Mistakes I made with my Rescue Dog!

 

Phoenix & Zoe

I've been reading a lot of posts about "do-overs" and in the spirit of my favorite quote from Bark and Lunge by Kari Neumeyer: "You did then what you knew how to do, and when you knew better, you did better." (originally by Maya Angelou) I am going to do a series of posts about what I think I did wrong with my rescue dogs and what I wish I had done instead or how I'd handle things that happened now. I completely understand that there's no going back, we can only move forward but if someone else can learn from my mistakes and not make the same ones I did then it's totally worth it for me to talk about it. 

The blog posts will mostly feature Phoenix since I had absolutely no experience with reactive dogs before her. These posts will go up on Thursdays since it's also kind of a "Throwback Thursday" sort of thing. I will start this series next week. 

Book Review: Bark and Lunge

 

  

Bark and Lunge: Saving My Dog from Training Mistakes is the journey and struggles of a fearful/reactive dog named Isis and her owners Kari and Rob.

This book recently popped up in my "recommended for you" list on amazon. I'm always looking for a good dog book and I particularly like memoirs, too. It wasn't expensive on the digital format so I thought, why not and gave it a shot. 

Writing ZoePhee - Writing Process Blog Tour!

I am so excited to be doing the "Writing Process Blog Tour"! It's a post that's been going around the blog community for a few weeks and invites tagged bloggers to answer three questions on their writing process. Then you tag three other bloggers to continue to tour. I've really liked reading about how other bloggers write their blogs and it's also very inspiring to me since my blog is so young. It's a great way to get to know other people, too!

Happy 3rd Gotcha Day to Zoe and B&W Sunday

I really can't believe it's been 3 years since I got my baby girl. Zoe is the dog that completely changed my life and the way I view dogs and training. It's hard to imagine that three years ago today I was begging my husband to go with me to "just look at the dogs." I felt like I was the only groomer in the salon without a dog of my own and I desperately wanted one.

 This is her Gotcha/Birthday Movie!

Dog Reactivity Win - Positive Pet Training

When I got Phoenix 22 months ago she was extremely reactive and motion sensitive. She would react to one of my cats walking by, she'd react to dogs walking by. She'd flip out if there was a fence between her and another dog and fence fight. She was impulsive and never stopped to think about anything she was doing, including biting another dog if they happened to get in her face. She was extremely frightened of people and would not even allow us to touch her.