So today I woke Mabel up at 830 and once she had had morning cuddles and breakfast she was curled up back to sleep! I was taking my daughter to work at 940 and normally take Mabel to Yate for a big race and long walk… but she got in car and was shivering. So instead we did a short run at our local field and came back home. She then slept most of the day and had cuddles! Then a quick run at 330 and she’s been chilled all evening. We needed a day off I think, still did a few find it’s on walk but that’s about it today! Sometimes they tell you don’t they!!!

We can discuss anything here. Has anyone been watching The Traitors?

Apparently I joined on the 19th January last year so my day count has gone very wrong somewhere 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Anyways last few days have been lovely! Mabel’s heading towards three and is very chilled at home and very active on a walk! We had a rainy day and instead of a walk we played games. She had to distinguish between go round (run round piano stool in lounge) and loop ( run out of lounge, though the office kitchen and hallway back to lounge). If I did a loop I’d hide her toy to find when she got back. If I said loop and she did round I ignored her till she thought about it and tried again! 🤣🤣🤣 We also taught her to jump back and forth over my raised leg which wears her out too! Great games to play and wore her out without having to go out in rain!

We are meeting up in Bristol on Saturday January 10th at 11am! Here's the plan. We'll meet initially at Ashton Court Church Lodge Car Park. As there will be some reactive dogs in-tow we'll do an on-lead walk for around 25 - 30 minutes and then we'll head down to the The Ashton pub which is just around the corner for post-walk drinks. The pub is dog-friendly but I'll leave it to your judgement as to whether you bring them in or leave them to rest in your vehicle. This is free and is open to everyone - even lurkers! Just let us know if you're coming 👇

We've had a bit of time off from training over December as we've been travelling around a fair bit, I've been ill about four times and parenting has taken up a lot of time. Willow has been remarkably manageable throughout, a combination of our training efforts and her growing up quite a lot. I suppose we've still trained during her walks, but it's been low level. My plans for 2026 are: - Walking nicely on the lead - Improve heeling duration - she struggles with impulse control when moving around distractions - On the topic of heeling, I'd like to get her to recall to heel. Our standards have dropped a little and she likes to release herself or not complete the recall - After one too many jumping incidents culminating in nearly knocking over an old lady, we need to tackle this - Teaching her to calm in busy places. This has improved with age, but I'm going to actively target this I'm still working on the "how", but I plan to try to get a few active training sessions a week besides her walks, so will update as I go. In the meantime, here's a little video someone took of us on the beach where we're working on her impulse control. I like to get her to sit/lie down and wait before chasing her ball sometimes. The baby is asleep and strapped to my chest 😂.