The Dog Abides, LLC

Happy 8th Birthday to Thelma! This past year was a big year for Thelma. She learned so much with all our traveling. She continues to surprise me with her bravery and resilience.

I made her a peanut butter pumpkin waffle bone with some deli turkey garnish. I definitely owe her some extra training time to learn a few new tricks. We love you so much, Thelma. 💖

During our recent weeks in Ohio, I hiked with our dogs at a couple of preserves in Miami County. I want to talk about one experience in particular.

An explorer program for kids was going on when Tycho and I visited Stillwater Prairie Preserve. We encountered several groups of kids along the trails, accompanied by an adult leader from the park district. Every time, the leader would say, “We’ve got a puppy coming, what do we do? We get all the way to the side and let them through!” And all the kids would hug the right side of the trail and let us pass. As we passed, the leader would prompt the kids to say, “Hi, puppy!” One youngster asked if she could pet Tycho, and the leader said, “We’ll just wave and say hello like we practiced, okay?”

Let me count a few reasons why this is awesome:

-Moving to the side of the trail creates distance to keep kids safe;
-Moving to the side of the trail gives fearful or anxious dogs the space to feel safe;
-Moving to the side of the trail gives excited dogs the space to express themselves and stay safe;
-Teaching kids a clear greeting task allows kids to interact from a safe distance;
-Teaching kids a clear greeting task from a distance supports kids who may be afraid of dogs;
-Giving kids something to do in the presence of a strange dog creates an opportunity to reinforce the kids’ behavior (I thanked them every time!);
-And, as a human accompanying my dog, I was clearly communicated with about what to expect from the groups of kids we encountered.

Major props to the Miami County Park District for implementing and practicing dog-kid safety! 👏👏👏

Here’s a few photos from that fun day with Tycho. 💖

Last weekend, we did two big days of WCRL Rally trialing in Dayton, Ohio. Tycho earned his Level 3 title with a first place run and a score of 203! He also earned four qualifying scores in Levels 1 and 2.

I made a mistake in one Level 3 run which resulted in us getting eliminated. I accidentally fed Tycho a food reinforcer in the wrong place in the course. The judge said it was heartbreaking because we were having such a good run, which was a sweet sentiment. Fortunately, Tycho sure enjoyed the piece of smoke turkey hot dog that I fed him, and had no idea about my mistake! He had a great time and that’s all that matters.

Sissy Champagne made her Rally debut and earned two second places, a fifth place, and her Intro title! She had some nice sequences of beautifully happy heeling and worked hard to focus through distractions. She is new to learning lots of things, and I keep reminding myself that I am new to training with her! I’m so proud of her.

This weekend, we’re doing some hiking and trying to relax. I hope you and your dogs have a beautiful weekend, whatever you have planned! 🥾🌲💖

✨ I’ve put more Sparkle Sessions on my schedule! A Sparkle Session is a one-time, single session group class. It’s thirty-five minutes of upbeat fun with your dog! 🪩

Fabulous Fronts
Kickback Stand
Get In a Box
Circle Handler
Leg Weaves

$29 each session, more info and sign up here: https://www.thedogabidesllc.com/scheduling

It’s okay if your walks look like this. It’s okay if your dog is out in front of you, zigging and zagging to get the best smells on the trail or sidewalk. It’s even okay if your dog pays very little attention to you on a walk and you’re just along for the ride.

It’s my job to stay focused and aware to keep my dog safe. It’s my job to carry the cheese and the water. It’s my job to make sure my dog has fun in lots of different ways.

This is one of those ways and that’s okay. 💖

Thelma always surprises me. She REALLY wanted to wear the tulle decorative collar I made!

Wishing our US friends a safe and happy July 4th!

✨ Summer Sparkle Sessions! ✨

This week’s single session, live online group classes are open for registration!

Get in a Box

Kickback Stand

Fabulous Fronts

All sparkle session classes are 35 minutes via Zoom, $29 each. For more info, visit my website and check out the Sign Up page here: https://www.thedogabidesllc.com/scheduling

Miles tested out all our games for fabulous fronts today. Stay tuned for a demo video!

This year, I am spending July 4th in Ohio, which we've not done before. Tonight, there's a scheduled fireworks display in our village. We are prepared as best we can be!

Check out this updated post with a great collection of resources and strategies from my friend at KinDog Behavior and Training! 😍

Fourth of July is right around the corner, which means the dreaded sky booms are coming. 🎆 Fireworks season can be such a tough time for many dogs. As for puppies discovering new sounds for the first time, fear prevention from the get go is critical.

Check out my newly updated blog post about "bacon booms" and other tips for surviving fireworks season with your dog.

https://www.kindogbehavior.com/post/bacon-booms

Start preparing now!

Tycho recently earned his AKC Trick Dog Intermediate title AND his AKC Trick Dog Advanced title! We’ve had so much fun expanding his tricks repertoire! 💖

✨ Summer Sparkle Sessions! ✨

Single session, live online group classes are now open for registration! I’ve added a few to my schedule, more coming soon! For starters, we’ve got:

Get in a Box

Kickback Stand

Fabulous Fronts

All sparkle session classes are 35 minutes via Zoom, $29 each. For more info, visit my website and check out the Sign Up page!

https://www.thedogabidesllc.com/scheduling

Thelma, Coralie, and Miles insisted that they all fit in this canvas box! 📦😍

Please join me in congratulating Panda on his AKC Trick Dog Novice title! Panda and his mom have been working so hard on their tricks and it was a pleasure for me to evaluate their title!

My favorite of Panda’s tricks was “kisses.” He gives the sweetest kisses to his mom’s cheek on cue! ❤️💋😘

Congratulations, Panda and Linda! 🎉👏 🙌🏻

Please join me in congratulating Bryson on his Trick Dog Performer title! It was a pleasure to evaluate this team! 😍

Bryson earned his Trick Dog Performer title! Check back tomorrow evening to see his video submission.

Thank you to The Dog Abides, LLC for evaluating his submission 🥰

Thank you all so much for your kind words and patience! I am finally starting to feel more like myself again. 💖

We took a break to experience the solar eclipse and for Tycho to go to a Rally trial in Ohio. This was our first competition since Tycho finished his radiation treatment. My expectations were appropriately very low for the both of us, but Tycho had a fabulous time and performed very well! 🏆

I’m at an animal behavior conference this week (more on that later) but am looking forward to restarting classes and services soon! ❤️❤️❤️

My plans to go live with my next round of classes and services came to screeching halt when a family member had a very serious health emergency. I’ve been traveling and doing some of my best problem-solving with a sizable emotional load in tow.

In the meantime, I’m sending out love to you and your dogs, and hoping that you all find that perfect piece of sunshine that lingers on the rug, just like Dottie. 💕

Check out my new blog post! Featuring covert video footage of Tycho counter surfing. 😍

“‘Reframes’ help us think about issues and problems in different ways. Sometimes, reframes do us the grace of removing our own emotions from a situation. In this case, instead of feeling upset, embarrassed, or angry, we get to be proud of our independent senior dog who can communicate when he wants something.

Reframes also help us shift from the sort of dichotomous moralizing that we so find so tantalizing. Is this behavior naughty or nice? Are the effects of this behavior good or bad? Are this being’s intentions innocent or sinister? A reframe can help to not only remove this morally charged either/or thinking, but it can also help us better understand common dog behavior.”

A Counter Surfing Reframe — The Dog Abides Counter surfing is one of those behaviors that comes with a reinforcement format that is hard to beat. The reinforcement of consuming or playing with whatever good stuff a dog manages to collect is immediate. No delayed gratification here! And, the items a dog can get from a countertop are usually

Tycho’s last day of radiation treatment for his cancer was on December 11th. He got a bandana that read, “My Bravery Bandana!” with a bell on it. He also got some gold beads and a certificate for “successfully and courageously completing 18 radiation treatments.” 🥹

The radiation site on Tycho’s right elbow grew raw and painful as his treatment progressed and continued beyond his last day of treatment. We all had a hard time with Tycho’s pain and discomfort, his compromised mobility, and his difficulty to settle and sleep. But, time and patience proved to be healing and Tycho is feeling so much better now!

We knew Tycho was starting to feel better when he returned to counter surfing! 😍 😂😍

We got a snowstorm here in Pennsylvania, and I found the Barkin’ Blue Rocket Sled that I bought last summer! The little dogs had a blast for a couple of minutes before they got too cold. Gus, Paloma, Dottie, and Thelma got turkey for riding around for a bit!

Yes, the side of sled reads, “Powered by Drool”! 😆

Happy New Year from all of us at The Dog Abides!

In 2023, I took a lot of time tending to the precious remnants of grief from 2022. Because life is wild, time didn’t slow down and 2023 brought its own events and everything else that comes with a year.

For the first time in a long while, I’m feeling grounded and inspired. In the next two weeks, I’ll be rolling out updated services and classes, plus some other fun!

Thank you for all your support in 2023. Wishing you and your dogs a sparkling 2024!

On December 10th, I came up for air from caring for our dear Tycho, to take Gus and Miles to compete in WCRL Rally Obedience.

At the age of seventeen, Gus earned his Level 1 title. Since the last time we trialed together—about three years ago—Gus has lost his vision and gotten a little stiffer. But, he’s been feeling great lately, so I decided to go for it. He got “lost” a couple of times, but goodness, he had so much fun. This was one of those truly special experiences.

Miles had a blast, too, and earned two fourth places. At the beginning of his second run, he made the judge laugh by setting himself up in right heel position instead of left heel position. He looked so proud of himself, like he’d just told the wittiest joke ever.

In September, Tycho was diagnosed with a soft tissue sarcoma in his right front leg, up near his elbow. He had two surgeries, but, there were still cancer cells at the margins afterwards.

So, Tycho began radiation treatment on November 15th. He’s had treatment pretty much every weekday since. On radiation days, he has to be fasted and skip breakfast, and then go under anesthesia for the treatment. The fasting means the most baleful howling one can audibly perceive, and the post anesthesia monitoring is no small feat.

The side effects are starting to get more and more intense for our hero, and we have had to seriously up our game in the fashion department to manage the irritated radiation site on his elbow. Here, he is looking very handsome on a bench in the lobby of the specialty hospital, waiting for his nurse to come for him. I usually send him back with a cut up baked chicken breast with a little prosciutto mixed in. It’s wonderful, his nurses feed him the whole thing as soon as he wakes up.

He has just three treatments left. 💖

“Mom! I just have three more little clasps to chew off the tree skirt and then I will start on the lower branches!”

Coralie is such an industrious little helper!

Later, she supervised the installation of an x-pen around the tree. 🎄

Sending wishes of gratitude and connection to you and yours this Thanksgiving Day!

🍁🍽🍂

Love, Joanie and all the dogs 💖

Please join me in congratulating Barb and Ted for qualifying in the 2023 AKC National Trick Dog Competition!

For this competition, teams had to perform at least ten tricks in a continuous routine with a storyline. Barb wanted to do something campy and fun with the story. She came up with “Ted Bond Saves the Day.” In their routine, we follow the most handsome gentleman spy dog around the world as he saves the day with his special sidekick.

It was such a pleasure to coach this team and help with their video! I think my favorite trick is when Ted Bond refuses a piña colada!

Congratulations, Barb and Ted! 🏆🍸💣🎉😍

Ted Bond Saves the Day Entry for 2023 AKC Trick Dog Elite Performer Virtual CompetitionSpecial agent Ted Bond goes on an adventure with Pussycat Willow involving drinks, gambling, ...

Jenna McKenna is a brilliant writer. She’s the sort of writer who can take the world in her hands and show it to you in way that is brand new, but somehow still deeply familiar.

This is her memoir for her dog, Donna. It is breathtakingly beautiful.

“Donna was a square mile of geography all on her own.”

I’m honored to have taken a step or two with Donna on her journey. ❤️

Snapshot of a Dog* | Jenna McKenna dot com Get more from Jenna McKenna dot com on Patreon

We had a big week last week! We celebrated Thelma’s 7th birthday and Dottie’s 9th birthday!

We’ve watched Thelma become braver than ever this year. Six years after meeting my dad, she has decided he is allowed to touch her and that he gives the best belly rubs and chin scritches in the world. For her birthday, she got a No. 7 made out of a sirloin steak and a pumpkin peanut butter dog bone waffle wrapped in prosciutto.

This was Dottie’s first birthday with us. She has learned how to do stairs and doorways, and navigate many features of a human-centric home and life. She gets very excited about food, and runs laps around the kitchen island, chirping, until she pees from excitement. She loves to be groomed. I have let her coat grow long enough that she needs pigtails. For her birthday, I got her a new “Rosé All Day” squeaky toy. She destroyed the old one, because it was her favorite. She also got a birthday cookie and another toy that looks like a plant.

We love you so much, Thelma and Dottie! I can’t wait to see what joys this year brings for you. You touch the lives of many dogs here, and I’m so proud of you both. 🩷

They look rather serious in these photos, but that’s because there is extra delicious birthday fare to be enjoyed! 😋