If we count in months he’s not yet 7 months, but if we count in weeks he may be a bit older. Viktor still a very, very small dog. He’s only around 35 pounds -male goldens on average are 55lbs at this age! That may biased towards show dogs who Read more…
We were re-inspired to practice waiting patiently. All of my dogs are very impatient about waiting for their training turns. When we’re at the big training facility I leave them in an office up front and in the last year they’ve learned to be calm if they get left behind Read more…
I was at a 4-H event last month and got to meet lots of 4-H dog project families from all over the state – even some from my area. Viktor did great during his short visits inside – lots of new people, dogs, kids, and activity. I was very excited Read more…
I heard about Retrieving for All Occasions over a year ago – and that it would eventually be available in English. I held off on buying it, knowing that I would reference and use an English version more than a Swedish one. And now it’s finally available! As an e-book now ($15) Read more…
Stimulus Control is an important part of training – we want our dogs to understand when to do specific behaviors. This can be part of having reliable responses and is especially important for some types of competition training. A short version: The dog should respond to the cue with the Read more…
I’ve been waiting – years- for the opportunity to see Bob Bailey speak (click her for an article about him!). I’ve been endlessly fascinated by him ever since Blaze was a puppy and I first heard about Bob Bailey and his ‘chicken camps’ where people could learn great animal training Read more…
Viktor has officially outgrown his puppy harness. We went from an extra small up to a medium. I’ll have to write about the harness separately – the Ruffwear Front Range Harness. The part around his neck never actually ended up fitting well – the strap around his body was too Read more…
Griffin and I are working towards competition obedience. We did our first match (practice trial) at an obedience club last night. If I had planned a little better, I would have entered Viktor too! Griffin and I missed the deadline for the trial this weekend because I had lost my Read more…
Griffin had his best lesson ever last Monday! I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen due to a and watching a live stream of our instructor competing out of state the day before… but we had an 8AM agility session. I wasn’t prepared – I didn’t have Read more…
We’ve had a busy few weeks. We went on our second long trip together – all the dogs went to Minnesota with me. Viktor was great. It was not surprising, but so nice- quiet in the car, happy to get out at each stop at any time of day or Read more…