March 2013: Shayna’s continuing trick training, and more
30Mar13 Toy training at Albemarle High School
On this relatively warm spring day, we did our training outside, and had a ball. As you can see, Shayna looks incredibly good, is running around like a maniac, and is feeling good. The end is as sweet as any moment in my life has ever been. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.
24Mar13: Shayna retrieving her toys using flash cards
As you can see, Shayna’s skill in this regard is really developing nicely – of being able to look at a printed picture of the toy I want her to get, and then she figures out which one it is, and retrieves it. The part of this video that I like the best, though, is how she “pounces” on her toys; after running towards the designated one she leaps towards it, like when she was a puppy.
Given her recent, terrible medical diagnosis, this should not be happening – yet it is. I think helping her to lose the ten pounds that the vet has wanted her to shed is a big part of it. It’s times like this that I cannot help but to feel blessed.
Special addition: 25Mar13: 11th anniversary of first meeting each other
As I describe in my upcoming book, March 25, 2002 was the day I was going to give up on, or at least temporarily discontinue my search for the “right” first dog for me. I’d been searching nearly every day for three months, and had become very discouraged. I was waiting most of all for a “connection,” that I simply did not find.
Then, on that day, I met Shayna. And for only the second time in my life, I felt the Earth move under my feet. Eleven years later, my anticipation was proved absolutely correct.
This video is my commentary on all of these things, and I describe why I was so reluctant to even go look at one more puppy, which the girls at the front desk of the SPCA said they thought – based on what I’d said – I would not be interested in. How blessed I was to have been proved completely wrong!
