Bodega: Building a Life Together
When Julia and Justin brought Bodega home, they already knew a lot about loving rescue dogs. Their previous dogs had come from Muttville later in life, arriving with many of the everyday skills that make living together feel familiar.
Bodega gave them a new kind of beginning. At just shy of three years old, she arrived through Grateful Dog Rescue ready to play, connect, investigate, and learn, while Julia and Justin suddenly found themselves teaching things their previous dogs had largely brought with them.
Four months in, they had already taught Bodega her name, come, and sit, and they were proud of what she had learned. They also had questions about walks, potty habits, recall, greeting people, settling in public, and the countless little decisions that come with helping a younger rescue learn how life with her new family works. Their biggest uncertainty centered on themselves. Julia and Justin wanted to be thoughtful dog parents, so our work focused on giving them a repeatable way to observe Bodega, understand what her behavior was telling them, try something deliberately, and learn from what happened next.
Learning How to Learn Together
Bodega turned everyday life into a series of useful puzzles. On walks, for example, she could stall or hesitate, then pick up considerable enthusiasm once she realized they were heading home. We encouraged Julia and Justin to make themselves more relevant during the walk through movement, attention, food, play, and interaction. Bodega responded quickly, sometimes with so much enthusiasm that her excitement became information too.
Julia and Justin started watching those changes more closely. When Bodega slowed down, sped up, checked in, or redirected toward something else, they had something concrete to work with.
That gave them a process they could carry into other parts of life. Observe what is happening, consider what might matter to Bodega in that moment, try something thoughtfully, and watch how she responds. Each answer from Bodega gave them more information for the next decision.
The Backyard With an Excellent Reputation
Scavenging offered a particularly compelling lesson in seeing life from Bodega's perspective. Julia and Justin wanted help with her habit of searching the backyard for edible discoveries, and Bodega had gathered some extremely persuasive evidence that searching was worth her time. Raccoons and crows occasionally deposited food in the yard. On one memorable occasion, Bodega found an actual short rib. Once a backyard has produced a short rib, regular inspections begin to look like sound financial planning. Bodega had learned that searching could pay exceptionally well, which gave Julia and Justin useful context for thinking about recall, management, leaving discoveries behind, and making engagement with them worthwhile.
The short rib became more than a funny Bodega story. It helped Julia and Justin develop a habit that would serve them again and again: start by asking what makes the behavior make sense to Bodega. That shift matters. A behavior that first looked inconvenient became information about what Bodega had learned from her environment.
Practicing Life at the Brewery
Julia and Justin also wanted Bodega to join them comfortably in public. A brewery gave them a useful place to practice because settling there involved dogs moving nearby, people coming and going, interesting smells from food trucks, music, and a steady stream of things worth noticing.
We introduced food, touch, play, tricks, movement, and mat work according to what helped Bodega stay connected. Julia and Justin watched the changes closely and began recognizing when interaction helped her stay engaged and when she was ready to relax. They saw Bodega settle more easily than she had during similar outings. Just as importantly, they could see how their own timing and choices helped create that result. “Settle” became something they knew how to practice with Bodega themselves. The brewery gave them another example of how careful observation could lead directly to a practical response.
Potty Training Gets Personal
Potty accidents presented a different kind of puzzle. As we looked at when they occurred, a possible pattern emerged around moments of particularly high excitement or arousal. One example involved Julia arriving home but remaining downstairs in the garage. Bodega could become intensely excited, move out of Justin's view, and urinate, so we treated emotional intensity as one possible contributor and kept gathering information.
The plan included getting Bodega outside promptly when excitement was predictable, arranging the environment thoughtfully, reinforcing outdoor pottying, and checking with her veterinarian about possible medical contributors. Then Julia and Justin noticed something particularly useful about the reward itself. Highly valuable treats in the backyard could capture so much of Bodega's attention that pottying became secondary to the possibility of snacks. Julia and Justin adjusted the routine based on what they were seeing, taking her outside first and saving the food for later.
Once Bodega potties, the celebration begins. They mark the success, turn the trip back inside into an enthusiastic game of “chase me up the stairs,” and deliver the food reward when everyone reaches the house. That routine belongs to Bodega and to the people who know her. Julia and Justin observed a pattern, tested an idea, noticed how she responded, and adapted the plan until it fit their dog and their household.
The Questions Keep Coming
We worked with Julia and Justin for four coaching sessions. Bodega was a stable, social dog, and her people quickly showed that they could take what we explored together and apply it to daily life. They arrived with questions about walking, pottying, recall, greetings, and settling. By the end of our work, those questions had given them practice looking at context, motivation, environment, and Bodega's response before deciding what to try next.
That skill gives them something far more useful than a fixed list of answers. Bodega will keep changing, and new places, routines, discoveries, and stages of life will keep presenting new questions. Julia and Justin now have a way to approach those questions together. They can observe Bodega, consider what makes the behavior sensible from her perspective, try something, and adjust from there.
Sometimes the answer may involve changing the environment or choosing a different reward. Sometimes it may begin with accepting that a backyard known to distribute barbecue-quality meat has made a very convincing argument for regular inspection.
The Life They Are Building
Bodega's story lives in wonderfully ordinary moments. There is a walk where Julia and Justin become part of what makes moving forward worthwhile, a brewery where Bodega settles among the activity, and a backyard routine that ends with everyone racing upstairs. Each one started with Bodega giving them information. Julia and Justin learned how to notice it, make meaning from it, and use it to shape what happened next.
That leaves them well prepared for whatever Bodega decides to teach them next. Together, they are building a life one short rib, brewery outing, potty celebration, and enthusiastic race up the stairs at a time.
