First weekend of 2026. So are we discussing Stranger Things? I lost my car keys this morning. We looked for them for two hours before admitting defeat. I had to call out a locksmith which was very expensive 🤦‍♂️

So I’ve had plantar fasciitis since I did a charity run in February and ran30 miles/walked 20 miles in 2 weeks! Had to quit my challenge and it’s been agony! However, recently it’s much better and we have done some tentative short runs! Today we nailed 4k in 29 minutes (used to 5k in that time but we will get it back) she has remembered all her commands - out (get on road to pass someone) up (get back on path) right/left for corners, go and whoa, obvious…. But we also added in a side command…. She knows that means come in close to my right and I wanted to have it so when we are going past driveways etc and I can’t see she is level with me not ahead of me… she did great, side meant run next to me ‘go’ meant run ahead of me at end of lead. I’d say only issue at mo is when I’m walking for a short bit she’s sniffing too much and I don’t want that on this lead so guess I need to keep running lol!!!! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️ So so lush to be back to it and no foot pain at all! Yes!!!!!

Well I have slacked with posting but I feel like the end of the year is good for reflection and I’ve been thinking back to this time last year when it really was sinking in that I’d sent a lot of money to a random lady in Slovakia that I’d met on Facebook and I was hopefully going to have a dog appear at my door in the next few weeks. It just goes against everything you’ve ever been told to do and yet it turned out so well! 😅 looking back, I don’t think if you had told me we would be so successful that I would have believed it, so I am very proud of him (and us for persevering and spending so much time and money on his training!) We are still training every day, lots of work on the flashier stuff has slowed as I’ve realised that until we’ve nailed home life it just doesn’t make sense to put too much energy into other things. Heeling on a lead walk is now almost second nature, we can pass other dogs extremely close with no real interest and he will happily walk off lead through “it’s ok, they’re friendly” locations without really giving a 💩 about anything. His recall is incredible around everything we’ve tested and things now have begun to become habit for him, like auto recalling around certain triggers. I’ve realised that I am much more risk averse than I should be with increasing intensity/distraction etc and have been really pushing him lately and he’s absolutely proving this theory 😂 I try to mix it up so not everything is a test, still lots of play in every walk which has helped so much with engagement. His house manners have dramatically improved as he’s having a lot more time put into it. He hasn’t decked my toddler in a long time, will chin-down settle while he plays around him (on lead), he’s much better with structure and context and seems to have switched his big brain on and worked through a lot of his adolescent difficulties. I’ve had some really bad car trouble which is ongoing and had stopped me being able to train IGP as much as I’d have liked to but 2026 is going to be a huge focus for us in this regard. I want to do our BH and begin to think about IGP1, as well as doing a temperament test and all of his health testing. He is maturing to be such a nice dog with so much potential for sport which is really exciting.

So today we headed out for a long walk, we hit our second off lead location and ran into three spaniels as we hit the field, one was a client! There dog ran over to Mabel who was still on lead and said hi and instead of panicking or reacting in any way I chilled chatted to owners and let Mabel say hi, no stress or pulling away! Barney came over three times before he was put back on lead and Mabel was fine! She would have loved a race around with him but lots of people and right near the gate so not happening! Once they left we had a fab race around! I headed home via another field and once back on lead to go home two dogs ran over, she was ok at first but then both right on her at once and she did do a small growl…. But it made them back off and I felt like it didn’t ruin her day and was just a dog dog communication saying ‘back off’ and then they were all good! So not really stressful!

Partying hard or staying at home with the dogs? We're watching Lord of the Rings 😂 Got some really great truffle detection training in with Onyx and @Maarja Heinsoo today too. Also explored a new woods with Lupe and found a really beautiful walk.