Today, Emmett is 6 months old by the calendar and tomorrow: 26 weeks since his birth. And just in case you don’t remember … my birthday is Thursday, August 16. I will (hopefully) celebrate 63 times around the sun :)

Mid August. While not the hottest summer in my Montana experience, this week had its heat challenges. But my window coverings and A/C won!!

That reading was Thursday when Kalispell hit 100F and set a record for the date. The previous record was 99F in 2003. And although the gauge shows 99.3, the temp did rise to 99.5 for a bit before starting to cool about 5:00 p.m. And because of the very low humidity here, plus the longer nights as we are 6 weeks past Summer Solstice … it takes all day to get to the peak and we have enough night time and lower sun angle, that it cools quickly if skies are clear. This week, the smoke prevented the 102-105 forecast but it also kept the nights warmer than forecast.

Still, compared to the mid-west, east and south … the heat here is certainly more manageable. The A/C units I have would not work as well other places. In fact, this year, I wrapped the exhaust hoses in duct wrap. AND, I added extra light/heat blocking on windows. Previous years I could maintain about 20-25 degrees cooler than outside, but WOW -31 degrees cooler = happy, happy Summers fambly!

Double coated Auggie feels the heat outside …

He does not object very much to my keeping him in when it is hot and smoky!

Emmett likes the cool of the house and the extra cool of the fan.

Summer time is the time for taking it easy with an afternoon chew. I had to laugh at Emmett taking his chew to the towel. We’d just come in from a round in the sprinkler. I’d used the towel to dry him off and then dropped it to do something else. When I came back, he was there … all the mess of the chew treat on the towel: Mr. Neat!

Some evenings, the smoke has cleared a bit and the last walk in the woods is beautiful:

And this morning, after a cool front passed through, it is clear and the forecast high is a relatively pleasant 81F.

We had a slow start to Sunday and enjoyed.

Training! We continue and the focus the last 2 weeks has been focus, as in focus on me. And also calm. Emmett is all about action and sometimes more about what he wants than what I want. Hence, working on focus and calm.

My local trainer referred me to Kikopup’s youtube channel. WOW! I have watched many of the videos and also purchased the “Weekly Puppy Insight’s” package. So much good info and ideas as well as step-by-step training.

Kikopup is Emily Larlham. The website and her business is Dogmantics . Her intro video says it all about who she is and how she trains:

One of the videos that I’ve trained from for helping Emmett calm is this “chin rest” video.

The takeaway is that Emily is PASSIONATE about positive reinforcement training aka Clicker Training. If you’ve thought that this method is a gimmick or not effective or ??? please watch at least the 2 videos above. Emily works with Karen Pryor’s philosophy as does my local trainer and also Laurie Luck (Smart Dog University whose videos have helped me also).

AND!!! If Emily and Laurie are not enough … check out this Instagram feed:

https://instagram.com/p/BgbqmYqgzb1/

Mary (17) and Secret (3), her Aussie Shepherd Service Dog for medical alert and Autism. Their relationship as well as what they do together is beyond awesome. Mary trained/trains Secret herself based on positive reinforcement/clicker training.

Mary, Emily, Laurie and my local trainer, Will are incredible resources and inspiration. Emmett and I (and Auggie) are having so much fun as we all work together.