Happy New Year!

Hey everyone – I hope you all had a great holiday season. Duke and Snook got some fun presents for Christmas and are completely exhausted with all the activities this last week. Cheers to 2026!

I normally don’t set resolutions, but this year there are a couple resolutions for us. 2026 is going to have some focus around some big things for “the boys”.

Snook is going to continue teaching Duke and supervising his service dog tasks. He does let Duke alert but if Duke misses the opportunity to alert, he will jump in. Snook will need to begin to stay home more and be okay with it. That is going to be a challenge as he has been going pretty much everywhere with me for almost 8 years.

Snook has his personal space and Duke will always invade that bubble which makes Snook mad. He is glad when it is just him and I when Duke is getting groomed because he doesn’t have to share me with him. Snook is going to go on a trip with me in June as a “last hurrah” plane ride, just the two of us. This will be his last big adventure before retirement begins.

Duke’s two resolutions this year are to get better with his public access and get his gut fully healed so he isn’t so itchy. His skin is terribly dry and we have tried lots of things to fix it but ultimately, I think it’s his gut balance.

Duke is so scared of loud noises, most men, Target and the grocery store. He will cower, tuck his tail between his legs and shut down (which is not something he can do long term, especially as an active service dog). No alerts happen when this occurs. He is making progress and does pretty good in most places but still struggles more than he should at this point.

We are going to work on building Duke’s confidence. After talking with another trainer, there are three types of things we will be doing – adventure walks, “catch the good” and him choosing to follow the command for a reward.

Adventure walks are when Duke would be on a long leash and allowed to explore outside of a heel position. The only time I would do anything would be if he goes out into the street or gets himself in a dangerous place.

The “catch the good” is to reward Duke when he does something good on his own like stay calm, lay down without a command, etc. He gets a reward for choosing to be obedient and no command is given.

The “choosing to follow the command” exercise involves giving the command once and then waiting for him to follow it knowing that he will get the reward/treat faster if he follows the command faster. This involves no repetition of the command or correction for not doing it (yet). After we work on these three things around the house and in the neighborhood, then we will begin to do more work in stores and out in public.

2026 will be an adventure but I do hope that we accomplish a lot and that Duke becomes an amazing service dog, allowing Snook to retire.