Hello everyone!! It’s officially been 1 month since Mochi and Matcha graduated from Arsenal! They have been continuing to improve so much! Today, we hit a big milestone (in my opinion), we took Mochi and Matcha down town to Princess Island Park! We’ve been walking them around more crowded areas and near by parks lately, and I was at the park in the afternoon a few days ago and saw that is wasn't too busy during the evening hours so decided to take them this evening and oh boy… I was unaware Filipino Fest was happening! So the park was much busier then I expected. But nonetheless we started slow in a less busier area of the park and slowly progressing towards the busier areas. This was their third time at the park. We had taken them once the first year we got them, and again a few months after that. They pulled so bad n barked at everything we never ended up going back because it was just too stressful for everyone involved. However they were SO good today. We definitely had some moments where they would pull a little bit and require some correction, but other than that there was no barking, growling, or lunging at anything. We walked past so many people, dogs, cyclists, and other animals. We even let them take a little dip in the river and also watched some salsa dancing as well. We were confident enough to let them say hi to some dogs and people. Mochi was a little more timid not necessarily wanting to be pet by people, but thats okay, he only showed his discomfort by moving away. Matcha was a little shy at first but quickly warmed up to getting some love from people. We even went into Filo Fest! We were just in the outer areas where it wasn’t absolutely packed. I don’t think we are ready for that type of crowd yet, but we were around a lot of people so I’m really happy with their progress and confidence. We even got to work on a few places and got some cute pictures too! Just wanted to share! More updates to come!

Totally forgot to post these three weeks ago but here we are! Mochi and Matcha Graduated! Yayy! So proud of then and how far they have come. I’m so happy to see how much more confident they are now vs when we first started. Walks have been much more calm and easy, we’re no longer worried about pulling, seeing people or other dogs on walks. Walks with both of them together have been so much easier as well, and continuing to improve. Mochi and Matcha, although are not yet perfect, we have some days where I ask them “don’t you guys remember anything from school?” their behaviours are so much more manageable which makes it easier to help them over come it. Since classes have ended we are continuing to work on and strengthen all our skills such as loose leash walking, place, unders, and recall. It has also gotten so much easier to introduce new people to Mochi and Matcha as well, they absolutely love all the attention they are receiving. Matcha is still faster to warm up to people then Mochi is, but he comes around much sooner and is also more willing to let people approach him. We’re slowly moving into more crowded places as well which is very exciting. Though at times Mochi does growl a bit, or Matcha gets scared of something, we’re continuing to practice over coming those things together every day! Forever so grateful to Arsenal and their staff for doing an awesome job with Mochi and Matcha! We hope to be able to join some group classes in the near future! We’ll continue to update on their progress here and there as well!

624 Beaver Dam Rd NE 6:00 PM RSVP by end of day TUESDAY August 19 ****PLEASE LINE UP OUTSIDE BY THEN FENCE UNTIL A TRAINER COMES OUT TO GREET YOU****

Week 3! It’s crazy to think that they are done their third week! This week we worked on some more walking, but we put more time into their places, unders, and recall! Mochi was much more comfortable with his unders this week. Both Mochi and Matcha were better at staying in their places and unders this week as well, and for longer. They both love doing recall and playing recall pingpong, it’s probably their favourite thing right now because of how much attention and love they get! We are super proud of the progress they are making! Can’t wait to see what this last week brings!

Week 2 with Mochi and Matcha went awesome! We worked on some more of our loose leash walking around the neighbourhood along with their auto downs. They were both so good this week, they saw cars, bikes, scooters, squirrels, birds, cats, other dogs and people and were so calm. Didn’t growl or pull at anything or anyone… sometimes they couldn’t even be bothered to look. We were even able to stop and talk to the neighbours (which we were never able to do before) and they got some love from lots new of people this week as well. Matcha did great with her auto downs, places and unders! Mochi was a tad more stubborn when it came to his auto downs but we eventually got it down (haha). He did way better with place this week, however we struggled a bit with his unders. This week we also took them on a walk together and it went so well! They were both walking on my side, no pulling, just a nice relaxing walk. We’re struggling a little bit with auto downs when walking them at the same time but it’s still a work in progress. It’s also a little hard to walk them at the same time with different people (ie. if I’m walking Matcha and someone else walks Mochi). They don’t pull, however they clearly want to be near each other. (Mochi will look back at Matcha as he walks; turning his head, doing a spin like he wants to go backwards but will continue forward. This behaviour only happens if he realizes she is too far and vise versa. This also applies if a family member is a little too far) But over all it’s still going way better then we could hope Super excited to see how Week 3 is going to look!