Date: Saturday, February 18, 2023

To: Management

From: Coby Chambliss

Subject: Dog Training Instruction Packet

Good evening,

I’m writing to you to outline the steps and give an update on “Walking Your Dog By Your Side”, the
instructional packet we have been working on. I found someone to test the instructions out on and
wanted to share the data that I have gathered through practicing and interviewing the individual and I
thought you would be interested in what I have found since the test.

Purpose:
Just to review, the purpose of “Walking Your Dog By Your Side”, is was to give people information and
instructions on how to train their dogs to walk safely with them with no leash needed. There are a lot of
reasons why this command is useful and why it should be spread to as many people as possible. For
example, being able to walk a dog without a leash needed shows that the dog and the owner have a
great relationship. They trust each other, and the dog respects its owner and can listen to directions in
times of emergency. Teaching your dog these commands is also helpful in increasing the intelligence of
your dog. Teaching the animal how to do more helps their brains grow, keeps them challenged and
ensures that they can achieve their maximum capabilities during their lives like we want humans to do.

The o review, the steps of “Walking Your Dog By Your Side” are very easy to remember. They start by
ensuring the dog knows their name, so they understand when their owner is talking to them and
teaching them new information. The dog should also be aware of the following basic commands: Look,
Leave It, Drop It, Emergency Recall, Recall, Stay and Heel. By being aware of these basic commands, the
dog and the owner are both ready to take those skills and build onto them with off-leash training.

The next thing that owners are instructed to do is to begin the work with the dog off-leash. This means
picking a safe area to work with the dog, walking them on their leash and giving positive affirmations
each time the dog looks up at you when the leash is dropped. This starts to help the dog realize that
they must give you their attention whenever the leash is not being held. Then, start getting the dog into
the routine of doing your normal activities together with small periods of time of them being off leash.
During this part, there must be a lot of treats and a lot of positive reinforcement involved to let the dog
know that it is their job to listen and pay attention whenever they are off the leash, even if they are
doing something that they have done with you a thousand times. Building their confidence in their
ability to make you happy by following directions when they are off leash helps to build your confidence
in your own ability to give good instructions and to be able to communicate with your dog in any kind of
situation and remain calm and in control.

Findings and Significance of Project:

With these instructions and the handout that I created; I was able to test them out with another
coworker. She recently got a dog and was looking for some ways to build their relationship, and she
does not want to rely on walking her dog with a leash all the time. We met after work to practice, and
her and her dog already had a great connection. Even though they were nervous, I walked them through
the steps laid out on the instructional document, and we practiced repeatedly until they became more
comfortable and started to trust each other more.

After practicing for a while, I interviewed her and asked her a few questions about the instructions, and
she gave me great feedback that can help us move forward in getting the best version of this document
to the public. One of the things she said was that following our instructions and practicing with her dog
over and over made her feel “very confident” in her ability to train her dog off-leash. She also said that
at the end of our practice session she felt “very proud” of both her and her dog. When asked about the
document and its readability, she said that it was easy to understand and to recall the steps after the
fact.

Suggestions:
Some suggestions she gave were for us to add more pictures of what the dog and the owner should look
like during the off-leash training to give examples of what both of their body language should look like,
as well as recommending some different positive praise to be used during reinforcement to keep both
the dog and owner engaged and excited. Through our research and trials for this project, we believe
that providing these instructions benefits both dogs and their owners in the most efficient and easy to
follow manner. Completing these suggestions of adding more photographs, mockups of dog and owner
body language as well as providing examples of positive praise owners can use will solidify our
instructional packet, and have been completed and are begin finalized. We will continue to work on the
document until we reach the best possible product!

Please review,

Sincerely,

Jacoby Chambliss Coby