Bertrude

Phew. It’s a New Year. Lots of drama and potential change for our southern neighbours. I’ll say I’m not a fan of rabid nationalism and isolationist policies and I think it’s potentially four years of regression in many ways. But I also think issues are always more complex and nuanced than they seem. Let’s leave it at that.

I am determined to write more often. Let’s leave that as that as well. :-)

Now onto the more important thing…

This is Bert! He is 3. My wonderful girlfriend found him in the classifieds in mid-October. He was at a good home, but his previous owner/mentor/keeper had health issues and couldn’t give him the care he deserved.

He is not a small boy. Tall, lean and strong. Very majestic looking but plenty of goof in there as well. We think he’s a Shepherd/Mastiff mix.

Bert (as in Ernie & Bert) is very friendly with people. But he’s a bull in a china shop. He’s not very friendly with other dogs. He’s not textbook aggressive to them, but way too over-eager. Too in-your-face. Lately he’s becoming more and more anxious around them.

And it’s hard to control a dog this size. Hard enough for me. Very difficult for my girlfriend and likely impossible for my daughter.

So we started the dog training. I’m a week in and have seen much improvement. It’s relatively old-school. Longe-line leash training at first and then on from there. Not treat-based (he gets enough of those every day :-)).

It’s me doing the training. And after a week or so, I already see a strong bond forming between us because of it. My lovely girlfriend knows this would happen but claims she doesn’t have to like it. :-).

So this is my little adventure and challenge until around the end of February when the official lessons end (ongoing consistency and maintenance training after that no doubt).

It’s rewarding. I see such quick progress (Bert is smart and good looking). But it’s 20 minutes every morning and 20 minutes every night. It’s a challenge for me to keep anything going for long, but since I love dogs and love Bert, it seems pretty easy.

That’s it for now. But I expect more quickly-written, quite possibly uninteresting content will be posted here this coming year than in the previous one.