St. John's is Dog Friendly

The above video was of one of my four legged friends Kaede. She is owned by my friends Tak and Marcie. Kaede is a black labrador retriever mix who is about 19 months old. She was adopted in January of this year from the local pound.

Yesterday, it was one of those rare sunny days in St. John's. So earlier in the morning I had to take the chance to get out into the sun. We've been training Kaede since January and since we got her in her "teenage days" she sometimes has the tendency to get rambunctious. She is a very smart and beautiful dog however, giving me the opportunity to work on training techniques and seeing the struggles that can happen.

Adopting a dog was a wonderful choice for my friends who have lots of time to dedicate to helping Kaede re-learn how she should behave according to people. One of the things she's particularly struggling with in various environments is leash training. She likes to pull quite a bit and thus takes the lead. So we tried umbilical training yesterday and I'm not particularly pleased about how it turned out. I think maybe if it was a part of her everyday thing that she'd understand the idea of staying by the side. Yesterday, she got to learn that pulling means we stop.

The advantage of umbilical training is that she can't pull Marcie off of her feet as easily (who is very petite and often struggles with Kaede's pulling). I recommended her to train like this around the home as well so she can get used to it.

So we walked around the beautiful Quidi Vidi Lake yesterday and soaked up some sunshine. We started out on the South side of the pond and walked around to the dog park. This dog park is set up by the City of St. John's and offers a great place for dogs to play and socialize. It's fenced in with double gate entries on both sides. Marcie and Tak were unsure about the dog park and Kaede at first.

I suggested that a) try it with a lead on at first before you set her free, b) this lets the other dogs come welcome her and she meets them in a controlled manner. c) From the first meeting you can always be aware of how your dog is interacting with the others and if there is the potential of harm. If the park doesn't have the right kind of dogs and owners at the time then you can easily walk out of the park in a controlled manner.

Tak and Marcie decided that it felt okay and set Kaede free. She had a blast obviously. After the dog park adventure Kaede responded much better to walking in the Heel position. It makes sense to get all of the excited energy out before training. Not as a puppy of course but she is old enough to handle it.

I hope to bring my dog to this spot when I get him/her as this will provide great training and socialization ground. Next to the fenced dog park there is a big field that would serve well for recall training. I'm excited about training and Kaede is a very good example of how patience and time can provide the results you want.