FSJ ACT

Wrapping Up 2024

Dog Blog, FSJ ACT, FSJ ACT, FSJ Dog Training, update, Zelda

As the end of the year gradually races towards us, I find myself reflecting on the past year and considering the year ahead. Last year, dog training was a whirlwind of client after client. This year was a slow business year. I think a part of it is that this is a small town and eventually clientele will slow down no matter what, but also I think a lot of it has to do with my own time management.

We started FSJ ACTS in February/March this year and we hit the ground running. I could probably write an entire blog on just this year with ACT. I am constantly feeling pulled between my family, my jobs and my volunteer hours. I love all of it, but I don’t really have time for all of it. I’m so exhausted all the time that I don’t push myself as hard I could to make my dog training career more successful. I keep telling myself it will come with time as my kids get older.

That being said, when I look back on this year and everything I’ve done and learned I realize it’s been a pretty big year too. Just in more subtle ways. I did my first group class in June, which flopped as a group class but I met one wonderful person and her spunky hound dog pup and we still connect and stay in touch. My ideal client is one who shows up on time, does the work with their dog and stays in touch to let me know how it goes in the long-run. I don’t want to ever have a client tell me their training didn’t work out (or worse, hear it from someone else) when I could have been there to help guide them in a different direction. Dog training is kind of a mix between science and art, it isn’t always so black and white. Some things will work with some dogs but not others. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to find what does work.

2024 also taught me how important Pack in the Park is, and it breaks my heart that I haven’t been able to host one in months. I’m currently putting together a new Host training program, so if you’re local to Fort St. James and would like to try to host a Pack in the Park let, me know! I wish I could be there myself, but I just can’t at this time in my life. So I’m hoping to find one or two more individuals who’d like to host it.

I took on a foster puppy for the first time since I was involved with the humane society in 2008-2012. It was extremely challenging. I underestimated how chaotic our house would feel with one more young being in it. Boss was such a great foster pup, the best I could have asked for. So chill, calm, and happy to please. But even with all those wonderful traits it made my house feel more chaotic. I’ve learned that if I do take on a foster dog it has to be limited to the summer when I can utilize my outdoor kennel more. I don’t know if my family will even be ready for another foster dog by next summer, though. Saying goodbye to Boss was really hard. Luckily, he is with a really wonderful family and I still get to see him on occasion when he comes for play dates with Zelda. Boss taught me it’s possible and completely okay to love a dog that isn’t part of your family.

I helped spearhead the Art for Animals Gallery Fundraiser and we learned so much from that. It wasn’t just about the money, it turned into this amazing opportunity to connect with the public about what ACT does. We reached a lot of people and taught them who we are and what we do. We had students come through the gallery and learn about art and our cause. For the amount of work and time it took, it wasn’t exactly the most profitable fundraiser but it turned out to be so much more than a fundraiser. I’m really proud of this one.

Last Sunday we had the first Annual Santa Photos fundraiser; which was so much more than just Santa Photos! We also had a little Christmas pet shop, nail trims by Katie, Dog Training Consultations by me and live music by Natile, as well as a few cool door prizes! We raised $790 and had a total blast meeting everyone and their furry family members. I think with more time to plan it next year we will bring it back next December, even better!

At our last ACT meeting we established the roles we would all like to play. I am now the Humane Education Coordinator. I joined Doggone Safe and am currently enrolled in a course so that I can be certified to teach dog bite prevention. I’m about halfway through it, as I write this, and I’ve learned so much already. It’s a very thorough course and I highly recommend it to any dog enthusiasts or anyone who works with dogs. I have plans to upgrade my education with more than just bite prevention as well. With these upgrades, I can’t wait to bring more humane education programs to Fort St. James in 2025.

I will be closed from December 19, 2024 until January 7, 2025. Happy Holidays!

FSJ ACTS will be closed from December 21, 2024 until January 2, 2025.

September Update

Dog Blog, Dog Rescue, FSJ ACT, FSJ ACT, FSJ Dog Training, update

I’m going to quit promising any kind of posting schedule or content because it’s clear I can’t keep up on it long-term. I will post when I can or when I have anything worth posting about.

Dog training has been slow for me, but not because there aren’t dogs who need training. I have myself invested in a lot of places. I have two kids (7 and 2) and since school just started back up we’ve had back to back sicknesses. We’ve just started potty training the two year old and that’s a whole new level of challenge. I am on the board of directors of the Fort St. James Animal Care Team Society (FSJ ACTS) and the animals of FSJ keep us very busy. I just started working weekends at The View Hotel, which means I no longer have availability on the weekends for dog training. My husband drives logging truck and his hours are long and all over the place which also makes scheduling difficult. As a side project, I’m also helping put together an art show for FSJ ACTS and (separately) I have put my crochet critters at So Divine Artisan Boutique. Not to mention, the kids activities, taking care of our home, and dealing with my injured foot for going on 16 months now.

I don’t normally air my personal life on here, but the reason I am explaining all of this is to ask you to please be patient with me. Scheduling is difficult right now, but I hope that by next summer I will find a new rhythm that will fit dog training into my life more. One of the things I really wanted to do was to check in with past clients. It’s been a year of dog training (already!) and I haven’t heard from most of you which I hope is a good thing. I would love to reach out to every single one of you. If you are a past client reading this, please feel free to get in touch with me and let me know how you and your dog are doing. I really love hearing updates. I love the good updates and I want to hear the bad updates so that I can help support you further.

FSJ Animal Care Team Society and Pope Mountain Arts are teaming up together to put on a group art show that will benefit the animals in the care of FSJ ACTS.

It’s open to all artists and all mediums. There is no theme, but an animal them or inspiration is encouraged. There’s no limit on the number of pieces to submit, but do keep in mind that this is a group art show and there is limited space.

For more information you can download our Information Package or email fsj.act@gmail.com

Art-for-Animals-2024Download

Once again, I’m slightly restructuring how I offer my services. There will be no price changes though, if anything, I am expanding my services. Since it’s become quite difficult for me to schedule training sessions and my space to train in for the winter is not ideal, I’ll be focusing on offering training consultations over the phone, Facebook messenger or e-mail.

Not to be confused with my previous consultations offered to help structure your training session to meet you and your dogs unique needs. To avoid confusion, the Over-The-Phone Consultation will now be known as a Phone Evaluation and the Online Consultation will be known as an Online Evaluation. The price of the training session will still be broken up between the Evaluation and the training session and will remain at the same price.

So what will be involved in a consultation that makes it different from an evaluation?

The evaluation is there to help make the most effective training session I can offer by evaluating your dog and your goals and values. With this information I will create a hands-on training session that will benefit you the most.

The consultation will include the evaluation but will also focus on advice I can give right away and a back and forth conversation that will help me determine the best advice I can offer over the phone or online. There is no broken down price because there is no hands-on training session. I may advise a training session for a later date, but the consultation will involve planning and create a training plan that is just for you that you can start right away on our own at home with your dog. The price for a consultation is $50 and includes a phone call or online based conversation that will cover the evaluation and then continue on with advice I can give right then and there. A follow up e-mail will be sent to you with a breakdown of what we discussed and any files or links to resources you may find helpful. If you require additional help then another consultation may be scheduled or you may schedule an in-person training session, if both parties agree that it is necessary.

I hope that with this new service I will be able to help more people shape desired behaviors in their dog and build healthy, long lasting relationships built on trust and respect.

July Update

Dog Blog, Dog Rescue, FSJ ACT, FSJ ACT, FSJ Dog Training, Monthly Update, Pack in the Park, Puppies in the Park, update

Apparently, after promising to at least commit to the monthly updates I completely skipped June. I really didn’t have a whole lot going on in June, to be honest. My group class (that only had one person) ended in the beginning of June and then I just focused my time on my family for a little while.

Dog training picked up in July and I’ve been semi-consistently busy this month. LOTS of puppies! Which is always fun, I love working with puppies (I mean, who doesn’t?).

FAVORITE NAME FOR JULY

I feel like I should say my favorite name for July is Nova, since that is my youngest daughters name, but I sorry Nova, I think I have to go with Mungo for my favorite dog name of July. It’s honestly just so fun to say. I’m not sure if it has any sort of meaning behind it, I really should have asked the owner. But it doesn’t even have to have any sort of meaning, it’s just fun to say.

Mungo is one of the puppies that our Animal Care Team took in. In our care, his name was Dusky. He was a foster fail, and his new family just adores him and gave him the name Mungo. Which I think really suits him.

I didn’t get any photos of Mungo during our training session, but I did get the above photo of Mungo and his owner working beautifully together during Puppies in the Park.

FSJ ACTS UPDATE

FSJ ACTS officially has Society status now, which is so exciting. It means we will have access to a lot more funding. Unfortunately, we are still not a registered non-profit and can’t issue receipts for tax purposes, but with society status we will be able to help the animals just a bit more.

On July 7th I picked up my foster puppy Boss. FSJ ACTS has lots of puppies looking for homes that are currently in foster care. We have an awesome team of volunteers to help with kennel duty, but we wanted to give our volunteers a break and give our puppies a chance to learn how to live life in a family and home environment.

Boss has fit in really nicely. Zelda wasn’t too sure about him at first but he slowly grew on her and now they are Besties. He’s great with my two girls (7 and 2 years old) and is learning not to steal snacks or toys. He’s learning a lot of things in our house and I’ve given him a slow adjustment to house life. To make this easier for him to learn the rules (especially for house training) I have kept him on leash in the house a lot of the time. He gets leashed to either myself or a study piece of furniture so that I can keep him within eye sight at all times. He’s also been introduced to the cats. My older cat Jarroko has been extremely patient and the best cat to teach him the ropes about cats. My poor younger cat Alice is terrified of him and has been living behind the hot tub for the last couple weeks.

Boss knows how to sit, down and “go kennel”. He’s learning to sit at doorways and gates (this is very tough for him), he sits for his meals and he sits to be leashed. He is a very sweet boy who loves people and wants to please. This makes him quite trainable. He has the sweetest disposition and loves catching a nap in a good sun patch. Boss is also really great on leash and responds well to loose-leash training.

If you’re interested in adopting Boss, please let me know if you’d like to arrange to meet him!

FSJ ACTS FUNDRAISERS

For the month of July the Fort St. James Bottle Depot collected donations for FSJ ACTS. The total raised in the month was $1,000. Thank you SO much for your generosity. This money will go towards our vet bills.

There is a fundraiser through As You Wish Custom Designs (based in Prince George) where $2 for every purchase goes to FSJ ACTS. FOLLOW THE LINK to order yours! Here are some handsome pooches with their stylish custom tags…

PUPPIES IN THE PARK

On July 20th I hosted the first Puppies in the Park; a spin on our classic “Pack in the Park” but it was for puppies up to 10 months old (who have been vaccinated). There’s a lot of fear about Parvo (and for good reason) so I had a lot of interest but a lot of puppies who aren’t vaccinated enough yet to attend public dog events like this. I had a couple of people attend and it was a blast of course, puppies always are, but there is a definite need to do this again next month once more puppies have had their shots.

I’ve had tons of people ask me about when I’ll do another Pack in the Park and I decided to create a texting list for those who want to be notified when the next Pack in the Park is happening. If you’d like to join this list, please let me know.

Meet Our Adoptable Dogs!

Dog Blog, FSJ ACT, FSJ ACT

The Fort St. James Animal Care Team is in need of foster homes and we’re looking for forever homes. A great option is to “try it out” first and Foster to Adopt. When you Foster to Adopt you make no commitment to keep the animal and if they are not a good fit for your household and they can be returned to our care.

For more information about any of the dogs below, please contact FSJ ACT by email fsj.act@gmail.com or Facebook Messenger.

If you’re interested in fostering, please fill out a Foster Application.

If you’re interested in adopting, please fill out an Adoption Application.

ADOPTABLE DOGS

Meeko is looking for his forever home.
For more about Meeko’s story read his Go Fund Me page.

ADOPTABLE PUPPIES

ADOPTED!

ADOPTED!

ADOPTED!

ADOPTED!

ADOPTED!

ADOPTED!