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Christmas is the season for celebrating, gift giving, and elaborate festive eating. Each of these activities brought lots of practice for Odin.
Celebrating with guests arriving at the door means …doorbells ringing and Odin had many opportunities to practice calm greeting behaviour. Enthusiastic tail wagging communicated lots excitement and he needed a leash to help him with self control, but practice makes perfect and we’ll keep working on this one for sure! Odin is generally pretty calm after the initial excitement so this is all very promising.
Gift giving means …shopping, of course! Odin made more than the usual trips to the local malls and grocery stores this month. His loose leash walking with and without a grocery cart is very good and he consistently demonstrates great patience while waiting at customer service counters and in check-out lineups.
Festive eating means …appetizers and snacks at eye level on coffee tables. Odin is listening well to the “mine/yours” direction and only ‘slipped’ a couple off times during this season of great temptation.
All in all, December was filled with excitement and lots of distractions. Every great experience brought with it an opportunity to be challenged and grow. Odin is a happy 11 month old and had a wonderful first Christmas. Did I mention the thrill he had playing with his new bright yellow stuffed ‘Woodstock’ stuffy? The very cute little fellow needed major suture work after the first evening, but it was so much FUN!
Submitted by our amazing Puppy-In-Training Odin and his fantastic Puppy Raiser, Kathy Johnson.