themes of the month: adolescence/emotional self-regulation, minimum confinement/new environments, meeting social needs/novel social engagements, risk assessment/problem solving, proprioception exercises/obedience skills, stress detox/relief, safety/happiness
some experiences:
– 4 seasons in one month (rain, snow, sun, …)
– neighbourhood walk with released PADS Shadow and her friend Pluto (senior dog with hearing and vision limitations)
– training at Coquitlam mall with PADS Myra (settling at the food court, default leave it with food on the floor, joint elevator rides, etc.)
– dog distraction training on walks (DMT)
– visit to a pet shop
– muzzle training (learning to walk and eat while wearing a muzzle)
– off-leash meetup with PADS Toad
– 5.1 earthquake (felt before and after shocks, unlike her humans)
– multiple harness+long line nature walks (on trails, in parks, with different landscapes, creeks/lakes/marshes, etc.); meeting different dogs on off-leash walks (walking past some of them, greeting others, playing with a few)
– playing pattern games (to add predictability on walks)
– having different visitors in the house (a familiar child, an unfamiliar man, etc.)
– seeing/smelling/hearing different species of animals (horses, beavers, ducks, frogs, etc.)
– visit to a community center (hockey is too noisy, thus settling is hard)
– a bit of barking in the house (fear/frustration)
– a bit of misbehaving in the house (some shredding/stealing of food scraps and non-edible human items)
– helping her humans with garden works (digging and pulling some roots out of soil)
– having fun with bubbles and treibball
– saying hi to a statue of Terry Fox
– 8-month-old weight check at a local vet clinic (23.4 kg)
– new puzzles, new water bowl
Submitted by: Ella
