Nakina earned both her AKC Novice Tricks and AKC Fit Dog Bronze titles this week while continuing to show impressive maturity and focus for her age.

🐾 Awarded

Nakina was officially awarded both her AKC Novice Tricks title and her AKC Fit Dog Bronze title this week. I’m incredibly proud of her. Earning these titles before even reaching eight months old feels especially meaningful, and she continues to amaze me with how much she is learning and maturing.

Training

Nakina’s private training session went very well this week, with a strong focus on attention and recall work.

By midweek, Nakina was not feeling well, so the rest of the week became much quieter to allow her time to rest and recover.

Our Rally Skills class also went extremely well. The instructor even suggested considering a Rally trial in August. It may still be a little soon with everything else we are currently working on, but it was exciting to hear and definitely something we will keep in mind moving forward.

Intermediate Tricks was canceled this week due to the trainer traveling, but we continued practicing the Week 1 tricks at home.

We are also continuing our three highly focused 10-minute walks each day, which are helping significantly with engagement and loose leash walking.

For AKC Fit Dog Silver, we have one remaining exercise from Week 3 that still needs to be completed. In the meantime, we are waiting for the Week 4 exercises to be evaluated.

Socialization

Nakina’s ability to focus has improved tremendously. Sometimes it is hard to remember that she is still a puppy because she often appears so mature and accomplished for her age.

She truly is doing very well.

What's Next

• Emergency Stop & Hand Targeting — reintroduce and build consistency
• Down vs. settle — continue creating a clear distinction
• Stay — increase distance, duration, and distractions
• Recall — continue on leash in more distracting environments
• Travel Crate — zipping with no stress
• Grooming — begin grooming desensitization on the table
• Continue elevator desensitization

I’m very relieved that Nakina started feeling better so quickly after visiting the vet. The shot she received for nausea seems to have made a huge difference, and her appetite improved significantly afterward.