Zoe| Pitbull mix| Los Angeles, CA| In-Training

Meet Zoe a 5-year-old Pit Bull mix from Los Angeles, CA, and she has joined Offleash SoCal for our 3-Week Reactive Program!

Zoe is an incredibly sweet girl who loves people and enjoys getting out to explore on walks. However, her excitement often turns into pulling on the leash, making walks difficult and less enjoyable for her owners. While she's very friendly with people, Zoe struggles around larger dogs and has developed a habit of reacting and lunging aggressively when she sees them.

Over the next three weeks, we'll be focusing on improving her leash manners, teaching reliable basic obedience, building calm and positive exposure around other dogs, and reinforcing good house manners. We're excited to help Zoe become a more confident, well-mannered companion and can't wait to share her progress. Stay tuned for her transformation!

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Pupdate 8/2/26

Since today was Zoe's first day with me, I decided to keep things simple and take a walk around the neighborhood to give her plenty of time to acclimate to her new surroundings and get comfortable with me as her trainer. She definitely started our walk with lots of heavy pulling, but I wasn't too worried, knowing she would quickly begin to understand that pulling wasn't the way to get where she wanted to go.

After about 15–20 minutes of walking, we headed back home for our first short training session. Since Zoe is currently healing from a hot spot, I wanted to avoid overdoing it and instead focus on her biggest challenge—her leash pulling. With a properly fitted prong collar, I taught Zoe that pulling wasn't the right choice. Rather than correcting her myself, anytime she decided to pull, I simply pivoted and changed directions. If she chose to continue walking straight, she would end up correcting herself. It was really rewarding to see how quickly she caught on and began paying attention to me instead of trying to decide where we were going.

To keep the session fun and engaging, we also introduced the beginning stages of Extended Sit and Come to Sit. Zoe is a very smart girl and picked up on what I was asking surprisingly quickly. Overall, it was a fantastic first day, and I'm excited to continue building her confidence and watching her grow over the next three weeks. Great job today, Zoe!

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