Appreciating this group!
We had another milestone week for both our 8.5 month old pup and really for us as her parents.
We are K9 SAR handlers who also travel to teach emergency care for Working dogs.
The human milestone was learning to say No to advocate for our pups own development timeline. We declined an opportunity to get helicopter safety sign off (which typically is only available once a year) because she just wouldn’t have been comfortable enough. Could she have pushed through it? Yes. Would it have been fun to have our 8.5 month sign off with such a important sign off? My previous self would have thought so. Would I have done it if she was comfortable and we had the time and resources to do enough baby steps? Yep! But we committed to letting her set the pace and we just aren’t there yet.
Separately, we did end up travelling with her to teach an intense course which included loud noises, a lot of other high drive working dogs, theatrical smoke effects and a lot of time asking her to be quiet and stable in new environments. We are just starting alone time, so we knew she would need a lot of support so we ensured we had someone dedicated to just her the whole time. In our industry it’s very strange to have a dog this old who isn’t alone in a crate, but we are trusting the process and following her lead.
She did amazing. She knew when she was getting over tired and self selected to go make her own crate time and then crated happily. She was her curious but cautious self the entire time. She flew over obstacle surfaces like metal stairs. She searched well in highly distracted environments. She was incredibly stable, and not in any subdued way. She learned quickly that potty times work differently when we travel. Each night she refilled her courage bucket with tight velcro snuggles all night long in bed with us. The final win was my husband’s observation, who was the primary caregiver over the week.
Previously, he has had a hard time with understanding and trusting this puppy raising process. Many many times he has asked “so when do start correcting her? If we don’t won’t that behaviour just get worse?“ Many times I’ve used the reassurance of this group to accept that she has an innate ability to learn and grow if we create the space for her to do so. It was so helpful warning him ahead of time that for a while in adolescence it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. That it’s expected, that we just have to dig in with some more patience and more time to support her through her teenage years.
So, He thanked me for the pup we have. And for the relationship we have with her. He can run off leash in the forest with her. She knows to come to us when she needs something. We can feel confident with her around other people and dogs. That he was prepared with the warning that there be regressive phases and that those don’t last forever!
And I told him that while her breeding is definitely a great start, that it was also largely this group that we have to thank for the relationship we have with our pup.
We still have what feels like a long way to go to get through to the other side of adolescence, but we both know we are on the right path.
Thank you so much!
We had another milestone week for both our 8.5 month old pup and really for us as her parents.
We are K9 SAR handlers who also travel to teach emergency care for Working dogs.
The human milestone was learning to say No to advocate for our pups own development timeline. We declined an opportunity to get helicopter safety sign off (which typically is only available once a year) because she just wouldn’t have been comfortable enough. Could she have pushed through it? Yes. Would it have been fun to have our 8.5 month sign off with such a important sign off? My previous self would have thought so. Would I have done it if she was comfortable and we had the time and resources to do enough baby steps? Yep! But we committed to letting her set the pace and we just aren’t there yet.
Separately, we did end up travelling with her to teach an intense course which included loud noises, a lot of other high drive working dogs, theatrical smoke effects and a lot of time asking her to be quiet and stable in new environments. We are just starting alone time, so we knew she would need a lot of support so we ensured we had someone dedicated to just her the whole time. In our industry it’s very strange to have a dog this old who isn’t alone in a crate, but we are trusting the process and following her lead.
She did amazing. She knew when she was getting over tired and self selected to go make her own crate time and then crated happily. She was her curious but cautious self the entire time. She flew over obstacle surfaces like metal stairs. She searched well in highly distracted environments. She was incredibly stable, and not in any subdued way. She learned quickly that potty times work differently when we travel. Each night she refilled her courage bucket with tight velcro snuggles all night long in bed with us. The final win was my husband’s observation, who was the primary caregiver over the week.
Previously, he has had a hard time with understanding and trusting this puppy raising process. Many many times he has asked “so when do start correcting her? If we don’t won’t that behaviour just get worse?“ Many times I’ve used the reassurance of this group to accept that she has an innate ability to learn and grow if we create the space for her to do so. It was so helpful warning him ahead of time that for a while in adolescence it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. That it’s expected, that we just have to dig in with some more patience and more time to support her through her teenage years.
So, He thanked me for the pup we have. And for the relationship we have with her. He can run off leash in the forest with her. She knows to come to us when she needs something. We can feel confident with her around other people and dogs. That he was prepared with the warning that there be regressive phases and that those don’t last forever!
And I told him that while her breeding is definitely a great start, that it was also largely this group that we have to thank for the relationship we have with our pup.
We still have what feels like a long way to go to get through to the other side of adolescence, but we both know we are on the right path.
Thank you so much!
