Fluff & Fold...

Monday we had a meeting with Dan. Dan is wonderful. He's a trainer I met through Tim and Kate as that's where they take Taicho and Suki, (their two fuzz ball puppies) once a week. Dan isn't an obedience trainer. He's not a magic worker, or as Tim refers to it tongue-in-cheek as a Fluff & Fold. It's not a place where you drop off your dog and in one day Dan works his magic and your dog is now perfect. He's an owner trainer, and while Jon and I are pretty smart, we're no expert - we want to be trained on the best way to care for our dog.

Since we want to be able to take Chanel out in public to places like the Irvine Spectrum, or the Orange Block, or Fashion Island or even just around the lake, and we know other people will take their dogs there as well, we want to make sure she has the best experience possible which means we'll have a good experience as well. If she doesn't do well with other dogs we'd be nervous the whole time. And if she doesn't do well with noisy rolling trashcans that could be a little stressful for all of us also. And if people make her skittish that could be rather challenging. Thankfully she seems to be doing great with people, kids and all sorts of things. However, meeting dogs isn't something we've ventured to do yet. So like I said... Jon and I need training.

Chanel will go to training once a week and be introduced to other dogs, people and things by someone who know what to look for and has a controlled environment to do it in. That's where Dan comes in. Then at the end of the day Jon and I will get our homework for the week; things to work with her on. After our Monday consultation he recommended holding off on having her meet other dogs for a little while. She's not fixed and every six months gets a little exciting and she's due for that excitement any day now. While she's going through that it's not the best time to introduce new dogs. He recommended that when we do take her for walks, keep her focused on moving forward and every time she passes another dog without getting excited we should shower her with praise. She's been doing really well - still has a ways to go, but more than half the time now she barely even acknowledges there's another dog walking buy.

Kind to Canines is the name of Dan's business, and once Chanel is finished with her every-six-months-adventure, (which she started this morning) we'll start taking her once a week. We do plan on getting her spayed but once these 18 days of excitement are up we've got 5 and a half months to get it taken care of. We'll probably let her settle in a little more and get used to us a little more before major surgery. In the meantime life is full of new adventures and new things to learn. And boy are we learning a lot!