A Day in the Life

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

The March class is just about finished. We head home on Saturday. In a little over a month, the next class will begin. With that in mind, I thought the incoming classes might enjoy this sneak peak at what a typical day might look like.

7:15am
Rise and shine. Get ready for day eight of training.

8:15am
Breakfast for baby Savannah. She gobbled her 8 oz bottle.

8:30am

Breakfast for the rest of us: oatmeal, fresh fruit, coffee, Cheerios and milk. Dylan watches "Sid the Science Kid". Yoko calmly sits down by our table.

9:10am

Time to load everyone up in the minivan.

9:15am
Drive to 4Paws campus. Beavercreek is about 15 minutes from Xenia.

9:30am

Arrive at 4Paws. Wait in car for a few minutes before driving to nearby park for tracking.

9:40am
Drive to park.

9:45am
Arrive and unload.

9:50am

Dylan and Yoko go first today. Steph and Dylan go hide in the trees while Yoko and I wait to track them.

9:55am
Tracking begins. Yoko picks up Dylan's trail and sprints after him. I can barely keep up.

10:00am
Yoko has found Dylan! I am breathless. Yoko gets lots of praise and treats.

10:05am

After catching my breath, we all walk back to the car.

10:55am
After all the dogs have taken a turn, it is time to head back to the 4Paws campus.

11:05am
Class resumes. Question and Answer time. We go around the room and bring up any issues we are facing and work on them.

11:45am

We work on "off collar" activities while purposely trying to distract the dogs. We also work on corrections.

12:30pm

Steph didn't want corned beef and cabbage so we ate at Los Mariachis, a local Mexican restaurant. Excellent fish tacos. We went with two other families. There were a total of 12 people and three dogs! The host asked how many and I told him, "12 people and three dogs!" The look on his face was priceless. To his credit, though, he moved fast to accommodate us and made us feel very welcome.

1:40pm

Lesson on how to do a track inside a store.

2:10pm
Dylan had a breakdown. We used the "Over" command on Yoko and she layed down across Dylan's legs and helped calm him down.

2:40pm

Grooming lesson.

2:50pm
Break. Steph took Yoko outside for a quick potty/play break. There were five dogs off leash running in one big group. When it was time to go inside, Steph yelled "Yoko, come!" and she instantly dropped what she was doing and ran straight over.

3:05pm
Quick refresher on harnesses and how dogs associate them with working.

3:20pm
Another question and answer period.

3:35pm

A quick word about bonding. In short, time spent = bonding. The more time the child spends with the dog, the more likely the dog will bond with them.

3:50pm
Class concludes for the day.

3:55pm
Load up the minivan and head back to the Residence Inn. Dylan and Yoko play fetch in the room and have some great bonding time.

6:00pm

Birthday party at Homewood Suites for Heather (from Georgia). Most of the families showed up. There were nine families and eight dogs. We got some funny looks but had a blast. Dylan took off in the out door area, but everyone was keeping close tabs on the kids, including their dogs. Yoko quickly became aware of what was going on and immediately went into "tracking mode" without any prompting....in just a matter of days she has learned to watch her boy and learn his scent!

8:20pm
Load up the minivan and head back to the Residence Inn.

8:30pm

Settle in for the night and update blog.