veeeego

well, i have to start at the beginning. for the first 3 days, we rotated through the 13 dogs every training session. during this time, and during our breaks just watching the dogs all play in their yards, karen and i began to point out familiarities. one dog was built just like our boy WYATT, and had the same tail carriage, body language, and what we now (thanks to class!) call expressive personality. another had the same eyebrows as COLT (if you've seen COLT, he tells you all his feelings through his eyes and wrinkly brows). yet another is built just like IVY, and another reminds me a lot of LILLY. it's interesting to observe the traits that carry through our dogs, from one coast to another, when we have similar goals.

well, nevertheless, we got to write down our top 3 picks of dogs to work with - literally be attached to - 24 hours a day for the next 10 days. luckily for us, karen and i both got one of our picks. since our personalities, training experience, and the dogs' needs were all taken into account, this was particularly encouraging. i'll let karen do her big reveal herself, but my dog is VIGGO. he is a little over a year, and he's a golden. you say his name like veeego. he's super cute. and here's the irony, he is the one we had picked out as COLT. i've only worked with him for one solid day so far, today will be the first day we start the "umbilical cord" bonding process where they live with us, attached to us by the leash, 24/7. however, i can already tell you that while he knows every command we've tried so far brilliantly, he has it "COLT" moments of feigned deafness too. i'm very excited, because VIGGO needs refining, and to learn a few commands, which is what i had hoped to be able to work on while i'm here. we're going to have a lot of a adventures and his extremely bondable, needy nature will definitely remind me of home and maybe help me quit missing my kids so much.

he'll be laying under my desk next time i update, so i'll let you know how it goes!

LOVE,K
Click to Help