Athena – 6 Week Journey

Training Begins: March 4th, 2025 | Training Ends: April 15th, 2025

Behaviors Athena will learn or begin learning during his stay here:

BEHAVIOR	3.5 Weeks In Training
Sit	Athena is starting to do a really good job with “sit”. She sits on a verbal cue very well now and also auto sits for a lot of things (such as treats and attention). Oftentimes you do have to be patient if she is wound up, but she does offer it quite readily now.
Down	Athena does a natural “down” a lot, but is not yet responding to a verbal cue. She will follow a finger point directly to the ground, though!
Name Recognition	Athena responds to her name at least 90% of the time.
Touch	Athena touches my hand readily.
Recalls	Athena has come a long way with her recalls and responds to nearly all of them now. The only time she struggles is when she is playing with other dogs.
Go Into Crate	Athena is doing a wonderful job with her crate. When it is nap or bedtime, she runs right to it anticipating her treat. She doesn’t make a peep anymore when going to bed and is sleeping for around 2-3 hours at a time during the day and sleeps all night.
Leash Walking	Athena is still learning how to walk on a leash. She is comfortable with the leash and harness now, but has a hard time following me for longer than a couple of minutes at a time. I have to use a very high value treat (usually canned dog food or turkey does the trick) to hold her attention. She is very much a “Ok I did the thing, bye now!” puppy and has a hard time maintaining focus for more than one or two repetitions of anything, which makes heeling challenging for her. As she matures this will get easier. I recommend having her on a long line when outside as much as possible so she has room to sniff, explore, and get her zoomies out and isn’t practicing pulling on the leash. Keeping heel sessions to around 2 minutes at a time for now until she’s more interested in training will be helpful.
Place	Athena was afraid of the “place” cot when I first got her and now eagerly jumps onto it. Keeping her on it, however, is challenging since she likes to hop up, sit, get her treat, and immediately take off. I am working on building duration with all of her skills.
Stay	Stay is something Athena struggles with because of her wanting to be doing everything at once (she wants to play, run around, and train all at the same time, which doesn’t work well with stay!) but we are making slow progress with this. Right now I am just working on her holding a sit, so I have her sit, pause several seconds, then treat her. I’m also moving my foot back and forth to start heading in the direction of actually moving away from her.
Drop It	Athena LOVES to tug and is starting to do “drop it” very well! Oftentimes all I have to do is say “drop it” and she will drop the toy right away. If she doesn’t, saying “drop it”, pausing, and presenting her with a treat will cause her to drop it.
Leave It	The hardest part about “leave it” with Athena isn’t her ability to “leave it” but for her to stay for the training session for leave it. She gets bored quickly and wanders off when she can’t get the treats out of my hand. I am able to get a few repetitions before she gets bored.
Wait	Athena is making progress waiting at gates, but she’s a sassy girl! She will often bark at me instead of wanting to sit. I wait her out and eventually it happens, but this is one she struggles with because of her lack of patience.
Potty Training	Athena has done a good job with potty training on a schedule. She currently goes out about every 30 minutes while active and playing, and about every hour while she is on the more relaxed side (chewing on toys/bones or just following me around but not being energetic). She could probably hold it longer but she drinks a lot while she’s active which is leading to her needing more frequent potty breaks. She has only had a couple of accidents with me, and she does give some subtle signs she needs to go (such as walking in circles, whining when in her playpen, and frantically trying to get out of gates or doorways). When crated or in her playpen she holds it for 2-3 hours.

Athena’s Midway Update

You have such a happy, carefree girl here! Athena is all about having fun and loving life. She loves toys a lot and plays with nearly anything, but she absolutely LOVES the flirt pole which is going to be a great tool to help wear her out. The flirt pole is such a fun toy because it gets them physical exercise while also working their mind through asking them to “drop it” and having them sit before moving the toy around again. I will have her chase it, let her tug on it for a little after she catches it (always make sure she catches it pretty quickly while chasing it so it remains fun), and then have her “drop it” and hold the toy end in my hand while I treat her for dropping it. Then I ask her to “sit” and then say “ok, get it!” before dropping the toy back on the ground and starting the chase again! She really loves this game.

Athena is also doing a really good job listening to recalls outside and does a lot of running and playing with intermittent training, which seems to be the best way to do training sessions with her since she loses interest in just training really quickly. Ill play with her for a bit and then take an intermission for 1-2 minutes to do some training, play for a while again, then a bit of training, etc. to sprinkle training throughout her play sessions rather than asking her to focus for long stretches. As she matures she will start to enjoy training sessions more, she’s just such a busy puppy!

The biggest thing I’m working on with Athena is her learning that sitting still is when she gets rewarded. She has a hard time doing this, but has made a lot of progress in such a short time. When I first got her, her “sit” and “down” included a lot of flailing around and throwing her feet around, and now she will offer far more still behaviors far more quickly. Remember when you are working with her to not reward her for a sit that includes throwing her feet around, only a sit with all four feet on the ground counts (and make sure to treat her while she remains in the sit – if she pops up when you go to treat her, she needs to sit back down).

Athena is a very smart puppy – all of her challenges are more so because she’s also a very excited puppy, but she picks up on things really quickly. She picked up on going to her placemat (the mat on the ground) in just a few short sessions. A lot of patience in her training sessions, giving her time to get her energy out before doing a training session, and understanding that she will mature and calm down over time will go a long way with this girl. She has made a lot of progress already and with her intelligence I have no doubts as she starts to settle down all of this early training will really start to click into place.

Athena is a shy puppy when first meeting new people or first going into new environments. She says hi to people on our outings but is definitely more on the shy side as she greets in a more cautious manner (often crawling to say hi instead of leaping at people). Continue exposing her to many new things in a positive way and she will continue to gain confidence. It is such an odd contrast for her to have so much energy but also be shy – usually the energetic puppies are also super outgoing! As long as she is allowed to adjust and say hi on her own, though, she has always warmed up quickly.

The only other “challenge” with Athena is she can be quite loud when she’s upset. I am uncertain how she will do being left home alone for most of the day, but she may get vocal on and off when she wakes up from her naps. I do recommend a playpen with the crate in it and a potty area (pee pad holders where she cannot actually reach the pee pad are best) with some sturdy toys in it so she can occupy herself. The other alternative would be having your dog walker stay with her for an hour instead of 30 minutes, at least for one of the sessions. I feel she would do ok with you wearing her out before you leave, 2-3 hours in the crate, dog walker for an hour, 2 hours in the crate, dog walker for 30 minutes, and then back in until you get home. If you have neighbors who could visit her that would be beneficial too. These goldendoodles (especially as puppies) can get anxious with long stretches of alone time. She is managing 3 hours in the crate when needed here just fine, but I do think she’s going to need a couple of good exercise sessions to make that work ok for her while she’s so young and spunky. Here our schedule is typically up for 1-2 hours in the morning, 2 hour nap, up for an hour, 2 hour nap, up for an hour, 2 hour nap, and then up for a few hours in the evenings, if that schedule helps at all for planning while you’re at work! I am always gone during their nap times so they are used to no one being around during those times and I check in on them with a security camera and Athena has been doing great for 2 (and sometimes 3) hour stretches but she is getting an hour in between those sessions to be out. Usually by the time they are about 5 months old they are doing fine in the crate for 3-4 hours with no problems, so this busier schedule would only need to be for a little while until she’s a bit older.

Athena is going to be such a fun dog and I am looking forward to our remaining couple of weeks together!