Nova is a 6-month old Cockapoo from Fremont, CA who attended our 3-Week Advanced Off-Leash Obedience Training Camp.

Nova was born during covid and therefore was lacking real life experiences and confidence. She also didn’t know how to walk on a leash and would pull her owner’s down the street. She had selective listening and her family struggled with her being unruly and wild.

The first week of training Nova was taught: sit with built in stay, down with built in stay, heel, leash walking, come when called, and place. She was very eager to learn and loved earning her food rewards! After she was taught with food and understood a slip lead was used to teach leash pressure then we gradually introduced low level e-collar pressure for off leash reliability.

As Nova gained confidence from doing many outings and being kept in a calm and focused state around dogs and people, her barking decreased. She practiced a lot around dogs and people in all kinds of environments to work her brain and expand her ability to pay attention reliably with distraction.

Nova started out afraid and reactive with new people. She was insecure and had a hard time paying attention to anything but her fear. Through practice focusing she overcame much of her fearful behavior, only occasionally getting uncomfortable. She learned to look to her handler for guidance through situations that she previously felt like she needed to defend herself in.