A.J. is an English Springer Spaniel. We adopted him from the Idaho Humane Society on July 26, 2013, when he was one year old. I had been looking for several months for a dog that was exactly right to fit into our household. A.J. turned out to be exactly wrong. Today this “exactly wrong” dog is the light of my life.

After we adopted him we quickly discovered that A.J. had some pretty serious issues we needed to work through. He had separation anxiety, and he was very reactive out on walks, with pretty major leash aggression issues. Right away I started keeping a journal of life with this new dog. I wrote about the struggles we all went through as we got to know each other, and the difficulties of dealing with these behavioral issues.

I created this blog shortly before A.J.’s two-year Adoption Day Anniversary to share our journey. You’ll notice the early posts all have dates on them, as I was getting caught up with two years of adventures. We’re all caught up, and the adventures I’m posting now are happening now.

I’m happy to say that through months and months of hard work and good trainers, A.J. can go anywhere with us. He’s had a minor setback here and there, and he’s still a completely crazy, energetic dog. But he’s my boy and I can’t imagine what I’d do without him.

I hope you enjoy following along with us on our continuing adventures!