Nootka | May 2020

She did a 32 minute duration down in the backyard, on a blanket that she would have normally destroyed, with all kinds of noises from neighbours, birds, neighbours’ dogs, BBQ smells, etc. For the last 10 minutes of her down, I undid her leash and I walked around her throwing pillows up the air, making weird noises, moving furniture, turning the hose on, dropping food on the blanket and she didn’t move – other than swivel her head to watch my shenanigans! That was a proud moment!

We went for a trail walk, on-leash in a forest with 3 of her favourite kids. She was really good on the trail and with the kids and she was great when we encountered other well behaved dogs on-leash. At the beginning of the walk she was over threshold when we met the kids but I was really pleased to see her settle in quickly and just be calm around them – the kids are also becoming skilled at how to help Nootka make the right choices and it really fell into place for Nootka on this outing. Since then we’ve been on many similar outings with different people and dogs and I’ve seen her starting to settle down faster. It is probably a sign of maturity as well as a lot of repetitive training (!) but I was really proud of her for learning to settle and enjoy the experience of being in a new place with new things to explore with her favourite people.

Submitted By: Caroline Lewis