Sarah and the Pack

04/26/2025

Friday morning jaw jousting…. Enjoy….

04/25/2025

Puppy predicaments and uncle Leo to the rescue!

04/22/2025

Murphy arrived for a board and train stay this past weekend and I’m so excited to spend time with this goofy big feelings girl. She reminds me a lot of Leo except her excitement comes out via vertical leaps sharky teeth and his was yodels and wiggles. I absolutely love doing board and trains, but it’s not like you send your dog to me for a few weeks and I send them back all fixed up. Just like humans, meaningful behavior change takes time and patience and progress is not usually fast or linear. For this reason, I don’t have flashy ‘before’ and ‘after’ videos. However, when I reviewed a training session and journal (for Murphy’s humans) I took yesterday I realized it was a perfect before and after illustration where 6 month old Murph is the ‘before, needing me right there and with her to help her manage feelings via coregulation and 3 year old Leo on the couch behind is the after, lying there (for the most part) chilling and waiting aooooo patiently even though this is so exciting for him! I never thought I’d see the day…. lol. Progress happens! You just need to have realistic expectations and remind yourself to look for it!

04/21/2025

It feels like spring and between amazing weather and adorable dogs I’m drowning in media so here’s a photo dump of the last few weeks. 

04/15/2025

04/14/2025

If you’ve ever raised a puppy, you have probably experienced an episode when the puppy got really concerned about something completely innocuous…a plastic bag blowing in the wind… a lawn ornament… their own reflection… I have had my share of giggle-fits in these situations and while I do recommend approaching them with light, playful energy, I do not recommend laughing them off or leaving your puppy high and dry to figure it out on their own. The beautiful thing about puppies is that they are full of curiosity and if you can help them to tap into that and use it to investigate and find, on their own, that the thing is, in fact, harmless, you are now laying the groundwork for confidence and resilience and that is greatest gift you can give your future dog. I was able to capture an example of this with Murphy, the golden doodle puppy who’s long flowing locks obscured her vision during a game of chase with Moki, leading her to run into a log in my backyard. With some support on my part, Murphy was back to her regular self in a matter of minutes. This process looks different for every single puppy and dog and there is a lot of nuance involved, but I absolutely love this podcast for a primer on the topic. I’ve passed it out at least 5 times in the past couple months so I figure it’s worth sharing publicly!https://sarahstremming.com/podcasts/when-your-dog-is-afraid/

04/05/2025

Feels like summer! Diana Estrada

04/03/2025

This is what dinner looks like over here:

03/31/2025

I’m so proud of this!

It took me months to teach Ruby to file her own back nails. It took four sessions less than two minutes each to teach Olive. I’d like to say it’s because I’m a better trainer, but it’s probably the border collie. She is so stinking smart and fun to train!

03/28/2025

What a handsome crew…

03/21/2025

Backyard shenanigans with the Friday crew!

03/14/2025

Leo and I checked out a new sniffspot this past weekend, see my review and go check it out!

Creekside Meadow on the McKenzie
https://www.sniffspot.com/to/nm0ys

03/12/2025

03/12/2025

This guy! I can’t even handle how polite and patient he is. He sees the readily available puzzle toy on the ground and instead of just taking it, he asks me for it via eye contact.

03/08/2025

Leo encounters a sign monster

03/07/2025

03/05/2025

03/05/2025