A focused week of training brought strong progress for Nakina, with improvements in obedience, CGC work, and growing confidence in new challenges.
🐾 Lots of Training
This week brought strong, focused progress, with Nakina showing increased consistency across both training and classes.
Training
Nakina is doing very well with both Emergency Stop and Hand Targeting, showing solid understanding and focus.
She also performed well in both her Advanced Beginner and CGC (Canine Good Citizen) classes. The only area that proved challenging was the CGC separation exercise, which was expected at this stage. This week, we’ll take a step back and reintroduce it more gradually, likely incorporating food to help build confidence and ease.
We also had a private lesson with her CGC trainer, where Nakina’s focus was exceptional and really highlighted the progress she is making.
Socialization
We still need to continue working on calm, appropriate greetings with both people and other dogs, as her excitement can sometimes be a bit too high.
With the travel crate, I can now zip it about halfway closed without any stress. We’ll continue gradually building toward fully closing it. I also introduced a second travel crate without a zipper, which she is already very comfortable using.
What's Next
- Down vs. settle — continue creating a clear distinction
- Stay — increase distance, duration, and distractions
- Recall — continue on leash in more distracting environments
- Travel Crate — zipping with no stress
- Grooming — begin grooming desensitization on the table
- Continue elevator desensitization
We are back in a strong training rhythm and continuing to build meaningful, steady progress.