Puppy Training in Atlanta with Lucy

Lucy was a sweet dog dealing with a few very common, but troubling, behavior problems. At the top of the list: housebreaking and recall.

Housebreaking, of course, is the ability of an owner to have their dog eliminate when and where they’d like. Failure to housebreak a dog can create a pretty frustrating and smelly problem.

Recall is the ability of an owner to let their dog run around off-leash and have the dog return immediately at their command. It takes some time to teach this basic obedience command, but it’s very necessary.

The other day, I saw a dog run across a busy highway. The dog made it across okay, but it was scary to watch. It had a collar on; it belonged to someone and had obviously run off. If that someone had taken the time to teach their dog a recall command, that dog could have avoided a very dangerous situation.

I offer puppy training in Atlanta, and Luckily, Lucy’s owners called me to nip these problems in the bud.

During the in-home consultation, I noticed Lucy lacked the focus she needed to reliably obey her owner’s commands. She understood “sit” but didn’t always listen. To fix this, the owner will need to work with Lucy every day on-leash until she learns the very basic “sit,” “down,” and “stay” commands. (My plan here, as it usually is, would be to work with Lucy in her home environment first, making it more likely that she can do these things successfully, before moving the training to more distracting environments.)  Once these are mastered on-leash, she’s proven her ability to focus, and her owner has proven his ability to provide consistent correction and encouragement, we will be able to teach Lucy the “come” command.   (Here’s a video of a colleague I work with who offers a puppy training program very similar to mine)

As for Lucy’s housebreaking problem, I observed two spots where she seemed to like going the most. All dogs are different, but in this case, the solution is crate training. Lucy is already somewhat trained to spend time in the crate, but rather than seeing the crate as her den, as her safe space, she gets anxious when left alone. We’ll work on building her confidence and understanding of the crate as a calm place. And, since she will eventually see the crate as her place, a place she’ll enjoy spending time and want to respect, she’ll be reluctant to make a mess. We’ll get her on a consistent elimination schedule, introduce more exercise, and get Lucy’s training back on track.

These methods are reliable, but they should be customized for each dog’s age, size, temperament, breed, and environment. If you’re in the Atlanta, Georgia area, call Peachtree Dog Training today at 800.649.7297 or use my contact form to set up your in-home training consultation and get your dog back on track just like Lucy.