10/27/2026
Riff- lovingly nicknamed Pumbaa for obvious reasons 🤭💨
Had his first training session this week through the HomeBound Initiative💚
He was found by TPD as a stray back in June and went to a foster home in early October. But was returned for reportedly not doing great with their cats. So he is a no cat dog now😆 Estimated to be roughly 4 years old.
He is a big (63 pounds), stinky, rough and tumble kind of dog🤪
So his first session was spent mostly trying to find his OFF switch, build trust with the volunteer handlers and establish expectations within the training room. And we definitely got to see his softer side come out-he was such a loving, squishy, goof of a guy while we worked with him🥹
We also worked really hard to reinforce 4 on the floor for polite greetings, laying the foundation for sit, down and touch.
At the end of the training session he was rewarded with a chew toy which he clearly LOVED.
And while he wasn’t able to demonstrate any skills for us in the training session-including sit or drop it- he also didn’t demonstrate any dislikes during the session. He was fine seeing other dogs working (he LOVES playing with other dogs), he enjoyed all areas of his body being handled, enjoyed a variety of food rewards and had no issues when we would take his chew away from him 🤩 All really great things to discover in a first session!
I’m guessing now that he has the lay of the land, he will be a FAST learner❤️🩹
