August was the month of firsts: a walk in Musqueum woods (on and off leash with excellent recall); bus rides (short, but very good ‘go in’ under seats); offered ‘go in’ and ‘perch’; lured ‘jump on’; a Walk & Talk with PADS staff; and a visit to PNE.

Strengths noted from Walk & Talk: patience, calmness at home, wants to please, enjoys training. Trainers noted York’s attentive loose leash walking. Weaknesses noted at Walk & Talk: needs to curtail jumping on people when excited and attention barking and needs exposure to stairs with different textures.

At PNE, absolutely no jumping on people. In fact, York was not interested in the many people we passed. When I sat on a bench to refill the kibble pouch, York’s ‘go in’ was automatic and he wasn’t bothered at all by the many feet walking closely past us. At the animal barn, York looked at the horse and wasn’t afraid of its snort, but York barked once at the very large bison and also at the cow that was looking right at him. We left the animal barn before checking out out the ducklings.

We continue to work on many behaviours assigned in class: cape, bed, dog-dog interactions (need much more self control to pass dogs), It’s Your Choice, and ‘go in’ duration. For the latter, our first concert at the Orpheum is on September 18th, and we have quite a lot to accomplish before it.

Onward…York is a very lovely five-month-old puppy, and we enjoy his presence very much!

Submitted by: Sandra