#25 months

[blorbit-sketchbook]

Redraw of some character portrait sketches I did when I just started learning, 2 years later.

[terrierthing]

look at her go!!!! 🥳

[terrierthing]

😴

[terrierthing]

ive been teaching her to stack. yes i know these arent the same height ill find something else. maybe her rear would be normal instead of extremely long if she figured out she can bed her stifle

[terrierthing]

best part of rainy days: her crimped ear hair

[oleander-sd]

Ollie has gotten pretty accustomed to staying in hotels and was a great little guest over the weekend.

There are a few things we like to do to set Ollie up for success on trips like this:

- We make sure to tell the hotel ahead of time that we will have a service animal with us so there are no dramatics at check-in.

- We like to pick hotels that aren't right off of the freeway; quieter locations, like in business parks, are preferred.

- We also find hotels near lots of grass, and ideally, next to a walking path. We make sure Ollie gets to spend plenty of time outside playing, sniffing, and marking.

- We like to book rooms away from stairwells and ice machines to reduce the amount of noise outside of our room. In the room, we leave the TV on as white noise.

- We decline housekeeping for the duration of our stay and hang a Do Not Disturb sign. Some hotels have placards stating that there is a dog in the room, others do not.

- We keep our schedule light on vacation. We don't plan to dine out three times a day in addition to other activities, rather, we utilize drive-thrus, room service, and food brought from home to limit the amount of going out we do.

- We take time each day to explore different areas of the hotel. We sit in the lobby, by the elevators, walk the hallways, interact with some of the art. We ensure that Ollie is just as comfortable outside of our room as he is in it.

- We make sure to pack plenty of treats and chews and often will bring a new toy to surprise him with when we get to our destination. We want him to recognize that this trip is meant to be fun for him, too!

[oleander-sd]

This weekend, we made the drive up to Columbus to attend Equine Affaire and meet up with @x22817 and the trainer I have been working with for the last couple of months. This was Ollie's first big trip following his retirement/unretirement, and I had low expectations for how it would go, but as usual, this kid surprised me.

Our trainer worked him for the first hour of the event, I got him for the second, then after that, we were able to ditch the trainer, and Ollie and I were able to find a place to sit and watch some clinics with Maddie and Bean until we were too tired to stay any longer.

I am really grateful for the opportunity to see someone else work with my dog, and to watch other teams working together. It really shifted my perspective on how we are doing and showed me what I should be doing differently.

Ollie was really fun to handle this weekend. He was brave about the horses, totally fine with approaching strangers, and as far as I could tell, completely ignored any dog that wasn't in our group. We worked on his heeling, which was great unless our friends were too far ahead of us, and we successfully navigated some very cramped spaces together. His leave-it is solid, with plenty of horse poop and dropped food staying right where it was. And he did all of this while being hundreds of miles from home, in a busy environment, working with people we have never met before, coming off of a months-long vacation. My dog is a star.

[oleander-sd]

At a hotel in another state to meet up with friends today. Tell you more about it later, but here's a photo from our walk this morning.