2026-07-11 @ 12:02 | dog training and sweat
I am sweating my ass off every day. It's been so hot outside during this heatwave on the east coast. Every day has been over 90F with 80+% humidity.
You walk outside and it feels like the air punches you in the face. My glasses fog, everything instantly becomes sticky, and I am immediately in a shit mood. I invested in a set of tank tops and shorts. Shorts have that unfortuate crotch hang that I wish I noticed before I bought them and now I've committed to wearing them instead of returning them.
There is no denying it, July sucks. The end of this month is going to be a 3 day trip with my older brother, my father and my kid for a college orientation. I am dreading this.
At least I live somewhere that is absolutely gorgeous in the worst of weather. You have to hold onto those small blessings under immense heat and humidity. Is this view really
worth the three greenhead bites I have on my legs? One is so deep it looks like someone put a cig out on my knee. I could complain about the bugs and heat for another six paragraphs.
I'll save you the pain (even though misery loves company.)
We've started to get more serious with Riker's training now that he hit 5 months. Previously we only hammered on the basics. Sit, lay down, crate, place, and come here. His recall is absolute trash. That specifically needs the most work and I have to do more research, maybe get a longer lead, spend every day working on it. His heel (foos) is getting a lot better. Today we walked around the baseball fields with all the distractions and even though we had some chaos he still was able to hit the command correctly a few times. He also tripped me and made me fall on my ass in front of two people. Nothing hurts but my ego. As usual.
Tomorrow the antler scent training kit arrives. Planning to just collect as many ticks as possible this year and maybe a few deer sheds. We don't have any other antler critters so that's all we would be training for. With how many I see driving around the parkway, there's gotta be a few sheds lying around the woods where we roam. Maybe we can drive out to hot spots and do little hunts. Look at that face of his and tell me he doesn't just crave labor. He's still incredibly young and can't do much work. Maybe max 30 minutes a day of actual training. It's really easy to tell when he can't mentally continue with the training. He'll stare off somewhere, do other tricks one after another in order to like speed through what he thinks I want him to do. It's clever but I feel bad because he's tired.
He really crashes when we do a lot of work, especially early in the morning. It sets the tone for the entire day. We did some early morning training today. I fell on my ass. He weighs 52lbs and is only 5 months old. It's an uphill battle every day but I can't wait to get to the top of this hill. We're looking into moving a few doors down into a fullsized townhome instead of this upstairs 2 bedroom apartment. It would give us an additonal 400sqft, a backyard, front porch, and a neighbor I actually am friends with. She has a beautiful Rottie that Riker is completely head over heels for. He wiggles his whole body so hard for that big girl. I have high hopes for August.
I am sweating my ass off every day. It's been so hot outside during this heatwave on the east coast. Every day has been over 90F with 80+% humidity. You walk outside and it feels like the air punches you in the face. My glasses fog, everything instantly becomes sticky, and I am immediately in a shit mood. I invested in a set of tank tops and shorts. Shorts have that unfortuate crotch hang that I wish I noticed before I bought them and now I've committed to wearing them instead of returning them. There is no denying it, July sucks. The end of this month is going to be a 3 day trip with my older brother, my father and my kid for a college orientation. I am dreading this.
At least I live somewhere that is absolutely gorgeous in the worst of weather. You have to hold onto those small blessings under immense heat and humidity. Is this view really worth the three greenhead bites I have on my legs? One is so deep it looks like someone put a cig out on my knee. I could complain about the bugs and heat for another six paragraphs. I'll save you the pain (even though misery loves company.)
We've started to get more serious with Riker's training now that he hit 5 months. Previously we only hammered on the basics. Sit, lay down, crate, place, and come here. His recall is absolute trash. That specifically needs the most work and I have to do more research, maybe get a longer lead, spend every day working on it. His heel (foos) is getting a lot better. Today we walked around the baseball fields with all the distractions and even though we had some chaos he still was able to hit the command correctly a few times. He also tripped me and made me fall on my ass in front of two people. Nothing hurts but my ego. As usual.
Tomorrow the antler scent training kit arrives. Planning to just collect as many ticks as possible this year and maybe a few deer sheds. We don't have any other antler critters so that's all we would be training for. With how many I see driving around the parkway, there's gotta be a few sheds lying around the woods where we roam. Maybe we can drive out to hot spots and do little hunts. Look at that face of his and tell me he doesn't just crave labor. He's still incredibly young and can't do much work. Maybe max 30 minutes a day of actual training. It's really easy to tell when he can't mentally continue with the training. He'll stare off somewhere, do other tricks one after another in order to like speed through what he thinks I want him to do. It's clever but I feel bad because he's tired.
He really crashes when we do a lot of work, especially early in the morning. It sets the tone for the entire day. We did some early morning training today. I fell on my ass. He weighs 52lbs and is only 5 months old. It's an uphill battle every day but I can't wait to get to the top of this hill. We're looking into moving a few doors down into a fullsized townhome instead of this upstairs 2 bedroom apartment. It would give us an additonal 400sqft, a backyard, front porch, and a neighbor I actually am friends with. She has a beautiful Rottie that Riker is completely head over heels for. He wiggles his whole body so hard for that big girl. I have high hopes for August.