Training Diary: What It's Like to Finish the Tails of Connection Challenge

Allison Jones and Marisa Lovaincy are two dog moms from very different corners of North America. Both are members of our Slack training community, and when we asked them this past December to test the Tails of Connection Challenge, they'd never met. By the end of our 14-day testing phase, Marisa told Tails of Connection (TOC), "I loved seeing Allison train her dog, Indy [in the private Challenge Facebook group]. It's so cool to see the different challenges that she gives her dog." We sat down separately with Allison (from her home in Canada - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to be exact) and Marisa (from her house in Boston, Mass.) right before Christmas to hear what they really thought about the Tails of Connection Challenge. 

A Tale of Two TOC Community Dogs

Marisa and her Sheepadoodle, Athena, trained for the challenge mostly in the afternoon. “We didn't really train in the morning because she just seems lazier. She'll eat breakfast and then she'll lay on the guest bed and stay there for two hours,” she told TOC. (Photo Credit: Lauren Dobish Photography)

Allison's dog, Indy, is a three year old rescue mix whom she adopted when she was around six months old. "We thought she would be an easy dog. That's why we chose her. Then she got quite nervous and fearful and was not as easy anymore. That's what really drove me into looking into more training stuff," she told TOC. 

Marisa's dog, Athena, is a one year old Sheepadoodle. "She's so sassy. Her personality reminds me a lot of [Christie’s dog] Sully. She's very, very independent… [and] she's not very cuddly...She'll lick your face to death but doesn't want to be cuddled," Marisa said.

How the Challenge Works for Dogs of Different Skill Levels

Allison works part-time and considers Indy to be her main hobby. At this point, they've taken six in person training classes together. "Coming into the challenge as a more intermediate-level person, I still had a lot of fun going back to the basics in addition to trying some new stuff that we had never done before...I love doing these type of things because they push me, as you say, to ‘spend five minutes a day’ with Indy," she told TOC.

Marisa also has a more flexible work schedule and brings Athena to a group classes regularly. Once a week, they join about 12 other dogs (who are mostly trained for the police force) to work on Athena's recall outside.

Marisa highlighted the difference between that group class experience and the challenge:

"In the class environment, we worked a lot on heeling, loose leash walking, staying, recall, and stuff like that. A lot of those things for Athena have taken a while to build that skill set...But then there's other things [in the challenge where] I've been really impressed with Athena. That could be because you laid out the training in such an understandable way where you could learn like different types of dogs (like Sully and Otis). She has really picked up on it. So that has been really interesting to me that I can see real progress so quickly."

Finding Time to Train Five Minutes a Day 

Allison and her dog, Indy, trained mostly in her living room and posted daily videos (like the screen grab of this one) in our private Facebook group.

When it came to completing challenge during the busy holiday season, both women said they loved how short the videos and assignments were and felt it was very doable. Marisa told us that she would schedule a five minute training window everyday like a workout. They both admitted to doubling up and completing two challenge days in a single day, but had no issue playing catch up. 

Since the point of the challenge is really to have fun bonding with your dog at your own pace, we loved when Marisa told us that she spent some days just playing outside with Athena as their “five minutes” because that's what Athena needed on that day. She explained,  "I also [decided] if she's not getting this [day of the challenge], I'll just move on and come back to [the training game] a different day and continue onto the next day’s training."

Allison enjoyed the daily accountability of the challenge and decided to document her training in our private Facebook group by posting a video everyday, even though this wasn't a requirement.  Some days she posted videos of her work with Indy at their local dog park that was transformed into a winter wonderland, where she reported that it was a balmy 28 degrees Fahrenheit! 

Main Takeaways from Our Challenge Testers

Both women agreed that they would do the challenge again. Marisa wants to revisit days that Athena hasn't mastered and loves that she can replay the challenge videos. Her proudest dog mom moment came at day 13 when Athena learned to bow. "My parents came to pick up Athena before we went on vacation and they are huge dog people too. I showed them the trick, and they couldn't believe she learned it that day."

For Allison, the challenge helped keep things in perspective. "For rolling the ball, I was like 'today we're doing it like Sully.' Maybe Indy will never roll the ball with her nose, but it's kind of fun to work on it and play with it together...It does make it so much more approachable to be like ‘we mess it up sometimes.’ You've got to kind of laugh when you fail and reset."

To join the Tails of Connection Challenge click here.