Even during a slower week, Nakina made meaningful progress — building confidence, independence, and calm focus.

🐾 Slow Week

I was still sick this week, but as I began to feel a little better, we were able to make some progress.

Training

Nakina now responds to both a hand signal and a verbal cue for “down.” She continues to make steady progress learning to walk nicely on leash. For now, we are primarily working indoors, as outside distractions are still a bit too challenging for her at this stage.

Socialization

We made great progress with elevators this week. Nakina can now calmly walk into an elevator, remain relaxed while the doors close and open, and exit calmly. Our next step will be taking a short ride.

We also spent time helping her become comfortable being alone in the house while in her playpen. She now enters it happily and shows no stress when we leave or while we are gone. We’ll continue to extend her alone time gradually.

What's Next

• Sit — duration, distance, and distractions
• Down — duration, distance, and distractions
• Grooming — desensitizing to the Dremel
• Walking — calm leash walking on the left without pulling
• Continue elevator desensitization

With the holidays here, Nakina has been handling decorations and schedule changes beautifully. She’s proving to be very flexible. With both of my sons visiting this week, she’ll certainly get plenty of activity and hopefully we can squeeze in some training as well.