The month of August 2020 was filled with getting away from home more and more helping me out with my business.

Normally, we are booked up with boarding dogs during the spring and summer months with lots of people traveling. With the pandemic this year, there has been less traveling. While that definitely takes a toll on our income, it also allows us more chances to head up to the mountains and do the hiking that we love.

Zooka has been getting practice, as he did last month, with getting out and exploring more. He loves it. And as a young Vizlsa, he has the stamina to keep up with us all day long! While we see some people and a few dogs on hikes, we mostly try to hike in places and on days when there is less traffic. Our goal is to see no one else since we enjoy the peace and quiet. But it's good for Zooka to see others and realize the outdoors do not belong only to us!

We still work on his being polite when dogs pass by. He normally is very good about pulling off to the side of the trail and sitting. The part he is NOT yet good at though, is NOT staring at the other dogs. Staring is not polite and can get you in trouble. And it unnerves some of the other dogs. We continue to work on this so that he gets less worked up about other dogs.

Our rule for hikes/walks is that we do NOT GREET other dogs. We want to mind our own business and let others pass by without worrying about us. We will get there, but we have more work to do.

Zooka has also been continuing with his group classes. He was continuing with his Intermediate Class at our farm and also started a new round of Polite Pooches that meets out and about in public places. This is something he needs to continue so gets better and better at staying tuned in and listening to us with other people and especially other dogs around.

Since some of his friends are in both of these classes, he has to work extra hard to pay attention and NOT try to play. Some days he does better than others. In the Intermediate Class, he has been able to actually work off leash (in our fenced area) with one of his friends in close proximity and stay tuned in. That's pretty good for his age!

He also had one session of Polite Pooches that was particularly awful, so it's not all sunshine and roses yet. We met at a local park, but soccer games had started back up and there were a LOT of people there. We had not been around THAT MUCH activity since before things shut down in the spring, and boy, did it show. That was one of those sessions where you just want to jump back in the car and get out of there. But we stuck it out. He did better later in the session but it took a really long while for him to tune in at all.

On a good note, though, Zooka was also able to help me with some of my work. One of my goals for my Vizslas is to be part of my “staff” at work and take on some roles for which I need an assistant. Zooka sometimes helps me with dogs during private sessions when we need a “distraction” dog to work with. It depends on the dog we are working with, as some of those dogs, Zooka is not ready to help out with. But others he does a very good job.

Zooka has also been helping me out as my demo dog at the first session of Basic Training group class. He comes out for the latter part of class to help me demo clicker training and some of the skills that can be developed with training. He loves coming out to help with those demos since he gets to be the center of attention and greet the human students. He normally does a very good job in this role.

On our normal everyday walks on our trails, he is doing really well. On the parts of the walks when he is off leash, he does a great job of tuning in and checking in regularly. His tune in has really stepped up a notch this month which I am very happy about. We are not yet ready to do any off leash hikes away from home yet, but we are making great strides in that area.

As always, there were highs and lows this month. Some things he is doing great with, and other areas, we still have lots of work to do. But over all, he is doing well and progressing nicely.