One more week until classes start to get back to normal. What we’ve done: We had a really warm day. I set up my agility equipment for the first time in 2012. The dogs got really muddy and had baths. Two days later it was cold, there was deep snow, Read more…
Last weekend Denise Fenzi was in Ohio to present two days on “Drives and Motivation for All Sports” and one day of “Problem Solving.” I especially enjoyed all the obedience enthusiasts and all of the golden retrievers present! Denise is a great presenter, many of the attendees had attended multiple Read more…
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…
Background: Recently a dog owner came to class with the goal of getting the dog to walk without pulling. This adult dog had recently been retired as a conformation dog. He had spent several years being trained to put a significant amount of steady pressure on the leash, out ahead 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…
I see a lot of dogs. People typically want the best for their dogs, but they’re not always in a position to know what “best” may be. They aren’t the professionals in the situation and their perspective is very different than that of someone in an ‘expert’ role. At the Read more…
One of the things that many dog teams will say, especially those working on competition training or behavior modification, is “I just think he would do so much better if you were training him.” And the thing is, most dogs would do better with a trainer handling them. It’s not Read more…
Griffin’s relatives are very, very busy and it’s been an overall very successful year for “the family.” High level accomplishments in agility, obedience, field work, and tracking. In an email his breeder sent out this week, she talked a little about the “richness” that the dog sports and training and Read more…
Most dogs can fairly quickly to get to this point in class. For some teams, it takes longer to get to the dog demanding work. The first things we look at are making sure the dog is comfortable (worried dogs have enough to think about other than work) and Read more…