Biggie
English Bulldog
Los Angeles, CA | Service Dog Training
Biggie is a 5-year-old English Bulldog who lives in Los Angeles, CA. He is joining The Working K9 University for a 3-week Service Dog Board and Train to improve his public access skills and work on his tasks around distractions. Follow Biggie’s journey here!
September 6, 2023
Biggie spent his first day getting acquainted with his new surroundings. He got lots of treats going over the basics and working on some new public access skills. He weighed in at 43.8 lbs. Stay tuned to follow Biggie on his adventure towards becoming a full-fledged service dog!
September 7, 2023
Biggie worked at the park today, working on his obedience and ignoring people walking by. Baby strollers were exceptionally hard for him but he was successful in the end. We worked on his tasks and learned a fun public access skill, Tuck! He ate most of his food and is working on his weariness of shiny floors!
September 8, 2023
Biggie spent the day working on his tasks while also working on his loose leash walking with distractions. He made a new friend who is helping him learn the ropes! He’s eating most if not all of his food but rather enjoys his treats! He’s putting in the miles and is very proud of himself! (He took his toy to his new place cot after only a few reps!)
September 9, 2023
Biggie spent the day at work with me. He had his first e-collar introduction and did great! His engagement is getting better and now that all his commands are understood we are moving on to the e-collar! He is still not over his floor fear but we are still working on it!
September 10, 2023
Biggie had a relaxing day at the park today working on his obedience and settle. He enjoyed the break after working on his obedience at the garden walk with other service dog teams late into the night! He worked on walking over different floor textures, people watching, his tasks around other dogs, and loose leash walking!
September 11, 2023
Biggie spent the day working on building his distance and duration! He was an excellent distraction dog and my other clients thought he was so cute! His heeling is getting a lot better, he’s even making progress with not trying to mark as much!
Biggie began his desensitization to some common service dog gear today! He is so dapper! He worked on heeling with his new best friend Tux! We are now working on his door manners and prepping him for holding sit and down for longer periods of time!
September 13, 2023
Biggie went to the airport to work on his airport skills! He was so proud of himself for walking on the shiny concrete floors! He had no cares about the suitcases or trash cans rolling by and went potty on command! We will continue to work at the airport to improve his focus on people who want to pet him. He got himself all worked up trying to say hi, so we have our work cut out for us in that department! However, everyone who said hi to him thought he was an excellent boy and he was so sweet wanting to be pet by anyone who said hi to him!
September 14, 2023
Biggie spent the day at the park! He enjoyed working on his recall and is getting better at recalling without a command. We also began working on his boundary lines for doorways and curbs. He enjoyed being a distraction dog to my client’s dogs getting lots of treats. He’s working on leave it and improving his manners.
September 15, 2023
Biggie went back to the airport to work on heeling, which still needs work, and building up his distance and duration for security. He spent his day working on his tasks in different positions at the park. He is improving in his ability to walk on shiny floors and not soliciting pets from strangers!
September 16, 2023
Biggie went on an adventure today. We made our way towards a dog show, and we got to work on his crate manners as well as working on a loose leash walking without using the E collar. He is doing well with door manners now and we’re expanding those to different types of doors and trying to generalize all doors and boundary lines like curbs and crosswalks. His duration Sit is getting good, we are still working on him not backing up when he makes a mistake or circling when asked to down again, but he’s getting there and we’re seeing the progress every day.
September 17, 2023
Biggie spent the day at a dog show! He worked on healing through crowds without any tools and he did excellent for it being our first time practicing that in such a distracting place. He also worked on his leave it command with all the places he wanted to go “potty” on. He did really well at not soliciting pets from people, but he was excited to try to meet other dogs as we stayed there longer, he got much better and could stay very neutral and focused on me. He did well at holding his duration commands while I walked around and even worked on settling without barking or asking for food.
September 18, 2023
Biggie went to his first not-pet-friendly outing today! We went to a Walmart and even though he was scared of the floor he did great with his heeling and going potty on command before entering! He had a great time with my cat at work ignoring other dogs and being a great distraction! Everyone thought he was so cute and well-behaved!
September 19, 2023
Biggie had a long day today we went to LAX to work on his airport manners and fear of shiny floors he did his best and with lots of breaks, he was able to relax and do some basic commands by the end of the day. Everyone thought he was very cute but we need more practice with dark shiny floors over lighter colored floors. He did great with all the noises and commotion at the airport. To better work on going through security, we went to downtown Disney where he walked a mile and 1/2 through crowds and past other service dogs. He did great at the security checkpoint and is getting better at not soliciting pets. His leave-it-for-dropped snacks are also improving nicely.
September 20, 2023
Biggie spent the day working on his fear of the floor by running errands with me! He learned how to ride a shopping cart at Costco and definitely enjoyed not having to walk as much after having to walk at 3 other stores! He rather enjoyed the ac. He seems to be better at solid shiny floors than speckled polished floors. Several stores we visited had large concrete polished floors while others were the same color with speckles. He did so- so on floors that were speckled but had patterns like squares or were smaller cut floors with grout.
September 21, 2023
September 22, 2023
After yesterday’s stressful day, Biggie spent the day with his new friends working on his other service dog task. We went out in the town walking through crowds and other dogs. We went out to eat where he worked on his food manners and leave it. He’s getting really great at door manners with distance and distractions as well as letting off some steam with his new Beasties.
September 23, 2022
Biggie went to LAX with his friends to help him conquer his fears! It was a success! Not only did he walk more confidently, he could sit and down on the shiny floors! He was proud to show everyone how to go potty on command in the pet relief area while the other two were skeptical. The airport was crowded and loud but he showed the other dogs how to stay unphased while crossing the street and dealing with the crazy traffic! He spent his morning at work being an excellent distraction and working on not jumping or humping people that wanted to say hi to him!
September 24, 2023
Biggie has come so far! We are so proud of the progress he’s made up till now! Today we were able to work on his task in a dark speckled shiny floor store! I was so proud when he tasked so confidently and sure of himself I teared up! He has been working really hard on his fear and up until now he’s only been successful tasking in non-shiny floors stored or floors with patterns. He went from lying down refusing to enter a shiny floored store and or crawling to confidently heeling, ignoring people, and other animals, and responding to commands!
September 25, 2023
Biggie spent the day working on his public access skills at the mall. His people and dog ignoring is improving greatly! His heel has come along nicely and I’m so proud of his improvements with shiny floors. We were working on him tucking under the table while we ate and working on his duration sits and downs on shiny floors. Overall he’s come a long way!
September 26, 2023
Today was Biggie’s big day! The day our board and train has anxiously awaiting with the final flight test! Biggie did so well, I’m so proud of how far he’s come and how much he’s achieved in such little time. He walked into the airport confident and ready to go, he didn’t care at all about the floor. He maneuvered through security beautifully. We walked by several dogs over the course of our 3.2 mile travels and many of them wanted to approach him or were trying to eat him and he was unfazed! He went potty on command every time I asked him to. He tucked beautifully in the flight and was unbothered by the noises. He wore his earmuffs the entire time without a care. We people watched, he took a nap, we tried to stay cool, and then we flew back and we were cramped in between other people and he did really great regardless! The only issue was that he got too hot from our body heat in such a small space, tucking between my legs. When we had the bulkhead seats with more room, he enjoyed the ride more. He weighs in at 32.10 lbs. just a few ounces shy of his original weight. What he lost in lbs. he gained in muscle and stamina as he now effortlessly hops into my car and went from struggling to walk 1 mile to walking 3 easy, with lots of water breaks.