in difficulty for Yuki, so I think she did a good job!
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Pupdate: 5/23/2023
Yuki and I went to Whittier Narrows Park today for training! She was off leash for a lot of the time. There were several other dogs around, but Yuki managed to mostly focus on me and her commands. There were several times when Yuki wanted to break her commands to try to say hi to another dog, or try to get closer to me, but she generally did a good job! She still tends to get nervous in a lot of environments, so I'm going to take it slow and be very careful if I take her leash off anywhere more crowded than this park. No piddle accidents today!
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Pupdate: 5/24/2023
Yuki spent the day off leash at Almansor Park. Many more distractions were present today, the most difficult for Yuki being the geese and ducks! She managed to mostly ignore the distractions and did a wonderful job with her commands. There was one time someone ran up behind us and she was startled by she quickly regained her focus and maintained her position by my side. In the above video, Yuki performs her commands well off leash, but her biggest improvement is her ability to hold her Place on the rock. She manages to hold it for a full two minutes with the presence of geese, ducks, other dogs and other people nearby. She's doing much better with this than she'd been doing previously. She had a little piddle incident today, but her piddles are becoming less frequent.
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Pupdate: 5/25/2023
Yuki went to the Santa Monica Pier today! She spent some of the time on leash and some of the time off leash. She was quite nervous, but managed to respond to her commands nonetheless! When we first arrived at the pier, she seemed a little overwhelmed by all the activity, so we kept her leash on. After about an hour she started to get a little more comfortable and I allowed the leash to drag and then took it all the way off. While off leash, she walked with me very nicely, although she would still look around nervously at most people who got too close too quickly. At first she didn't want to hold her sit, down and place positions for very long but she started to settle into them after a few tries! No piddle accidents today!
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Pupdate: 5/25/2023
Yuki went to Santa Anita Mall today for training! The outside areas weren't very populated and she did an amazing job. She was a bit nervous at first but pretty quickly calmed down and performed well. The inside areas were more densely packed and she had a tougher time but still did great. Several people wanted to stop and pet her, and of those people she shied away from a few of them, but allowed several to interact with her with only a little hesitation. Great job, Yuki! Also no piddles today!
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Pupdate: 5/27/2023
Yuki went to Almansor Park for her last full day of training! She had a mostly relaxing day, but she still worked hard and got some playtime. She behaved at the park and did a great job with each command. She was still a little nervous when someone approached her too quickly, but generally she seemed much more confident than she was a week, or even just a few days ago. For her video today, I wanted to go over the household manners we've been working on! For food manners, I want Yuki to wait for her food until I release her. I should be able to place food right in front of her without her trying to gobble it up immediately. She loves the chicken she's been getting, so this one started out difficult, but she's gotten good at it! For door manners, I want Yuki to patiently sit when I open the door without trying to rush out before me. We practice this each time we leave or enter, so she's good with this! For car manners, I want Yuki to hop into my car and walk directly into her kennel when asked. After she built up a little confidence, she had no trouble jumping into the car! For greeting manners, I want Yuki to sit nicely when a stranger approaches her and pets her. This one is the most difficult for Yuki, and she still needs a lot of encouragement to be okay with some strangers, especially if they approach quickly. For Yuki, when someone asks to pet her, we should tell the person she's very friendly, but nervous and ask them to approach calmly to pet her. Yuki is such a sweetheart, I've loved having her at home, and I'm going to miss working with her each day.
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