Barking News! Back to School!

I heard mama say that it's important to keep learning new things so you become smarter and can do new and exciting things. She said it makes life more fun. And I already know that my mama is right almost all the time, so I decided to see what I could maybe learn next because I've already learned a lot...

I've done Agility Training! I learned to run through tunnels, weave through poles, sit on big boxes, balance on a seesaw, climb up and down big ramps, and remember the order in which to do it. Mama was supposed to help me remember the order of the course. Some days, she did better than others, but she always tried her best.

I'm a Canine Good Citizen! This was very impawtent to become because it taught me how to be good when I went out with mama because the more good I could be, the more I could go out with her. I had to learn to do 10 different tasks, and I was only 15 months old! I had to avoid distractions, walk through a crowd, sit still while mama spoke to someone, come when mama called me and I even had to stay sitting alone without seeing where my mama was.

So I kept practicing to be really good because I wanted to go everywhere with mama, and it wasn't hard for me to practice every day. Mama said that was because I had a really, really good reason to do well!

I have a Novice Trick Title! I wanted to be able to do tricks because sometimes it's also good to learn new things just for fun, and I found out you also get a lot of treats when you're learning tricks. Bonus! I had to learn 10 tricks, but 5 tricks could be things I already knew from my Canine Good Citizen Test, so I really only had to learn 5 new tricks. My tricks were knowing hand signals, how to high five and do a paw-shake, kissing mama on the cheek, and spinning in a circle.

These might sound easy, but they were new to me, and I had to do all 10 tricks in less than 30 minutes.

I have an Intermediate Trick Title!

I chose to learn to do this because I wanted to know more tricks and ones that were harder. It's fun to sometimes do hard things because it feels especially good when you can do something you didn't think was pawsible. This was much harder than my first tricks title because I had to learn 10 completely new tricks. The tricks I learned were to find a hidden toy, go to my mat across the room and stay on it, run through weave poles, balance on a wobbly board, jump through a hoop, put my paws up on a box when mama told me to, ring bells, walk backward, walk next to mama and sit whenever she stopped walking. And my bonus challenge trick was to know the names of 3 of my toys.

I'm a Certified Therapy Dog

When I was 18 months I decided I wanted to become a Certified Therapy Dog so I could officially help more people to live*love*play and have an even happier, more fun life! I achieved my goal of getting certified before I was 2, and then I started volunteering with mama at the Banner Children's Hospital. It was very rewarding to do but we had to stop going when mama got sick. Mama made sure we had a coach for all these cool things I did. Mama said if we had a coach, we'd learn faster, and I'd be able to do my tricks better because she'd see mistakes we didn't.

She said I'd learn new ideas like going one step at a time, not giving up when it's hard, and how impawtent it is to practice every day if you want to become a rock star at what you're learning.

And by doing all these cool things, she said I'd also learn to do things I already knew how to do even better, like listening extra well and being super pawtient although I think being super pawtient applies to mama much more than me.

I'm so glad mama was smart enough to get us a coach, even though she's also a coach. Our coach Julie was pawmazing!

I'm a Security Dog! I wanted to become a Security Dog to help Brian and Pete keep our community safe. The short story is that Mama, Brian and Pete taught me how to do this job. I make sure that everyone who comes into our community is supposed to so there isn't any stranger danger and I had to say good-bye to everyone going out. I LOVE this job! If you paw here, you can read the long story.

I'm the Author of Toffy's Dog Blog! But you already know this because you're reading my blog now, so thanks for following Life with Toffy and all my adventures. I really apawciate it! I love writing Toffy's Dog Blog! It makes me so happy! And I love finding photos to share with you!

The only frustrating part about Toffy's Dog Blog is that I have to always wait for mama to post my blogs because I'm not old enough to have my own account!

And sometimes she's really busy or dealing with lots of stressful things, and she also helps lots of other people with their stressful stuff because she's a rock-start coach. So sometimes I have to wait much too long to pawblish my stories.

I asked mama if I could get a virtual assistant because my in-person assistant didn't seem to always be reliable. Mama said it wasn't necessary and that she would make sure Toffy's Dog Blog was published on time. We'll have to wait and see what happens, but I'm sure mama won't let me down.

I know this is a VERY long story this month but before I could share by very exciting BARKING NEWS I wanted to make sure you'd understand why it's so special! Do you remember I told you that I heard mama say how impawtent it is to always keep learning new things, trying different activities, doing things you hadn't done before, and becoming a better pawson or dog like me? So I decided to find something new for me to do or learn that would be hard enough to get me out of the comfort of my really cool "dawg-box" and make my brain work extra hard but also be able to help people even more! It wasn't so easy to pick something new because I've already done a lot of things but after thinking about it for a long time to make sure I was making the right choice, I made two big decisions that I'm so excited about... .

I'm a COACH! Even though I've been a Certified Therapy Dog since I was two, I decided that I wanted to officially become a coach just like mama! I know this is impawtent for me because now I'm helping more and more people with Toffy's Dog Blog, and I want to be a responsible and professional coach.

Mama was very excited about this and said I was ready to graduate for 5 reasons:

1. I'm already a Certified Therapy Dog. 2. I really care about helping people.

3. I already do a very good job inspiring and helping people on Toffy's Dog Blog.

4. It matters to me that I do things correctly.

5. I've listened to thousands of hours of mama coaching very successful people around the world, and I've also listened to hundreds and hundreds of hours of her training other coaches.

So, the 1st BARKING NEWS I wanted to share with you is that this summer, I officially GRADUATED from my mama's coaching school! I'm so proud and excited about this!! The 2nd BARKING NEWS is that I'm now also a...

Service Dog in Training!

Yes! I'm learning to be a proper Service Dog with mama. Joelle is our coach and she is totally pawsome!

I can already tell that it's so much harder than learning to be a Therapy Dog, and it will take much longer, too.

I don't even know yet what all the things we'll have to learn, but I know we have to practice a lot but we're off to a great start! I hope I get even better treats because I'm doing something so hard.

Mama says it's like doing my PhD. I don't know what that is, but it sounds fancy.

I'll keep you pawsted on how we're doing as long as mama doesn't drop the ball on updating Toffy's Dog Blog when I need her to!!!

This was a LONG blog post, but I had to recap nearly 7-years recap of all the cool things I've learned so you know the whole story and how hard I worked to get here. People always say how lucky mama is that I'm so good but they don't stop to think why I'm so good! It's not luck! As you can see it's been a lot hard work that we've loved doing and that we stay committed to no matter what challenges we had along the way and there were a lot!

So what we have is not luck!

But now, what about you? What have you learned along your journey through life that you're most proud of, and, like me and mama, what are you learning now? I can't wait to read about what you're learning for fun or for work.

Toffy xoxo #lifewithtoffy

PS! If you liked this edition of Toffy's Dog Blog, please share it with your friends and family and help me share my message to live*love*play!