It has been an incredible year so far with this little monster. She turns 10 months this week.

Saya had the opportunity in August to stay at a friend’s place for about a month. This is the first time she was introduced to a home setting - a full fledged family experience. Older people, Adults, kids, toddlers, farm, swimming pool. This experience had a tremendous impact on her communication.

She spent time with chickens, goats, ponies, cows and horses. She goes crazy for the horses. Especially the Amish horse carriages. This was also a great experience for us to be better in our communication off leash. She has started to understand the real meaning of commands like “stay close”, not just acting upon the command based on training. She gets it. This was important for her next steps.

As we moved on through our journey, we have officially started hiking. Saya is great off leash, but when it comes to on leash she does have a tendency to pull as she wants to dictate direction. Her vocabulary for understanding the English language has expanded. She is able to understand full sentences.

She is still a big pooper. 5-6 times a day, which is good. She just started her first heat cycle.