When we were first talking about getting a puppy I told my husband that it takes two years of hard consistent work to create a "good" dog. Now that Reyna is two it's amazing to see where we are now...
-She hasn't soiled in the house since she was 10 weeks old
-She doesn't destroy stuff when we're gone
-I can walk her pretty much anywhere on just a flat collar, I don't even know where her head collar is
-She is even more calm and careful around Penelope than she is around David
-She has a pretty darn solid recall, even off of dogs, cats and an armadillo
-She is still VERY excitable, but I would now call her base reactivity mild
-Her motion reactivity is still moderate-to-high when it comes to other dogs
-I am learning that I never have to settle for halfway focused, with a few minutes of work I can go into a building on relaxed loose leash
-I have learned that a calm focused foundation is way more important than a list of fancy tricks she can't do because she's too distracted or stressed
We have a lot of work to do on her over excitement and a good bit left on her reactivity if I want to compete in dog sports. I missed a major window of opportunity by not addressing either of these issues until well into adolescence, but we are making up for lost time.
Even if we never win or even enter a single trial I have learned more from raising Reyna than I did in all the previous years and dogs combined.
Thank you Reyna, and Happy Birthday!!!!!!
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