Nakina's AKC Intermediate Trick Dog title has been submitted as she continues to excel in Rally, Advanced Tricks, and more focused training.
🐾 Celebrating Intermediate Tricks
We are still waiting for AKC to officially award Nakina's AKC Fit Dog Silver title, but this week we also submitted her AKC Intermediate Trick Dog title application.
I'm continually amazed by Nakina's focus and enthusiasm when she knows she is working. She truly seems to love learning..
Training
This week started with Part 2 of my two-part Scent Work seminar. While I attended the seminar, Nakina stayed home with Guy and was wonderful once again.
Then, on Monday, I officially submitted Nakina's AKC Intermediate Trick Dog title application. It's exciting to see how much she has accomplished in such a short period of time.
On Tuesday, Nakina spent several hours home alone while Guy had a colonoscopy and I was at the hospital with him. She handled the change in routine beautifully.
Our Rally Skills class also went very well. We submitted our graduation project, which is a short Rally course of our own design. If all goes as planned, we'll perform it in class next week.
Advanced Tricks was a lot of fun. After Tricks, we also had a private training session. Several hours of training in a row was definitely challenging, but Nakina continued to work hard and we still accomplished a great deal.
Socialization
Training continues to be our primary focus right now. The other socialization goals remain important, but for the moment, we are concentrating on building a strong foundation through structured training.
What's Next
- Emergency Stop & Hand Targeting — reintroduce and build consistency
- Down vs. settle — continue creating a clear distinction
- Stay — increase distance, duration, and distractions
- Recall — continue on leash in more distracting environments
- Travel Crate — zipping with no stress
- Grooming — begin grooming desensitization on the table
- Continue elevator desensitization
This was a very productive week. I feel like I've become more organized in making sure all of our training goals are getting the attention they need, and Nakina continues to rise to every challenge.