Griffin has a really large family. Every few years some of them get together for a big family reunion/retriever training seminar. This year it was at a time and location that worked well for us. We’ve spent the weekend near Lansing, MI at the -beautiful- Omega Farms. The unfortunate part Read more…
Obedience and agility are my areas of focus with Griffin. Sometimes we work on other things. One of those is field work/retriever work. It’s great to see him do what golden retrievers were intended to do and he loves the running parts and the water parts. We also don’t Read more…
Griffin doesn’t appreciate grooming/vet type handling. He has always been cautious about handling and it got a lot worse preceding Lyme disease being diagnosed. Those exams were very painful and uncomfortable for him. Here’s a quick video showing how happy he is about eye drops. We’ve done the training steps a few times before, Read more…
Apparently I’ve already written about Drop on Recall. More than once. More than twice. I looked at the parts of the exercise. A year ago, I tried a lot of different techniques for the behavior (mats, food placement, tethering). Interestingly, at that time, food/toy behind Griffin was not successful. Read more…
Photo by Megan! Unfortunately we’re halfway through the online class we signed up for a few months ago. The sections we’ve done so far are Play, Impulse Control, Shaping, and half of Heeling. Play: I always know I need to play more with my dogs, especially during training. The class Read more…
We went to do demos and talk with people at a “Pet Care Day” event. It was held at a fitness center, and much to our surprise, we were inside rather than outdoors! Griffin, as always, was great. We didn’t have a lot of space and we did have a Read more…
A week ago I took Blaze and Griffin to a run at an APDT trial. Blaze is not a young dog anymore and I gave him too much of a warm up. But, even without the bonus exercise (I’m not letting go of his leash!), we passed and I think Read more…
I typically do not do impulse purchases. I practice my self control by shopping online and putting all sorts of great toys, books, gear…into my shopping cart. And then never going to the “pay now” page. I think about getting stuff, but don’t. I practice that too often. Sometimes Read more…
It’s so easy to end up working on multiple things at once. It’s hard to set criteria and stick to it. Here are a few examples from this week: 1. Sit AND Take Treats Gently: I saw this more than once. Dog owners want the behavior and the Read more…
We talked about this at training yesterday and it’s been a constant source of….conflict… for me. How should young and enthusiastic dogs be greeting people? If the dog is super enthusiastic and frenzied….is it ultimately best for them to be meeting and socializing? Will enough of that calm them down…eventually? Read more…