One small part of it is that I am now doing Sunday morning walks with a group of dog savvy people, some of whom are working with reactive dogs themselves. I went today and it was me, the owner of the local doggy daycare, Silke Wittig, and my gym teacher from elementary school!
I think this is going to be an invaluable resource over the course of the summer. The walk is at the local fairgrounds, so there is a ton of room to work and the atmosphere is so fluid and calm. They know that he is reactive and how to respond to a reactive dog, which is going to calm me down as I always get embarrassed when Frodo has a reaction in public. I left Frodo at home this morning, but I can't WAIT to start taking him next week!
In addition to that, I think I am going to start helping out at the local doggy daycare, Wagging Tail, for a few hours a week. I am hoping to really hone my dog body language skills while there, plus the owner offered for us to use her brand new pool at the facility! I would love for Frodo to enjoy the water enough to be able to get some low-impact exercise in. He hasn't had all that many opportunities to swim, though he has no issue wading through puddles of all depths, but I am hoping he takes well to it.
I am also going to observe/help out at two of Silke's dog training classes on Tuesday nights. Her intermediate obedience and her puppy class (squee! puppies! that I don't have to live with!), I am sure I will learn a ton from just being there and taking everything in.
In completely other news, I did take Frodo down to the fairgrounds this evening as it was just too cool out to pass up the opportunity. He certainly had a lot more energy! He ran around a lot more and then I got his cuz out (he will sometimes chase it in the house but is by no means obsessed) and he went bonkers! He was all about it! I would squeek it and he would focus with a side of more focus, like...herding breed focus and intensity. I would throw it and he would sprint after it and usually just kinda "meh" once he caught up to it. So I'd go over and pick it up, squeek it, same focus and intensity. Woohoo! A few times he picked it up and started trotting the other way, happy as a clam, then drop it after a bit and I would go get it and throw it again.
It was a great time! Overall, today was just awesome!
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