Today we did a couple of sessions of leash pop = focus on me exercises at home which went well. I had to pop out this afternoon to pick up some bags of horse feed from town so I loaded Aster into the car too to capitalise on the journey. Coronation Park in Launceston is mostly ideal for training around other dogs - I say mostly because it's lovely and open so you can see a fair way, there is usually enough other users to have some dogs visible but not completely jam packed and technically they are meant to be on lead at all times. Of course, they never all are and as soon as we entered the car park there was a bloke with a German Shepherd puppy wandering wherever it wanted with the bloke walking miles behind. I am not even sure he took a leash with him. I waited for him to get up around the corner and into the park proper before I got Aster out the car. I noted before we even left that she was reluctant to jump in herself. She has clearly over done it running around and is a bit sore/stiff. She is the same about getting out too so I lifted and we just walked on lead. My goal was to literally get some "leash pop = focus" reps in with other dogs in the distance and just make a mental note of her general demeanour, ability to focus on me and take food. She was clearly not 100% comfortable/confident to begin with but she does take confidence from being asked to do stuff she knows well. She did well to break her attention from other dogs and take food from me. We did a couple of food chase games too and right at the end we went and sat on the hill to watch a lady throw a ball for her cockerpoo thing. It went well and I noticed the GS puppy coming back around from the top of the park so we started walking towards the exit. Annoyingly, the cockerpoo and another bouncy curly haired fugly looking dog (really sorry you guys that like the poodle crosses but they just really don't do it for me. No offence!) were loitering around it so I was kinda back tracking to get some distance when the bloody GS puppy came speeding towards us 🙄bloke clearly had no control and was pathetically waving his ball thrower through the air like it was going to magically get his pup to recall. Aster had a few barks and hit the end of the leash bristling but I just ran backwards and lightly popped the leash and engaged her in a game and we somehow managed to get enough distance that the pup left us alone. Luckily the poodlies were greeting one another at this point and couldn't give a toss about Aster which meant we could slip out. Overall she did really good. Could have done without the final hiccup but not the end of the world.

A friend suggested that, on New Year’s Eve, we all create a Bingo Card of our goals/plans/predictions for 2026. Since most of my ambitions involve the dogs, I’m considering making one for each dog. So, I was wondering, what would be on your Training Bingo Cards? Here are a few of my initial ideas for Amigo: - Create a proper strength/conditioning plan - Win an obedience show - Train something totally new And Kairo: - Build motivation and drive - Learn to ignore the birds - Train heelwork properly Each of the goals will have different levels of difficulty - some easy, medium and hard. Maybe you can help with gathering ideas!

On yesterday’s walk, Leto and I were playing a focus game while he was on his long line when I heard shouting and a big black lab was charging towards him growling. I had a moment of pure panic but Leto turned to face it without a sound and just glared, which stopped it running but still growling. It gave me time to encourage Leto to come away a bit but he was understandably reluctant to turn his back on it and walk away so I asked for middle. He did it (phew) so we just stood there while the owner took quite a long time getting his dog to come away and be put on the lead. A bit more playing and off we went with Leto totally relaxed. Not so long ago it would have been a very different outcome as I would have really struggled to stop Leto going into full defensive mode and fighting back.

After a helpful call with @Nick Benger yesterday, I have some new bits to work on for Kairo’s food drive and play skills. Yesterday, we practiced our play skills and discovered something weird - Kairo’s toy play is much better outside. Possibly the extra space or grippier surface? Not sure. Thanks to the advice from @Holly Pearson, Kairo’s source focus and contact heel are progressing nicely. I will film an update video soon! Today, I think Kairo offered hard focus in her toy play (video attached). @Nick Benger, is this the kind of focus you would expect? It’s a bit hit and miss at the moment, so need to build consistency. Plus, both dogs worked on their hoopers barrel cues. I’m impressed with how quickly Amigo has learned the cues for loose barrel turns. Kairo is working with distance and no arms, and it’s cool to see her little brain figuring it out.

I've been helping a lot of you with your reactive dogs recently and it got me thinking back. When I was 15 I got my first dog. A yellow labrador called Chester. Everything went wrong. I struggled to toilet train him, he ran away on walks, he pulled on the lead, chewed things up... and eventually became reactive to dogs. This is when I first started to learn about dogs, in order to resolve these issues. At the time Cesar Millan was at the height of his fame and I became a devotee. I read all of his books, saw him live, watched every episode, posted on his forum - I even had a t-shirt. I definitely have came a long way since then but to be fair it really gave me a spark. I trained my dog every day. Local people began to recognize this and even would ask me questions about training their own dogs. Quite strange for a teenager. Some people even called me 'The Dog Man' in school. I'm not sure why man, rather than boy but there you go. A lot happened in the following years. I studied Canine Behaviour at University, trained the dogs for Amazon Prime's The Pack & have trained dogs professionally for around the last 12 years or so. I did eventually resolve Chester's reactivity and he spent many years helping me resolve other dog's reactivity as a stooge dog. Sadly he died of cancer in 2020 at 12 years old. Anyway, the point of all of this is to say I have experienced having a reactive dog (and many more issues) first hand. Plus, the thousands of dogs I've worked with since then. I have a lot of empathy for all of you dealing with it and always enjoy helping you speed up your journey by learning from my mistakes! 🙏