I know that November isn't quite over yet, but I've got non-catch up blog posts that I want to get to and Christmas decorating to get after! November was an eventful month! The first weekend I was in Bend for what turned out to be just a weekend get away with friends. Originally I was going to run a half marathon, but I've been plagued by a hamstring injury that finally forced me to do some much needed physical therapy, so I withdrew from the race. My friend Bre was still running it and I definitely wanted to cheer her on, so what not have a fun weekend in Bend to boot? It was a GORGEOUS four days filled with hiking around Smith Rock and the painted hills as well as some delicious brewery hopping. Just what the doctor ordered!
And I'm not sure if you heard, but an election happened. I won't get into politics on here, though, so don't worry. I find those conversations best to be had in person if both parties are willing. Instead of spending my evening glued to the TV, I took advantage of the nice weather to take the dogs for walks and start fiddling around with night time pictures. I did go for a patriotic slant in as much as there's a flag in the pictures.
On the 9th, Dominic turned one year old! I can hardly believe my little snugly puppy is a year old already! He's got this hilarious mixture of "hey girl" swagger combined with derpy boy puppy that has me over flowing with cuteness aggression at times. I'm constantly entertained by him.
Training wise, I've been making sure that I'm consistent with getting the dogs out to a different location each week to work on distraction training. I'm getting a pretty good grasp on how long it takes Miley to acclimate and what sorts of things will draw her attention away from me. What I'm really impressed with is that she has started using giving me attention and swinging into heel position as a way of dealing with distractions that she's a little unsure of. She's starting to use that position and eye contact connection as a support system and that is EXACTLY what I want her to think of it as. The few times she's done that, I've mondo rewarded her.
Dominic has also been impressing me. He hasn't had much distraction training and definitely hasn't had as much obedience training as Miley, but he has shown me that there is definitely some really good potential in there. He's already working for longer durations (longer durations for him could be a 30 second heeling "pattern") before getting his reward. Granted, he is HIGHLY food motivated and knows that the treat is coming, so that definitely helps. But he is understanding the concept of work mode and getting rewarded for that as well as starting to understand that he gets rewarded for checking in. There's the glimmer of the beginnings of understanding how to ask to work, but that's still pretty faint and probably more coincidence with him feeling like he's gotten a good grasp on the environment.
With the days getting dark so early, I have to admit that I'm feeling a little uninspired when it comes to picture taking. Giving myself the personal challenge of figuring out outdoor evening shots has helped. Thankfully we've got Christmas coming up and that is filled with picture ideas! :) I did take a few random videos of the dogs on some of our little jaunts and put them together. There's even a clip in there complete with Dominic using me as his braking system. Freaking boy puppies.
And then there was that big eating holiday recently. :) The dogs got their own special Thanksgiving dinner with a cornish game hen each.
Here's to this week hopefully being a gentle one.
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