GTA GRK9 of the Season

Everyone meet Floyd and Amy. Their dedication, consistency and progress has awarded them our GRK9 of the Season.

We can't wait to watch this team continue to grow and hit their training goals.

We had asked Amy if she would answer some questions about Floyd's and her journey.

1. How old was Floyd when you got him?

2. Where did you get him from?

3 Why did you pick him?

4. Why did you want to begin training?

5. What were some of your training goals?

6. What was the biggest obstacle to overcome during training?

7. What are you guys working on now?

8. If you could give any of our clients advice about accomplishing your training goals, what would it be?

1. I got Floyd at 8 weeks old

2. I got him from a breeder I found on Kijiji.

3. I chose Floyd because he was the only one of his color in the whole litter! All his brothers and sisters were "blue". He stood out to me.

4. Training was always important to me, but I took it a lot more seriously and enrolled with Grassroots when I began seeing signs of fear aggression in Floyd. I wanted to learn how I could build Floyd's confidence around strangers and loud noises. We did a series of private sessions leading up to a board and train and are continuing with private sessions to reinforce everything!

5. Some training goals for us would be to build Floyd's confidence in new and "scary" situations so that he can make better decisions. Being around strangers and loose leash walking is particularly important for us.

6. My biggest obstacle (which I'm still trying to work on) is definitely my own confidence. I know Floyd can sense my anxiety and I'm positive that it has impacted his training and the way he approaches situations. I'm happy to say that I've made good progress and have been feeling great with him lately!

7. Currently we are working very hard every day on the "walk" command. I want Floyd to walk right next to me while we are in my neighborhood and in certain situations. Also, we work daily on the "mark" command. My next step with Floyd is to have someone he has never met before in my home while he is on the mark! We are both working on our confidence to have this happen!

8. My advice would be consistency is key! Sometimes we forget that dogs are not people, and their way of communicating is completely different from us so for them to understand what we want from them, we need to be consistent every single day.