Laugh out loud
Today I am on my way to Minnesota and then on to Wisconsin. I am going to try to catch up with computer stuff while I am on the road:). I would like to invite you to laugh out loud today. As I have mentioned [...]
It's big "A" time
Have you ever seen dogs try to dominate other dogs by resting their heads across the shoulders of the dog they are greeting. Head position is important to dogs, it says alot to another dog. Personally, I am of the belief that dogs do not [...]
Back to the future
When Feature was a puppy I used to shape new behaviours with her all the time. One week I challenged myself to come up with a different, unrelated behaviour to shape each day for a week. That was fun. None of them were shaped to [...]
Crate Games, it is not just for breakfast any more.
Group shot of Crate Games graduates. I had small workshop here yesterday with 9, mostly adolescent dogs, and their handlers. It went quite well with a few "aah ha" moments and the odd "oh my" thrown in to balance things out. We [...]
Effective Transitions
Being sick sucks. I have been laid up for the last few days but today I think I have turned the corner (just in time, as I have a bunch of teaching coming up). This weekend there was a Chiropractic-Veterinary workshop at our place. That [...]
Toilets and wall tiles
So I spend the day yesterday with my friends Penny and Lynda going through kitchen displays and sitting on toilets shopping for the new house. How exhausting. John stayed behind on this trip so I was told "I could look but not comitt to buying anything!" [...]
What Canadians Do for Winter Entertainment?
I think this may be like suffering through home movies of someone elses kids. Just be grateful that I edited down to less than two minutes. It was Encore's birthday on Saturday so Friday she got to run agility, (Saturday I had a full day [...]
A New Goal for All of Us to Aim For
The trial I was at on Friday was a small one. There were two standard runs and in the second one, Feature was the only 26" dogs (video included below). However with this very small trial there where still 3 people (that I knew of) [...]
The Trophies are in a Box in the Basement
Here is a comment posted to yesterday's blog that I think is worth highlighting. It came in from Trish who asked: Wondering… as a handler that is ‘watched’ every time she competes - what pressure do you feel (externally or internally) to make each run [...]
Pack Life and Cabin Fever
John and I are living in this tiny little apt above a garage right now. We have been here for about 8 months while we are having a new house built. We used to let students use it when they were here for camps or [...]
Winning When You Lose and Losing When You Win
I got a note from a student recently that was thrilled with her performance at a weekend trial, earning her first ever "double Q" in an AKC trial, the first step toward her MACH, gathering a boat load of mach points in the process as [...]
Saying Good Bye to a Great One
Canadian agility lost one of it's very special dogs yesterday with the passing of Sarah Mairs' brilliant Golden Retriever "Gabby". She was only 10 1/2 years old. Gabby was an amazing flyball dog, one of the fastest "non-Border Collies" of her day and brilliantly represented [...]
