Welcome to Louie’s Learning Library! This personalized training guide is here to support you and Louie throughout our time together. As we move forward, you'll find training exercises, session notes, and valuable resources added along the way, creating a structured and evolving reference to help you and Louie succeed.
Tip: Save this link in your browser and refer to it between sessions to stay on track and support Louie’s progress
Training Goals
Confinement training
Housetraining
Loose leash walking
Cooperative care for grooming, and teaching grooming exercises
Impulse control work
Structured play (flirt pole, tug, fetch)
Management First
Tie-down for settling
Using the pen for times when you cannot directly supervise
Positive associations with the crate to start, and using the crate for confinement
Cues
Wait
Sit/Down
Get It/Drop It
Leave It
Off
Stay
Recall
Schedule
Aug 12, 2025 (12)
It’s been really great working with you and Louie. Thank you for trusting me with Louie’s training, and I’m excited to continue building on the progress you’ve made and to guide you both through the next 12 sessions as we work toward Louie’s training goals.
I included some homework at the end for you and Louie to work on over the next week. I think the biggest things will be continuing with the brushing, and working on handling his feet more. The homework below is for a Leave It Progression.
Keeping in mind that we are continuing together, today we worked on:
Leave It
Today we started with an easy Leave with food. (Who would have thought food would be the easy one?) Louie’s response was quick and consistent, so we moved on to more challenging items:
Baseball cap – This was very tempting for Louie, likely because it’s a personal item with strong, interesting smells.
Personal toy – Another higher-difficulty item because it’s something that belongs to me and carries the scent of all the dogs I work with.
By increasing the difficulty gradually, Louie learned that the rules for Leave It apply to anything, not just food.
Driveway / “Real World” Practice
Next, we took the practice outside for a bit more challenge. We used some of the decorative rocks as our Leave It object.
At first, Louie was very interested, but with repetition and rewards for turning away and looking at me, his response improved.
As expected, real-world distractions make the skill harder. Outdoors, the smells, sounds, and sights compete with you for Louie’s attention.
Leave It Progression Plan (Homework)
The goal is to build Louie’s ability to disengage from anything—food, objects, or distractions—anywhere, even when there are competing sights, sounds, and smells.
Easy Indoors
What to use: Low-value food or boring household objects.
Setup: Hold the object in your closed hand or place it on the floor with your foot ready to block it.
Criteria: Mark (“Yes!”) and reward when Louie looks away from the item.
Goal to advance: Louie responds to “Leave It” every time without moving toward the item.
Harder Indoors
What to use:
Higher-value food (cheese, hot dog, etc.)
Tempting personal items (your hat, TV remote, socks)
Criteria: Wait for eye contact before giving the “Take It” cue or a different reward.
Goal to advance: Louie disengages from high-value items indoors with minimal hesitation.
Easy Outdoors
What to use: Mildly interesting objects in a low-distraction space (driveway, backyard).
Setup: Have Louie on a leash to prevent grabbing. Practice with small rocks, leaves, or sticks.
Criteria: Reward for looking away even briefly.
Goal to advance: Louie can respond to Leave It on 4–5 different outdoor items in a row.
Harder Outdoors
What to use: Higher-value real-world distractions like:
Food on the ground
Trash can smells
Other people’s belongings
Setup: Start at a distance where Louie can succeed. Shorten distance as his skills improve.
Criteria: Wait for eye contact before marking and rewarding.
Goal to advance: Louie can reliably leave tempting outdoor items with eye contact before release.
Tips:
Make sure you have good treats and be generous when Louie gets it right.
When your criteria calls for eye contact, be patient.
Keep sessions short (2–3 minutes) and fun to avoid frustration.
Keep Louie far enough away from the item that he absolutely cannot get it!
Bumping Up Recall
Today we worked on Louie’s recall outdoors on the long line, but with an important change—no visible reward in hand.
Right now, Louie’s been in the “show me the money” phase. He’s happy to come when he can see the treat. Our goal is to help him respond just as enthusiastically even when the reward isn’t obvious.
Why this matters:
In real life, you won’t always have food in your hand, and we want Louie to learn that coming to you always pays off, even if he can’t see the payment ahead of time.
How we worked on it:
Called Louie with his recall cue (Here) while he was on the long line.
Treated from my nearby stash AFTER he arrived and I did a collar grab.
Next step for you:
I’ll show you this in person so you can see how it works and start phasing it into your own recall practice. This is the bridge between “he comes when you’re holding food” and “he comes every time, no matter what.”