Manners & Obedience

What Foundation Camp Did for Sopita

Before camp: Leash pulling, stool eating, and demand barking, with a flight-risk worry.

Breed: Dachshund
Age at intake: 6 months
Program: Foundation Camp
Length of stay: Two weeks
Trainer: Lexi Head

Still from Sopita's first journey episode

Before

Where Sopita Started

Leash pulling, stool eating, and demand barking, with a flight-risk worry

Sopita's family came in with a young Dachshund who pulled hard on the leash, barked at her mom whenever she wanted something, and had a habit of eating feces outdoors. The family also carried a harder worry: a previous family dog had run off and been lost while being watched, and they wanted Sopita reliably recall-trained rather than prone to bolting.

Lexi opened camp by testing what Sopita already knew, finding a loose sit and down but no leash manners or heel position. The first week built a heel-and-threshold routine into nearly every potty break and introduced recall in a controlled setting. Mila took over day-to-day work in week two, holding Sopita accountable when she planted and refused to heel, and running a dedicated out-command session to address the feces eating the family had raised at intake.

By the transition-day walkthrough, Mila coached her mom through heel corrections and the place command, noting that Sopita was testing boundaries at home, including nipping at her legs, the way she had tested trainers earlier in the stay.

The program

Sopita's Foundation Camp

Sopita moved in for two weeks of Foundation Camp. The stay opened with heel and leash-pressure work built directly around her leash pulling, and a heel-and-threshold routine became a fixed part of nearly every day's potty break from day one onward. Door-manners work ran through the first week to answer the family's worry about a flight risk, and a dedicated 'Quiet' cue session in week two gave her an alternative to demand barking. The final days shifted to handling and touch-tolerance work so the family could keep building on what she learned once she was home.

Episode by episode

Watch Sopita's Journey

Filmed during the stay, in order. Nothing here is staged after the fact.

See every Training Journey

After

Where Sopita Ended Up

14Days in camp

3Episodes filmed

2Trainers on camera

Sopita went home listening better overall. At the week-later follow-up, her mom reported that Sopita mostly stopped going for feces once corrected outdoors and no longer grabbed a mouthful and ran, though leash walking was still inconsistent after a busier weekend at home. Lexi worked both parents through heel, place, and impulse-control exercises at that visit, her dad's first time on camera since he had missed the original transition day.

Lexi credited her mom with independently correcting Sopita's nipping at her legs and shoelaces during the week at home, a sign the family was carrying the handling forward on their own.

Published September 30, 2024

The trainer