Frankie – 4 Week Journey

Training Begins: August 17th, 2024 | Training Ends: September 14th, 2024

Behaviors Frankie will learn or begin learning during her stay here:

BEHAVIOR	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3
Sit	Learning hand signal	Responsive to hand signal; learning verbal cue
Down	Being lured into a down	Following a hand signal that points directly to the ground
Name Recognition	Starting to respond to name	Responsive to name 80% of the time
Touch	Quickly touches nose to hand; very curious puppy!	Proficient in “touch”
Recalls	Very responsive to human voices and returning to human	Associating name with coming back to human
Go Into Crate	Hesitant to enter crate, but will follow food into crate	Will go into crate to wait for her bedtime snacks about 50% of the time; otherwise, eagerly follows snack into crate
Leash Walking	Introduced to wearing harness and leash	Dragging leash while being frequently rewarded for “heel” position
Place	Curiously jumps onto place and is rewarded	Runs to place when she sees it, happy to get her reward!
Stay	Began “stay” via feeding treats intermittently while she remained on her “place”	Started adding 1-2 steps to “stay” to add some distance
Drop It	Not Started	Not Started
Leave It	Not Started	Began “leave it” with treats in a closed hand
Wait	Not Started	Waiting for a “sit” before releasing from crate, playpen, or doors.

Frankie’s Midway Update

Frankie is a lovely girl who is energetic and full of spirit and fun! Frankie is afraid of very few things and has done a great job with socializing. Hardly anything fazes her and she has a lot of confidence around new situations. She needs some exercise in order to settle, and is still learning how to settle while people are wandering around the room but she is confined in a playpen or crate (she whines because she wants to be involved in everything!) Frankie is doing a great job sleeping overnight and is already sleeping for 6-7 hours in a row with no accidents in her crate. I anticipate Frankie will be sleeping through the entire night before she goes home. Frankie is quiet as can be when she is in the playpen for naps, and cannot see people. If she can see people, she has a much harder time settling as she wants to be able to get to everyone. As is typical for petites, she does not enjoy being alone and will do best transitioning to home by being in a crate located next to your bed for at least the first week, preferably for a couple of weeks before she is transitioned to wherever you would like to permanently place the crate. She is doing well so far in a separate room from me, but she is crated next to her sister. At the start of week three, Frankie and Bailey will no longer be able to see each other, and at the start of week four, their crates will be separated across the room from each other to begin transitioning to life without a puppy friend nearby. Don’t worry, Frankie will love your company just as much (honestly, probably much more!) and will appreciate you keeping her nearby as she transitions. Aside from struggling to not be involved in everything, Frankie has had very few challenges integrating into family life. She is doing well on a potty schedule (currently going potty every 20 minutes while active and playing) but has not yet shown any very obvious signs she needs to go potty. Don’t worry, this often takes a while to develop, often coinciding with them gaining full bladder control at around 4 months old. She is very quick to go potty when she gets taken outside, though, which makes those frequent potty breaks much easier! She has not had any accidents since her first couple of days here and is learning that going potty outdoors is the right place to go! Overall Frankie is a very fun, engaged puppy who is going to be an absolute joy for you to continue training. She is very people focused and loves her treats!