Get Smart Dog Training

Ruby at the car dealership while the car gets serviced.

Ruby got her "big girl" cape to go with her harness. No more "in training" patches. She meets the minimum requirements for a service dog. Congrats to Ruby! We are proud of you!

Today's training: Ruby goes to court.

We had to go to a court hearing this morning. Ruby has never been through a metal detector which is weird and loud. Then she had to sit quietly in the courtroom for about an hour. She was perfect, except a little whining when she got impatient towards the end.

Super proud of Ruby today! She went to two restaurants and no one even knew she was there unless they saw us come in. She practiced being under the table while we ate breakfast and even ignored a piece of sausage we put on the floor in front of her. Then, at another restaurant we met up with some family and she got to practice crawling underneath a chair and staying there. It was a small table and lots of people so tucking under the chair kept her out of the way. We celebrated with a pup cup on the way home.

I have put off this announcement as long as I could but Get Smart Dog Training will no longer be accepting any clients for the foreseeable future. Any previous clients will, of course, be supported. So if you've been a client in the past feel free to reach out to me with any Training questions.

I know people are going to want to know why this is happening so I'll address that. Most of you know I took a few months off the beginning of this year to recover from major surgery. During my recovery, my husband experienced two minor strokes. These strokes, coupled with his traumatic brain injury from a car accident in 2017, has brought on the early symptoms of dementia. I am now using my time to take care of him and do some activities while he is still able to do them and, hopefully, remember them.

I may come back to Training and creating Dog products down the road, but for now it isn't feasible for me. I'll still post updates about all the adventures of Madison, Nova, and Ruby so you can share in their lives with us.

Thank you for all your support and stay tuned for news all about the stars of the show, Madison, Nova, and Ruby. Here's a recent picture of me and Ruby on a training outing last week.

Wishing this goofy, loving, and beautiful, little girl a happy 2nd birthday today. Ruby brightens my life every day and I'm blessed to have her. She is smart and affectionate and brings smiles to everyone around her.

To celebrate today, she got birthday cookies and opened presents. Then she got a special dinner of raw hamburger mixed with her dog food. And of course, her sisters got to have a birthday cookie, open a present, and have special dinner to celebrate, too.

Special thanks to Humphrey Retrievers for entrusting us with her. We can't wait to see what is in her future.

Happy Labrador Retriever Day! Ruby, Nova, and Madison celebrated with a homemade "pup cup" since I couldn't take them to get one today. Ruby and Nova are both 100% lab, while Madison is a mix of breeds but about 25% of that is Labrador so she was included in celebrating the lab heritage.

My favorite Christmas present this year....

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

Christmas Eve 2023

I got matching pajamas for the girls and I so we could take some pictures in front of the tree. Then I gave them bowls of whipped cream while I had some eggnog. It wasn't easy getting cute photos from this group, but worth it. Merry Christmas everyone!

A rare, cute picture of my "Super Nova Of The Universe". She's not a fan of pictures so I have to snag them when I can.