Well I have slacked with posting but I feel like the end of the year is good for reflection and I’ve been thinking back to this time last year when it really was sinking in that I’d sent a lot of money to a random lady in Slovakia that I’d met on Facebook and I was hopefully going to have a dog appear at my door in the next few weeks. It just goes against everything you’ve ever been told to do and yet it turned out so well! 😅 looking back, I don’t think if you had told me we would be so successful that I would have believed it, so I am very proud of him (and us for persevering and spending so much time and money on his training!) We are still training every day, lots of work on the flashier stuff has slowed as I’ve realised that until we’ve nailed home life it just doesn’t make sense to put too much energy into other things. Heeling on a lead walk is now almost second nature, we can pass other dogs extremely close with no real interest and he will happily walk off lead through “it’s ok, they’re friendly” locations without really giving a 💩 about anything. His recall is incredible around everything we’ve tested and things now have begun to become habit for him, like auto recalling around certain triggers. I’ve realised that I am much more risk averse than I should be with increasing intensity/distraction etc and have been really pushing him lately and he’s absolutely proving this theory 😂 I try to mix it up so not everything is a test, still lots of play in every walk which has helped so much with engagement. His house manners have dramatically improved as he’s having a lot more time put into it. He hasn’t decked my toddler in a long time, will chin-down settle while he plays around him (on lead), he’s much better with structure and context and seems to have switched his big brain on and worked through a lot of his adolescent difficulties. I’ve had some really bad car trouble which is ongoing and had stopped me being able to train IGP as much as I’d have liked to but 2026 is going to be a huge focus for us in this regard. I want to do our BH and begin to think about IGP1, as well as doing a temperament test and all of his health testing. He is maturing to be such a nice dog with so much potential for sport which is really exciting.

So today we headed out for a long walk, we hit our second off lead location and ran into three spaniels as we hit the field, one was a client! There dog ran over to Mabel who was still on lead and said hi and instead of panicking or reacting in any way I chilled chatted to owners and let Mabel say hi, no stress or pulling away! Barney came over three times before he was put back on lead and Mabel was fine! She would have loved a race around with him but lots of people and right near the gate so not happening! Once they left we had a fab race around! I headed home via another field and once back on lead to go home two dogs ran over, she was ok at first but then both right on her at once and she did do a small growl…. But it made them back off and I felt like it didn’t ruin her day and was just a dog dog communication saying ‘back off’ and then they were all good! So not really stressful!

Partying hard or staying at home with the dogs? We're watching Lord of the Rings 😂 Got some really great truffle detection training in with Onyx and @Maarja Heinsoo today too. Also explored a new woods with Lupe and found a really beautiful walk.

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!

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.