2015 – Good and Not So Good Things

Puppy Viktor with Griffin

January 1st started with a happy thing – picking up a new puppy.  A month later, things weren’t quite as happy as Viktor has some very serious structural issues and won’t be able to do the kinds of activities I wanted to do (obedience and agility) and he isn’t allowed to do the things all puppies want to do (run, play, chase toys!).

We had some sad moments with students – early in the year a student’s 7 month old puppy died from some unusual health complications.  A long-time and very caring student likely lost her senior dog -I hope she knows how sad we are for her. He was cognitively deteriorating and it was very hard on her and him. In the spring one of our very first client families at the training center moved away. We were so proud that their adopted dog went from being so nervous that we had to turn off the air conditioner during class to being able to go to agility trials and he was in their wedding last year. I miss them very much and hope they’re able to find training opportunities in their new city.  

Mid-summer our training center moved. Very stressful!  Very exhausting!  Day after day as we worked to get things together for our opening and to get out of the old building. Last month our old building was torn down for new construction. So, so sad! We had expected to be there much longer. The new place is much bigger and better (no paint/varnish fumes from our next door neighbor…) and will give us so many opportunities.

ARCH Griffin!

I finished my level 3 judging requirements for WCRL – now I just need to submit paperwork and I’m a ‘full’ judge for all 3 levels. I had to turn down a lot of 4-H judging opportunities this year due to time limitations. I still did quite a bit with state level 4-H and I will be next year too. I had a 4-H club again and while most of the kids were unable to show their dogs they all had many successes.

This year I had more teaching than ever for the training center and for my business. At the facility we added in many new classes, updated some of our programs, and are doing a better job at keeping future classes posted well in advance. For my business I started primarily doing ‘packages’ of sessions rather than individual sessions. This resulted in better long term training plans and follow up than when I sometimes only see a family once. My closest client was only 5 minutes away from home and my furthest was when I did a few lessons in Chicago while passing through on trips.

Blaze at 14.5+

My dogs did very well in competitions and events. It gives me structure and motivation for our training sessions and while I’m tired of driving and getting up early, I’m always happy once I’m there! We had great weather for trials with many cooler trial days and warmer winter days (no real snow yet as of December 31st). We didn’t do any working spot seminars – I went to only 2 seminars all year!  I took one obedience class in the summer to get group practice and I only did two online classes (neither with real working spots). But Griffin and I did do private lessons in agility from March to December almost every 2-3 weeks.  Viktor did a lot of puppy class from January to May and Tonks did multiple classes a week from the time she came home in September.

Puppy Tonks

We took 5 trips up to Minnesota to see the rehab vet (primarily for Viktor), on one trip we detoured to Wisconsin to see a friend. One trip to Chicago for a seminar. One trip to Arkansas for Viktor. And I did a trip, alone, out west for Tonks. Fact: You can get to the west coast and back in the same day – if you’re really, really lucky.

We have many really awesome students in classes – succeeding with so many different goals and challenges. Several students are doing competition in rally and agility and some are very into obsessing over details (like me!). On Tuesday in an advanced agility class we had 5 dogs and handlers did serpentines that almost made me cry – it looked so easy and beautiful for all of the teams. A few weeks ago at an agility trial I saw a student do her first trial, a dog who had done one of our behavior programs at her first trial, and a puppy who had been in our class last year as a baby now at his first trial. 

Tonks play. Photo by Angie S.

I hope 2016 is just as exciting!