
Welcome to the September 2023 edition of ZENFULdog of the Month featuring Georgia! Georgia is a fun and lovable red golden retriever who was adopted into her forever home by her pet-dad, Alex, at 9 weeks old.
Georgia was named after one of Alex’s favourite songs, Georgia on My Mind by Ray Charles. Alex often serenades Georgia with her namesake song when no one else is around! Alex and Georgia share a special, palpable bond that spreads joy and good energy wherever they go. They are beloved by Kendra and by their peers in the ZENFULdog Training community.
Georgia
Birthday: July 23, 2022
Age: Just turned 1!
Meet Georgia’s Family
(Alex—Georgia’s pet-dad): Georgia is Alex’s first dog and first puppy. Before Georgia, Alex had always had cats. In fact, he had two cats when he decided he was finally ready to have a dog: “I work from home a lot and I was seeing neighbours out walking their dogs and I thought it would be so great to also have a reason to get out of the house and take in some fresh air multiple times a day like them.”
(Gucci—Georgia’s feline sibling): Gucci is Alex’s remaining cat after his other cat, Min, sadly passed away in June at age 13. Alex describes Gucci as a ‘fluffy diva’ who does not yet appreciate the puppy energy in the house but Alex is sure she’ll eventually come around.
Alex Shares The Most Unique Thing about Georgia: Georgia is a red golden retriever so she’s a golden but on the darker end of the spectrum—which is quite rare: “I often get asked if she’s an Irish Setter, which I take as a compliment as they are beautiful dogs! Red golden retrievers do take from the Irish Setter lineage in the golden breed.”
Georgia's favourite Treats/Foods according to Alex: Georgia’s favourite treat is, by far, sweet potatoes! She gets a sweet potato treat every day at lunchtime after training and she goes wild when Alex takes out the bag! Because of this, ‘Sweet Potato’ has become one of her many nicknames, other nicknames include ‘Georgia Peach,’ ‘Silly Goose,’ ‘Goldie’ and ‘Lady Bird.’
Alex Describes Georgia’s Favourite Activities: Georgia absolutely loves play dates with her best friend and ZENFULdog classmate—Tilly the Poodle. She also loves jumping in the pool and dunking her head underwater. Finally, Georgia loves parkour class with Kendra and absolutely anything that involves tennis balls!

Alex Describes How Georgia Unwinds After a Full Day of Activity: “Georgia loves to unwind with a good lick mat or stuffed kong. It’s all about the food!”
If Georgia had a human voice, which celebrity would she sound like?: Alex thinks the celebrity voice that best fits Georgia is the voice of one of his favourite celebrities—Lily Tomlin! Alex feels like “Lily emits big golden retriever energy for sure!”
Georgia’s Training
Alex and Georgia have completed levels 1-3 of obedience training and 2 levels of puppy parkour with ZENFULdog Training. Alex adds, “Georgia and I have really enjoyed every class with Kendra and we just registered for the next level of parkour. We are so excited!”
Alex Tells Us How Training Has Shaped Georgia: “I can’t say enough how much Kendra and her training have helped both Georgia and me. I started off knowing absolutely nothing about dogs/puppies and I was totally shocked by how hard it actually was.”

Between well-intentioned but conflicting advice from friends, family and unmentionable YouTube videos, Alex was feeling completely lost and overwhelmed: “Kendra changed all that by giving me 1 point of contact for training, advice and support. I rely on Kendra as new challenges/questions arise and I am beyond grateful for her ongoing support and encouragement!”
Alex Describes Georgia’s Biggest Training Challenges: While there were many challenges, Alex felt most frustrated by a leash-biting behaviour that had set in before Georgia started training at ZENFULdog: “It got to the point where I couldn’t even walk her without her attacking the leash for sometimes blocks at a time. It was so frustrating and I was feeling incredibly discouraged.
Thankfully, Kendra has given me the tools I needed to address the behaviour and now it has become a non-issue. There are still rare moments when she will bite the leash on a walk [when] triggered by something, but I am now able to quickly [refocus and settle her] and the walk continues without issue. This is a huge win!”
Alex Names Georgia’s Biggest Training Successes: Georgia has come a long way since she and Alex started training with Kendra. They went from not being able to walk around the block without issues to now participating in their third parkour class and even engaging as members of the Zenfuldog Canisport and Trail Club going on group canihikes and more!—“What a huge difference! Every bit of progress has been a huge success for us and I am so proud of how far we’ve come.”

Alex Describes Georgia’s Most Rewarding Training Moment: Alex believes the most rewarding training moment was simple but very touching: “As I was leash-walking Georgia on a trail, we came across a small dog who was very vocal and it set Georgia off on a zoomie/leash biting moment. I noticed a runner coming along and I quickly got Georgia settled in a ‘sit,’ and then a ‘down’ so the runner could pass. The runner saw the whole thing and said “Great Training” as she ran by! I definitely teared up a little because there was so much work leading up to this moment and I was so proud of myself and Georgia for having reached this point. We wouldn’t be here without Kendra and I am forever grateful to her!”

Kendra adds: “Georgia and Alex are the most perfect team and everyone who meets them immediately feels their good vibes and just falls in love with them! Both are sweet, fun and always up for a new challenge.
While having a first dog can be challenging, I think the fact that Alex was so open to learning, was ready for a dog and didn't have any old habits to overcome made him a quick study yielding fabulous results and a strong relationship with Georgia.
Georgia is a lovely dog and thanks to Alex's love, dedication and skills, she is flourishing as the best dog she can be!
Recently, in parkour class, the two of them blew me away with behaviours under incredible stimulus control—all done with positive training. As Georgia reached a platform, she became excited and was anticipating performing "four paws" behaviour, but as soon as Alex cued ‘sit,’ she stopped and sat before popping onto the platform. He followed that up with a ‘two paws’ cue and instead of popping her four paws up, she performed the two paws behaviour—it was soooo cool! This set them up for a confident, thoughtful ‘across’ behaviour afterward. What I also loved was seeing Georgia love the whole course and because Alex was so attentive to her training, she did it gracefully and safely. This level of results makes me so proud of them.”
A very special “Thank You!” goes out to Alex for providing so much fantastic content for this feature. Don’t forget you can also followZENFULdog Training on Facebook to stay connected to your like-minded dog-loving community every day!
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