I am writing this a week or so earlier than his actual birthday, but I thought I would have a quick recap on what we have got up to in the past year. I love doing these each year at birthdays because it is easy to forget what has happened within the space of one year and I love being able to grow from it and make new goals for the next year.
We finished our second year of #300kmJune where Diego and I walked 300 kilometres within the month to raise money for HUHANZ. This was both extremely hard and extremely rewarding. I didn't raise as much money as I would have wanted to, but I learn that Diego and I can achieve things we put our mind to. It also showed me how great my community is as I was well supported during the month.
Diego was part of the Wolves of Wellington Kickstarter Photoshoot where he got to show off his modelling skills while wearing their awesome new gear. I am still shocked every time I will be randomly browsing a site and there will be Diego on their site. Wolves has grown from strength to strength this past year so it's cool that Diego got to be a part of their Kickstarter at the start.
I finally went to a dog behaviourist/trainer to discuss Diego's Reactivity. I also got such overwhelming responses on any Social Media Post about that reactivity that I have made it into a series on here, and one that I speak openly about. Lewis was a lot of help for me, and made me understand things in a more broad term instead of focusing on my own sense of failure. I have found Diego has improved greatly when I am actively working on the techniques taught. He still has some bad days, but generally it is a lot more manageable now.
Animates sent Diego a huge package of amazing boredom breaker toys and treats which we have been using, reviewing and loving over the past year that they have sent them to us. A lot of the toys from this package are still in Diego's weekly rotation of toys and are amongst both of our favourites for ease of use and long wearing'ness (if that is a word).
Black Hawk sent us an amazing PR package, followed up with some bags of food for us, as well as a giveaway bag. This was an amazing experience for Diego to try a new brand of dog food, and although we have reverted back to Orijen, I still think this is a very good food and I am so happy we got to try it out.
We also went on a heap of new hikes, and much loved hikes that we have been on previously. I love exploring new places and getting to see cool new sights that I have never seen. Diego likes sniffing where all the dogs and wild life have been before him. I plan to do many more hikes in the coming years and this was the year that really kicked off our love of new adventures to a new height.
Speaking of hikes, Diego and Ollie decided to chase after some sort of wild creature on a hike outside of Whanganui and were completely lost in thousands of hectares of bush. Thankfully Ollie was most upset from being parted from Tammin so kept up constant barking, although with that being vibrated around the valleys it was near impossible to pinpoint their exact location. In the end a lovely local hunter helped us call them, and they were safely returned. From now on, those two are not allowed off leash together on any hikes. If you want to hear the full story, it would be cool to do a story time on our YouTube channel about that! Let me know!
Diego also got to try a bunch new treats from awesome New Zealand companies, get to feature in a bunch of amazing Instagram accounts and be decked out in awesome collars, bandanas and leashes.
Now for the best part, at least one photo from every month of his 3rd year!
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