It was such a pleasure having Theo here for his weekday board and train! He’s a lovely pup with a really solid temperament, and I truly enjoyed working with him.

During his stay, we focused on foundational attention work, loose leash walking, polite greeting skills, and building his ability to regulate arousal. He picked up on the structure quickly, especially when it came to tuning into handlers for cues and checking in more consistently on leash.

That said, the biggest area we explored — and the one that will be most important moving forward — is arousal regulation. For Theo, the challenge doesn’t come from a desire to misbehave, but more from sheer excitement and enthusiasm. He tends to power forward before processing whether something is even accessible, and this is where permission-based behavior will play a big role. Teaching him to pause, look to you, and wait for a cue before engaging with something exciting (like another dog, a person, or even heading out the door) will give him helpful structure and reduce frustration over time.

As we discussed during handoff, “no” doesn’t seem to register meaningfully for him at this stage — not in a defiant way, just more like it doesn’t even land on his radar. So we’ll continue focusing on helping him understand what to do instead, building clarity around permissions and impulse control.

I’m really looking forward to picking things back up with him in August! In the meantime, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need support with the skills we introduced.