This is the look Nico gave me when I told him his new Benebone was a present for when he goes off to “college” this weekend. We recently decided to send Nico off to Upstate Canine Academy for a three-week board and train program; we’re referring to it as Nico going to college. The backstory is we’ve made a lot of progress over the past two years with training but there are a handful of issues we’re dealing with that we hope the wonderful folks at Upstate Canine Academy can help us and Nico work through. The biggest issue is when he gets excited about a dog, person, or whatever it might be, like really really excited, and we try to intervene to calm him down he has a tendency to redirect all that excited energy on us. At times, that has resulted in him nipping at us in this heightened excited state. Our worry is this could escalate and that he or a person could get hurt. This same behavior prevents him from experiencing all the things we could and want to offer to him. As an example, we can’t bring him to our local farmers market because he would be pulling, barking, and howling at all the people and dogs that he wants to get to but can’t because he’s on a leash. Or, walk around the super dog friendly Paul Smith’s College (PSC) campus and get all the lovin from students and greet other PSC dogs. We recognize that any shortcoming in Nico’s behavior is a reflection of failure on our part. I think we’re pretty good at dog training but Nico has been particularly challenging when it comes to certain behaviors. On top of that, we don’t have the time to put into training that I had when I first got Khyber. Back then, as a single graduate student in a new town I had no social life and was able to spend at least two hours every day training with Khyber. Our hope is that Upstate Canine Academy can strengthen the foundation we’ve been working on, help “reset’ some of these problematic behaviors, and teach us what we need to do moving forward to stay on a positive, healthy, and happy path for the rest of Nico’s life. We recognize that a big part of that will be us spending more time working with him afterwards.

Over the last year we’ve done a lot of research and thinking about this decision. Tom Davis and the staff at Upstate Canine Academy resonate with our approach and philosophy to dogs in general and dog training specifically. We’re excited for the opportunity for Nico, Shelly, and I to learn from them. After Nico’s training is complete they’ll train us so we have the knowledge and skills to pick up where they left off. I often joke that (but really I’m serious) Shelly and I should be the ones going off to training for three weeks. And honestly, I would love to spend that much time with Tom and the other trainers.

There will be a pause in the Nico photos during this time, but this is what is best for Nico and that matters way more than a photography project. While he is gone I’ll be sharing previously unpublished photos, going all the way back to Day 1. Wish Nico luck!

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