Axl the Akita with Mouthing & toilet issues

Yesterday we met this giant ball of fluff!

This is Axl the 18 weeks old Akita.

I’ve always taught that dogs can’t be stubborn, after meeting him I’m pretty sure they can (jokes... before we see WW3 between trainers)

His owners had a few issues which we got sorted weeks ago via zoom during lockdown - typical puppy stuff like mouthing, toileting inside and a not so typical issue of resource guarding - all of which are sorted.

Today we tackled the car. The last time he was in he was taken to the dreaded vets for injections, since then he refused to go back in the car - to the point of trying to bite his owners for making him.

It quickly became obvious that he still has no rear-end awareness whatsoever so jumping in and out of the car had become quite aversive. As you can see by one of the pictures, he just flops halfway on the seat with his legs hanging out the door

We showed him being picked up and put in the car wasn’t bad, and he was completely fine thereafter.

We’ve set Shannon, the owner, away with some training to help him learn some rear-end awareness and give him the ability to climb in himself soon and before he gets too huge!

Such a cool pup and a pleasure to work with!