Reflecting on this Journey. It's Only the Beginning.

Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:6

There are so many choices we make throughout our daily lives. Some big, some small. The past year posed some ups and downs personally and professionally, but challenges come and go. The first part of 2016 felt like a new beginning when I decided to continue to pursue dog-sitting as Walker Ranch and backed out of what seemed at the time a great opportunity to merge my business and open a commercial facility.  

As I then continued to focus on my own business I was feeling extremely refreshed and I was also surrounded by a wonderful support system and group of people. While they may not even know it, their daily examples of faith and generosity started getting me to think of ways that I could better help or serve others...besides just offering accommodations for client's dogs. 

It is then I realized why my Dalmatian was placed in my life. This Dalmatian, Settler, brought me a closeness with a family that I consider to be my own. They inspire me and encourage me on a daily basis and it helps to keep me determined that my little, energetic Dalmatian could be such a wonderful platform to really help other people. I never had much interest in pursuing therapy until I saw Settler's love for people...and his contagious smile (yes, Dalmatians can smile!). 

While we are only at the very beginning stages of our therapy journey (we have hardly even begun!) I am so excited the lives we may change just by simply making someone smile. Whether it is a lonesome elder in a nursing home, a child in a court room, an individual with an addiction, or someone with a life-threatening illness....I cannot wait to be a therapy team and make a difference.

#thisisbiggerthanme #therapyjourney #settler #settlerthedalmatian #helppeople #serveothers @settler_the_dalmatian

Smiles for Everyone!

Besides the leash pulling while doing the small amount of walking we did today at Mercato from A to B, I am very pleased with Settler's behavior. We met two friends - one who Settler was very familiar with and the other he had never met. He did a nice meet and greet - although he was more distracted with the surrounding smells to focus on the task at hand. I had treats on me (as always) but waited for focus. 

We went to a cafe and Settler was great with sitting and laying down (could tell he was ready to go by the end). Our waitress was a complete dog lover and had experience with dogs so was great about asking him to sit before she would pet him. He tried to jump on her once but that was quickly discouraged and happened more towards the end of lunch. 

His smile tells it all...the water was great. 

We're Getting There!

Tonight was our eighth class of Canine Good Citizen. While Settler has some great skills and manners, his immaturity during the meet and greet still needs some work. The dogs testing for CGC need to remain seated when a stranger comes up to shake your hand. The stranger then asks to pet your dog and your dog still needs to stay seated. Settler's excitement to immediately say hello makes it difficult for him to hold position. He has some serious tail wagging going on! He does well but is always on the verge of wanting to get up. To work on this we have been rewarding a lot of calm behaviors in the house so he knows he gets rewarded for relaxing. I have also been having him hold a sit-stay and approaching him myself, or putting his collar on while he is in a sit-stay since that builds excitement for him. We will get creative when we work 1v1 since we do not always have another person around to practice with. 

During the month of July we will take a break from Canine Good Citizen indoors and focus heavily on getting out in public. This will desensitize him a bit from all of the people and commotion since not everyone will want to say hello. We will do structured public outings with Mary of Lucky Dog Company and we will also do plenty of outings on our own. 

Since Settler won't be participating in the indoor CGC class I have decided that Chesnee will begin her therapy journey as well. I would like to get her Canine Good Citizen title and decide from there if we will pursue anymore into therapy work at a higher level. Since Chesnee is seven years of age she has a lot more maturity. She also has a completely different personality and loves to relax with people and be pet. I will see where she is at during the first class starting in July to see which skills she needs to touch up on in order to pass the test. 

Since I may or may not show Settler again in conformation I may also enroll him in a class for showing. Since there is a stand for exam where the judge must touch and examine the dog, this is a great challenge for Settler to also help in with therapy work but in a different context. 

We cannot wait to see how July goes! Each day we are moving closer to our goals and are enjoying the journey so much. It is incredibly motivating to know at the end of all of this we will be helping so many people and putting smiles on so many faces. 

#practicemakesperfect

TGIF! Took a few minutes this morning to work six weaves again - this time with Settler's top choice - a tennis ball. While we will continue to work consistency and speed, we will also need to work some distance. Pleased with this less than 10 minute session today. Sometimes he gets too excited for the ball to be thrown that he cannot work through it and skips poles. Here was one of our better attempts. 

While we do not have anything in particular in mind for public outings over the next few days, we will get back to therapy practice soon. Our eighth class at Lucky Dog Company in Naples, FL is on Monday evening. While the classes are wonderful - it is the work put in OUTSIDE of class that makes all the difference. I was pleased with our work at the park earlier in the week, so finding a bench with people passing by seems to be a good choice to work on calmness. Our biggest challenge is still the meet and greets and physical exam, so I know it is important to keep working him in different environments with this challenge. At the same time, proofing on our sits, downs, stays, and recalls in new environments with new distractions is also very important. I would also like him (and myself) to be more relaxed in the presence of other dogs - especially other reactive dogs.  

We Did It!

Shifting gears. We did an early morning session to beat the heat. This is Settler's first time completing six poles consistently with me standing inside (or at the end of the poles in this video!). Since I had some extra time today, I figured a quick ten minute session wouldn't hurt before moving forward with our day. I was pleasantly surprised that today he caught on getting through each pole. Speed will come! 

We will also continue to work our 'hold' in hopes that Settler can build duration for objects. He is picking up the basket and tossing it - but doing much better with the purse. He's trying! 

 

#beagoodcitizen

Being a non-daycare day at Walker Ranch, it allows me some time to focus on my own dogs, and better yet leave the house and interact with humans. Early this morning before the weather warmed up I took Settler to North Collier Regional Park to work on calmness in public. Calmness is a behavior I will have to heavily focus on for therapy since Settler is very driven and is almost always trying to offer a behavior to be rewarded. Settler is still very immature so it will continue to take time. 

In new environments he is pulling on the leash a bit (mostly to sniff and mark) but I understand it's a new place and he needs to feel safe and secure and check things out. At the same time, I need to build value with him so he stays engaged with me. He was very distracted upon our arrival so we took our time getting out of the car making our way up to the building. We did not do any meet and greets (thankfully) since I wanted him to know that although people are exciting, not EVERYONE wants to meet him. We worked basic skills once we got up to the building and secluded ourselves. We ended the outing by sitting out front for approximately 45 minutes on a bench with people walking by. Not one person asked to pet him (which was a good thing). He stayed with me and never tried to leave to go greet anyone. A couple of dogs passed which spike his attention - but luckily the dogs were not reactive at all so Settler stayed calm.

Our second outing was at a private school to visit family. The meet and greet upon arrival was quite difficult since he was already familiar with who we were visiting. He did a nice job in the school since there were not too many people present.

Settler worked hard today and I realize I need to make more frequent public outings with him. He is exhausted from being outdoors and being so stimulated. All and all it was a great day. We will see what the remainder of the day has in store and perhaps try to fit in some agility or continue our training holding an object. 

Progress!

We have been working on a 'hold' for a couple of days now. This is the second two-minute session within five minutes this morning. Settler has never been introduced to a basket before but quickly caught on to what he needed to do. I will continue to introduce odd objects to him and eventually add duration and also work on carrying the object. 

Our original plan was to go on a public outing to the park, however the poor weather prevented us from going anywhere this morning. Ugh!

Eyes on the Prize

The thought of being a therapy team with Settler keeps me extremely motivated to continue learning and training. Just for fun, I started a short session putting stickers on Settler just to see how he would react with something strange on his fur. I think he appreciated a few extra colorful spots! 

Quickly it was back to business working Settler and Chesnee on their 'hold.' While on Day 1 I started with various toys and tugs (which the dogs were familiar with), I have switched to a small hand bag - which is not a toy but rather an unfamiliar object. Both dogs are doing a nice job picking the object up, but soon I will increase my criteria and ask for duration. I also want to continue to introduce more odd objects with different weights and textures. Chesnee tends to get a bit more frustrated and offers putting her front paws and back paws on the object opposed to picking it up in her mouth. Timing is critical for her. 

Now onto agility for the evening - just Settler tonight since the sprinklers were on in the backyard. We worked weave poles again and I could see progression. However, he has made a bad habit from circling objects so tends to guess over and over by circling. Looking forward to continuing to work some of the skills learned at Sun Coast Agility in Naples, FL. Hopefully we will be ready to do some runs in the fall. 

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