As I say every year, it's been a weird year. Personally, I'm trying to navigate an ever-present, deep pit of shame. I've been working with a therapist, for over a month now, to push through the discomfort and identify behavioural patterns and self-talk; it's very challenging work. Blah blah blah. At the beginning of September, I attended an incredible, paradigm-shifting 2.5 day seminar about dog behaviour and training with a trainer named Blake Rodriguez. It really soldified a number of concepts of dog training I thought I understood (but it turns out I only knew them on a theoretical level, not the practical application). He communicates very colloquially, unlike me who is using a lot of huge words for no reason. He explains dog training by breaking it down and through making a ton of comparisons. He values accessible dog behaviour education and you can tell that he works hard to make sure he can get through to people and help them understand. It has been o...