Shasta had her first birthday this month! We celebrated with a bone cookie that she was kind enough to share with her housemate, Willow.
Shasta started her month in the Okanagan, where she had lots of walks and training sessions in the snow. On the way home, she and her family stopped at Loon Lake for the weekend for a family get-together. Shasta spent hours zooming around with other dogs on the frozen lake, and even though she was the youngest pup there, she had the best recall in the group. Shasta was recruited to be the goalie during some outdoor ice hockey games, and her goals-against average was better than her human counterpart at the other end of the ice! She tried to participate in beer pong competitions by catching errant ping pong balls and was fascinated by the hole in the ice that people were ice fishing from. Shasta was very interested in the one lake trout that was caught that weekend.
Shasta had her one-year walk and talk at Lougheed Mall. She showed some signs of unease in loud areas like the playground and the busy food court. Our training plan is to make short trips into busy areas like malls so that she can slowly build her confidence again.
Shasta has started to pay attention to the television these days, particularly when there are animals on the screen. Sometimes she will bark back at dogs or wolves if they are making intriguing noises. Shasta attended her first softball game of the season and loved sitting in the grass and soaking up the sun. There was a cool playground at the ballpark where Shasta was able to practice walking on strange surfaces and in narrow spaces.
This month Shasta has been to numerous stores, an auto mechanic shop, a library, and a brewery.
Submitted by: Lisa Heiberg
