April 17, 2014 We had our second session at boot camp (Northwest K9) today. A.J. got a lot of really nasty pops. But let’s go back a bit to the way we started our day. Get up in the morning, time to go for a walk. We head down the street on our usual morning …
Author: ajthespringer
A.J. is my dog. One of the things I did while on an extended break from my career as a technical writer and editor was adopt this totally crazy and adorable dog. He's provided me with an incredible amount of frustration and entertainment. And as you can see, he's also provided me with a large amount of writing material. I'm back at work now, but plan to keep the stories coming - maybe just not as often.
Seeing Some Slow Progress
April 15, 2014 It’s been a full week since we started A.J.’s new training. Some of it has gone really well, but we still have a long way to go. So far it hasn’t been the miracle turnaround Jerry had predicted. I’ve taken A.J. out to the trail on a busy road and he’s watched bicycles go …
A.J. Goes to Boot Camp
April 9, 2014 Yesterday we started with a new trainer. I told our current trainer, Mary, that while A.J. had made great improvements in focus and basic obedience, we'd made no progress on being able to walk down the street. It was time to try something different. So Mary referred us to Jerry at Northwest …
A.J. Finds Bananas
March 29, 2014 Today, like a lot of days this winter, was rainy and windy all day. We left A.J. alone for a few hours while we ran errands. When we got back I could tell he’d been counter surfing because there was another big long scratch along the side of the cabinets. But he …
A.J. Goes to Overnight Camp
March 22, 2014 A.J. had his first stay at a boarding facility. He went to Doodle Dogs for the first time while Greg and I went to visit family. A.J. was there for a week. It sounded like he did well and had a nice time, but I don’t think he slept much. He was really …
The Roller Coaster Ride Continues
February 5, 2014 We’re backsliding a little. I had an extra session with Mary to figure out how to get A.J. to stop pulling so much on the leash. She didn’t really have any suggestions I hadn’t tried, other than going back to doing circles again. I’ve started doing that, which eases the pulling for …
He’s Much Better, Really
January 17, 2014 This morning we went to the park again. Other than A.J. still pulling like crazy we had a good walk. We saw several dogs, and one even reacted to him, but he didn’t react back. So other than the pulling it wasn’t bad. Then we went straight from the park to the …
Great Improvements, But…
January 15, 2014 We had another freestyle class on Monday. Again, A.J. did great. No reaction to the other dogs, he stayed quiet in his crate, and he had great focus. He’s such a show-off. He’s really starting to get the idea on some of these tricks. And last night, for the first time, he did …
A.J. Goes to Dance Class
January 7, 2014 This mail was sent today to everyone in our Reactive Dog class from Mary, our trainer: "I wanted to share with you just what a star AJ was in the Canine Freestyle Class yesterday. He came into a building with two moving dogs, was a little noisy but quickly settled down, got …
New Year’s Eve 2013
December 31, 2013 The last day of the year. It’s been kind of a rough year for A.J. So, he decided to end it on a fitting note. This morning a hawk landed on our back fence with its breakfast, another bird. A.J. saw it and went nuts. I didn’t want him to run out …
AJ the Springer 