No Bite! This is one of the things I hear that both makes me concerned and makes me laugh. My very first memory of hearing someone saying “No Bite!” was as a kid. My friend would say it to her cat! Like many cats, her long-haired calico cat would occasionally Read more…
This week was the Ohio State Fair Jr Dog Show for 4-H youth. In Ohio any dog project members are eligible to participate if they are prepared to attend. The Ohio 4-H dog show is huge – 5 days and covering activities like freestyle, agility, obedience, rally, showmanship, knowledge, Read more…
A year ago I thought we finished our first level AKC Obedience title. And then in March a friend was checking on the AKC titles/events records and didn’t see it listed. I immediately emailed AKC about the error…and checking my records, I found we hadn’t finished it! At the end Read more…
We had an exciting weekend at a USDAA trial. Griffin was adorable – he had some really great runs and qualifying scores, a few small things on his part, and I had a very unfortunate run where I sent him off course. We finished his level 2 title and now Read more…
Recently we had our first seminar for 2018! One of our training friends, Fanny Gott, came to visit. She’s now come so many times that I’ve lost count – but this was our first time doing an agility seminar. We had two days of agility and then were able to Read more…
We’ve had some time off of agility. Griffin had a good trial day last month and a pretty good time last weekend. When he is participating, he is fun because he is adorable and well trained. He commits to obstacles well and just goes with the plan. Standard was interesting Read more…
If you talk to dog trainers who are familiar with clicker training, almost all of them have heard of Karen Pryor. Her book on teaching, Don’t Shoot the Dog is not specifically about dogs. It is considered a “classic” book on dog training. Her less-known book, Lads Before the Wind, is one of my Read more…
Here’s a handout I use for clients who want house training bells. Typically these are dogs who are already house trained and the owners are used to previous dogs who would bark or signal to go out. Often I think it’s easier to just take the dogs out regularly – Read more…
Last night I was sorting through old paper and came across my ‘graduation’ packet from the Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) dog trainer program. The date listed is exactly 10 years ago! Spring 2007 – Learning about KPA I saw someone mention the KPA program online and found a link to Read more…
When I was in school I was really good about posting regular blog updates of our adventures. This gave me a way to look back on our training events and the reflection time spent writing the points was also useful. Now that I’m differently busy, I am not as reliable Read more…