Dog’s Name: Ace
Gender: Male
Age: 2 years
Breed: Pit Mix
Owner: Virgin Pagan
Location: Philadelphia
Trainer: Liliana Carpano
Package Provided: House Call 5 Pack
Virgin did a 3 week boot camp with Suburban K9 Philadelphia in November/December. She is a double amputee that lives in a room in her mother’s house. They can’t afford ramps and other accommodations so Virgin and Ace are unable to go into the other parts of the house due to its layout. They are restricted to a room, a hall, and the small concrete yard. Ace was a very anxious dog who we worked on being calmer in the home, being able to heel calmly by a wheelchair in public, off leash obedience so his mom would have a way to tire him out, and more.
Virgin unexpectedly had a surgery immediately after Ace’s boot camp and wasn’t able to do a follow up session for a couple months. By that point she still hadn’t recovered so we worked with her 15 year old daughter (the third family member in the house). Ace had been regressing due to this lag in follow up sessions. Originally we had hoped to be able to have extra sessions to do task training or work with him more in public, but now she just wants him to be in a better place in terms of training (recover from the regression and continue to advance his skills).
Summary of 1st Lesson: On the first Gives Back session, we worked primarily on the place command. When Ace stayed with me, we had worked heavily on “place” and “crate” on command for a distance, with duration, so that his mother could easily move him out of the way and give him somewhere specific to go to allow her to maneuver comfortably. However we had not yet reviewed “place” due to her being in the hospital after the go home session and not working together for a few months, so we refreshed Ace on “place” and advanced it to the point where he could be inside the room with her, and if she’d say “place” he’d go down the hall, outside, and onto the place cot to wait until release.
Summary of 2nd Lesson: On the second Gives Back session we met at their house and started off the bat with dog passes. During his boot camp Ace started off incredibly skittish then by the end he did well with passing people and dogs, almost never barking. We had both Millie and Jada (her daughter) practice until they felt comfortable and confident. Then we all walked to a nearby park and passed a TON of people, kids, loud music, etc. He did ok on the way there and AMAZING on the way home at the end of the session. At the park we found a quiet area and worked on off leash obedience with long line and ecollar. He did well for his mom, just some crooked sits on “come”, but consistently required a correction from Jada. He did well around all the kids, which has been a trigger for him the past (they scare him) but he listened well around a large group playing nearby!
Summary of 3rd Lesson: On our third Gives Back session, we worked on Ace being reactivite along fences while walking in the alleyway. In addition, Ace did awesome at not barking or breaking his place command with people walking by. Millie got more comfortable with the e-collar and worked on a lot of off leash commands with Ace on a long line. He is doing awesome and slowly but surely will no longer need the long line. Finally, we worked on place out of sight, and although he struggled a bit, he ended with success!
Summary of 4th Lesson: On our fourth Gives Back session, we worked at a nearby park with Ace’s off leash obedience. We worked without a long line for the first time around distraction such as kids (who used to scare him), swing sets, other dogs, cyclists, people playing at a nearby water park, and other general passers by. Amadeus, his Australian Shepherd friend, was also there as a distraction and as part of his socialization. Ace did well holding stays while he went out of sight and practicing recall from distractions, the one weakness that we worked on was that he preferred to face his distraction after a recall rather than face mom, but with some repetition and practice he improved a lot by the end!
Summary of 5th Lesson: For the final gives back session we did a little behavior set up before we went to film videos. Ace got out the other day through the fence when it was accidentally left open to run towards a small dog, so I walked past several times with a small dog to help Millie practice the timing of when to redirect his attention. After that we headed to the park to film footage of Jada and Millie walking Ace there, working with him off leash on obedience and the park, and walking him back.
