Vlogmas: Ara Training Update! <3

Hiii, it’s Remi! 

The HOLIDAYS are HERE, and I could not be more excited! 

Last year around this time, I got into the groove of editing videos daily through VLOGMAS — creating a vlog each day until Christmas! I won’t lie — it’s a lot of work, but I genuinely enjoy sharing my life with you and editing is one of my favorite parts of my job :)

For Vlogmas, we will be covering so many different topics — everything from Nate’s and my relationship to my favorite Japanese snacks! You all have sent me really fun ideas in the past, and I’d love to hear your ideas for this Vlogmas!

For today’s Vlogmas, we’re going to focus on Ara  — our rescued White German Shepherd! If you all have been following me for a while, you know that Ara’s story is a long one. I wanted to give you all an update on how her training is going, the improvements we’re seeing, and what still needs work.

A Quick Background on Ara

Back in February 2020, Nate and I rescued Ara, a beautiful White German Shepherd. She didn't stand a chance at the high-kill shelter — she was anxious, aggressive, and showed signs of abuse and neglect. When I first met her, I immediately wanted to give her a home where she would be cherished and taken care of. Nate and I jumped through hoops to adopt her and finally brought her into our family.

Needless to say, it hasn't been easy. While Ara has always been comfortable with me, she has issues with Nate — she almost always growls at him, and she’s even bitten him. Nate has never shown her anything but love and patience, but Ara finds him very intimidating. At times, we were extremely frustrated, disheartened, and wondered if this adoption was the right decision. 

We consulted dog trainers, talked to an animal psychic, tried CBD, and other things, and while some manners improved, Ara still HATED Nate. Then a freaking miracle happened — I reached out to renowned dog trainer Cesar Millan, and he agreed to work with Ara and Nate!! He gave us so many great tips on training her, and we’re so thankful for the opportunity to work with him. I wrote a whole blog post about the adoption story, Ara's behavior, and how the training went with Cesar, so be sure to check that out to get all the details (or watch the vlog)! 

Still, Ara still had some improvements to make. We decided to put her on a low dose of Fluoxetine to help stabilize her behavior, and we met with VCA (dog behavior specialists) to get more insight. After about six weeks, Ara adjusted to the Fluoxetine and we saw improvements in her anxiety! (You can read more about her Fluoxetine experience and VCA’s tips here!) 

We also have this GREAT opportunity to work with Mark from EasyDay K9, who actually helped Simba in the beginning!!! Ara is about to start a boarding and six-week training program with him this December, and this is HUGEEE because he's a male, and he'll be the one handling her for over a MONTH.

For this Vlogmas post, I wanted to give you all an update on Ara’s training and where’s she at before we send her off to Mark! 

Crate Training and Heeling Progress!!!

Ara absolutely loves her crate — it’s her safe place, and she always feels comfortable when she’s in there. We’ve been working on getting her to come out of the crate when she hears her command word, and the process has been going really well!

When I open the crate door, Ara usually will sit or lay down patiently until I say, “Break!” When she hears that word, Ara will get up and exit the crate — easy peasy! 

Another thing I’m working on with Ara is door manners! Before I open the door to outside, I make sure she’s sitting and waiting and isn’t pushing through the door first. I open the door, and she still waits until I say the command word, “Okay!” Ara has gotten really good at this! 

Every time we go on a walk, we practice at least 27 sits. You can see in the vlog that she’s walking next to me in a perfect heel, and then I ask her to sit. She sits on command, and we only start walking again when she makes eye contact with me. This is SOOO good with her because we want to work on fostering engagement. Before we move forward, she has to look up at me, acknowledging that I’m the leader! The hope is that in the future, she can engage the same way with Nate! 

We’ve been doing these structured walks twice a day, and then for the other walks, we do something fun like skating or go at whatever pace she wants.

Right now, I’m the primary one who works with Ara with things like this — she’s still very timid around Nate, and she gets aggressive when she feels trapped or threatened by him. Of course, this is all in her mind, and while we’ve seen some improvements, something happened the other day that I want to be vulnerable with you about...

Ara’s Recent Aggressive Encounter with Nate

The other day, something happened where I had to rush out of the house, and I didn’t have time to put Ara back in her crate. This is something that shouldn’t have happened because right now, I need to control Ara’s triggers as best as we can. 

Ara was alone in the house with Nate. She was drinking in the laundry room where she is the most vulnerable because her back is toward the doorway. Not knowing she was in there, Nate walked into the laundry room.

Ara FREAKED out. She turned around in shock, bit him, and skitter-scattered out of the room. Nate did nothing to indicate that he was going to harm her at all — he just simply walked into the room and surprised her by accident. Caught off guard, Ara resorted to being aggressive.

Ever since then, Ara is back to being very sensitive with him and just growling. Mark from EasyDay K9s came back to see her, and she was the same way with him. Honestly, she is really unpredictable — sometimes she’ll be absolutely fine with Nate in the room and warm up to him, but in the morning, it’s like she’s completely forgotten about it. Every day, she starts over — we take ten steps forward, and now we’re back to square one.

Through this whole process, Nate and I have definitely learned a lot about patience and unconditional love. Even though it's discouraging when things like this happen, we remind ourselves that overall, Ara has really improved and we have so much hope for her. 

Tips from Mark at EasyDay K9s!

After the freakout moment, we’ve been really trying to create as many possible positive interactions between Ara and Nate, and Mark has been helping us! For example, she now eats off of his leg! Her body touches the side of him, and she’s comfortable enough to take food out of my hand which is resting on top of Nate’s leg. 

In addition to this, Mark suggested that we should feed Ara in the evening when Nate is up and about moving around the house. Movement scares her, so by showing her that she’s completely safe eating while people are moving around her is really important. 

Lastly, Mark suggested that we get Ara a cot, other than her crate, so she can learn the command “place”.  As I said before, her crate is her safe place — but in her crate, she’s closed off from the rest of us. This new cot acts as her safe space, but it isn’t completely separated from Nate and me. We hope that over time, Ara will begin to realize that she doesn’t have to be defensive when Nate’s around the house and that she can still be safe while hanging with us. <3 

Ara is still getting used to these new changes, but we’re optimistic that she’ll get better and better! Soon, she’ll be with Mark for 8 weeks on a special board and train program and we can’t wait to see what comes out of that training. I will definitely post another update on that and let you all know how it goes!

Thank you all so much for all your support during this journey with Ara. I don’t know if I could have done it without all of your encouragement. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this Vlogmas post and that it gave you insight if you're currently training an animal as well! If you want to hear more about Ara, follow me on Instagram, @rrayyme, for daily updates! You can also head over to my YouTube channel to check out my vlogs, and don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss anything!