Farewell 2024.
As we say good night to the year that was, our reflections over 2024 create an opportunity to form new training goals and projects for our dogs in the year to come. Successes and challenges we experienced over the past year can generate pivot points from which to develop plans for the next 12 months.
Embracing those new goals can be just the motivation we need to get out of a training rut and try or learn something new. I love this time of year for just that reason!
With my personal dogs I had many successes that I plan to build on in 2025. My young dog entered his first year of agility competition which was exciting enough. I got to test my training in the ring and see where our deficits lie. Those little failures will be the driving force for where my focus will be in the new year in the sport of agility, but the best of news is that we both LOVE our sport and enjoy being a team together.
Outside of the fun sport training, one of my biggest successes for my young dog was the cooperative care piece I worked so hard on over the past year: getting my dog Killy to actually enjoy having his nails cut! By dedicating myself to a training plan I now have a dog who comes running when he hears the dremel or sees the nail clippers; a dog that happily jumps up on the grooming bed and will even push his older brother off because he wants more!
Cooperative Care is a worthy resolution to chase after. Getting a dog to comfortably allow you to trim nails, clean ears, and brush teeth is a dog that trusts you and opts in for his health care. Deb Jones’ book Cooperative Care is a great place to start – a small book big on life skills, packed with doable exercises useful both at home and in the vet’s office. I followed Susan Garrett’s Pretty Pedicure Please program to achieve happy nail care in Killy.
Another worthy resolution to make is in the area of diet – both for us humans and our dogs!
For my dogs in the past year I introduced a mushroom supplement for both it’s immune boosting and anticancer properties. I added more fermented vegetables to my senior dog’s diet for gut health, as well as a twice-weekly organ meat boost to both of my dogs’ breakfasts.
A great goal for the year ahead is to explore the variety of healthy fresh foods that can safely be added to our dog’s meals, and to move away from a highly refined processed diet. The staff at Simply Natural Raw Pet Foods is a fantastic source of nutrition expertise – ask for Caroline or Charmaine and book a consult. Learn how Omega 3s can benefit your dog’s joint, nerve and brain health; why juiced greens are important antioxidants; and how a daily splash of fermented goat’s milk is a fantastic gut boosting probiotic your dog will love. Make nutrition a priority in the new year for the mental and physical health of your dog.
While at the store, ask the staff about the variety of enrichment items they feature that offer mental stimulation while eating. We know that licking, sniffing and chewing elevates serotonin and possibly oxytocin, both wonderful neurotransmitters for the dog brain. Dogs by nature are hunter/scavengers and eating should be an interactive process.
Another area I focused on this past year was improving my young dog’s strength and mobility. We rocked this area! I started the year with a dog who was disinterested in this aspect of training to a dog who now loves to balance all four feet on a small yoga block! Like people, our dogs can benefit from specific and targeted physical exercises to keep them feeling good and injury free, exercises that address structural weaknesses (like my young dog’s long back), or just another fun form of indoor enrichment on cold rainy days. Where I fell short this year was giving enough focus in this area to my senior dog. This is one of my goals for Tell in 2025. There are a number of wonderful practitioners who specialize in this area – ask me for names!
Training new behaviours is – of course – the real FUN stuff and I love diving into new challenges.
Maybe you’ve always wanted to try agility and now is the year to dust off those running shoes. MAIN Dog Training has a great lineup of dog sport classes to help you explore this speedy sport. For the nosey bunch, try scent and tracking classes with Maureen and her trainers at K9 Leadership. With a bit of digging, you can find disc dog, dock diving, barn hunt, lure coursing, herding and flyball clubs, should your interests take you in other directions.
Be aware – dog spot addiction is real!
And don’t forget the daily obedience work that we always need to put time into. If your recall has seen better days, or your dog likes to take YOU for a walk, taking a couple of private lessons to brush up on a few of those areas means purposeful time spent with your best friend. You will get some fun exercises and games to incorporate into your daily outings so that a walk is not just a walk!
My dear friend and well-known fitness coach Liz Joyce once told me that self care is often the hardest part of our day, whether it’s hitting the gym at 7am, walking away from that sugary dessert, or having the discipline to get a good night’s sleep. To me, self care for dogs includes addressing those behavioural issues that compromise their quality of life. The new year might be the time to finally address your dogs’ reactivity to joggers or bikes, or improve their confidence around other dogs (an area my young dog needs work – a goal for 2025). Or maybe it is just learning to make changes that cause less stress or arousal to your dog. A great project is to work through Julia Morton’s Relaxation Protocol.
When you are cozying up on the couch this holiday season, create a plan for the year ahead. Write down a couple of training goals – things that will be fun (or important) to chase after in 2025 – and work out how you will begin those new journeys. Living our best lives with our dogs is a pursuit toward growth and development that never ends, regardless of age (yes you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!) or behavioural challenges. This is the good stuff (this working together), the stuff relationships are based on. The year ahead has endless possibilities.
Have an abundant 2025 everyone!
