Just a few quick FRIDAY THOUGHTS about any upcoming family / friend / "framily" gatherings you may be a part of and how to advocate for your dog (and other dogs) if needed. Have a wonderful weekend!! Love you all & thanks for being a part of this learning group! (NOTE: Audio is fairly terrible with super cheap headphones and I'm in the YMCA lobby area...so I had to try and be a little quieter.)

As you work with your dog this weekend, and during the upcoming week...whether working your way through behavior modification, relational obedience work, off-leash, leash aggression, tricks, etc...remember the idea: "Challenge your dog, but never overwhelm..." This is a quote I heard from a trainer who heard it from another trainer, etc... I think it's important to observe our dogs and reflect on our training: We need to help them succeed, push them forward as needed little by little, but we can also overtrain our dogs, we can set too high of goals, we can confuse our dogs too much, etc... Good luck this week coming up! Keep it simple, have a plan most of the time...and most importantly, enjoy the time with your pup! Love you all! Thanks for being here! Have a wonderful weekend!

A while back, as we drove through our area east of downtown Orlando, my wife pointed out something I had never considered before. She said something along the lines of, “Some of the calmest, happiest, and most well-mannered dogs I’ve ever seen are those who belong to people moving around the city, asking for money at many intersections and parking lots, etc.” That sort of blew my mind for a moment. The more I thought about what I had seen many times, it actually seemed pretty accurate to me. These dogs often display incredible loyalty, love, and contentment in public whether people, cars, activity, etc…were present. They seemed to embrace that journey wholeheartedly, perhaps finding peace and joy in their ever-changing surroundings and their strong bond with their owners. Also…from what I saw, at least, in Orlando…these dogs almost always seemed to be well fed and healthy as if that person made their dog’s well-being a fairly big priority with whatever cash or food they may have had available. As dog owners, maybe it’s worth reflecting on this for a moment. Whether lying on the islands of busy intersections or the parking lots of various shopping centers, loyal and committed, right next to their owner…....if those dogs’ happiness and balanced energy…stems from a simpler, possibly more present / journeying way of living…I guess my question (uncomfortable as it may be) would be: how can we adapt our training and our routines to incorporate even a little bit of that unique dynamic with our dogs? and maybe more so...our dogs who tend to be reactive in public? Love you all, and I wish the best possible weekend for all of you. Some cool things coming ahead for this group in the coming months! Thanks for being here!

“EVEN BRENDA...” Brenda was an amazing dog who spent many nights at the dog-boarding facility I once had the privilege of working afternoon/evenings at in Orlando, FL when I was a full-time teacher during the day. She was a beautiful yellow lab and served as a bomb-sniffing dog for the local hospital in Orlando. She was unfit for home living because of her intensity and her need to focus on her important job... In fact, there were usually 7-8 legitimate working dogs (German Shepherds & Labs) that were on contract to come in the afternoon/evenings and stay the nights there at the facility each week. BUT...BRENDA, specifically, was one of the sweetest dogs I had ever been around...and I loved interacting with her! She was very well-trained by a local trainer who worked the hospitals with her, and she was almost perfect in every way!! HOWEVER...there was this one little annoying behavior she had...one that was fairly consistent each week. Often, as I was getting ready to close down the facility for the night, after cleaning, sweeping, and mopping all the main areas in the two buildings, washing all the food bowls, refilling water, picking up poop in the yards, etc...etc...etc...It was THEN...that BRENDA would PEE a ton on the floor of her kennel or on her elevated dog bed as...even though she had been out in the play yards plenty of times throughout the day and into the late night. Unfortunately, this meant that I would have to go get the mop AGAIN and do some extra cleaning before leaving for the night! This was incredibly frustrating...YET…she was still such an amazing dog! ---- Even after we have worked so hard with our dogs and they still have little quirks here and there that seem to bother us and get under our skin...it's important to try to have patience and a wider lens for how awesome your dog actually is! Brenda was the real deal...an incredible dog…helping keep the community safe, etc.! But EVERY DOG has some sort of annoying quirk.... "...EVEN BRENDA…"