Saturday: Nose Work Training

  In the Nose Work Challenges 1 class I’m taking from Fenzi Dog Sports Academy we’re doing some fun exercises with extreme aged hides-hides aged 24 or more hours. This presents a challege due to the scent diffusing into the room. I set up the next hide in my jewelry making room. I have one hide…

Friday Favorites

I love working with and training dogs. But the past year and a half I haven’t worked with ours much. It’s showing. Sometimes things in life require attention, and that’s been the case for me. But now that life is normal and okay and good, it’s time to get back to working with the dogs.…

Social Media Addiction

I love social media. For the most part. Yeah, I’m one of those who checks Facebook hourly. Sometimes more often. Okay, I’m an addict. Seriously. My perusing of social media takes so much time it prevents me from doing things I really want to do. Like writing. Like training the dogs. Like weaving chainmaille. I’m…

Using Clicker to Train “Place”

One thing last night’s trick or treating brought home to me is that I must get back to training our dogs to go to a place on cue. The best way I’ve found to do that is by using the clicker. Damon, our little bully mix, is the most responsive of our three to the…

Let’s Go Sniff

Y’all know by now I’m enamored of all things canine scent detection. Nose Work, Barn Hunt, Tracking, Earth Dog-yep all of it. So I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve let Jack’s Nose Work training slide over the winter. All kinds of excuses slithered across my brain. Too cold. Too tired. Too much trouble with all three…

Tunnel Training

Really want to train Jack and Damon to participate in Barn Hunt. Part of the Barn Hunt course includes a tunnel made from the straw bales. Since neither of them has any agility training I was a little stumped on how I could train tunnels short of buying an agility tunnel or a bunch of…

Clicker Work With Damon

Damon’s my little clicker training rock star. He just gets it and enjoys it. He picks out the behavior I’m clicking within 2-3 repetitions. Amazing. I have to say I thought Jack would take to it better than Jade or Damon. Was I ever wrong. Jack gets it, but for some reason doesn’t seem to…

Make Lemonade, But Don’t Squirt It On My Dog

Have you ever been part of an online conversation with strangers with a common interest and someone posts something so offensive you think that maybe you really don’t have a common interest after all? Yeah, that happened today. There are several dog sports I really enjoy watching, learning about, and training for, even though I’m…

Clicker Training

Less than a week ago I enrolled in Karen Pryor Academy’s Dog Trainer Foundation course. Wow! It’s awesome. I’m learning so much, and I’m still in the first unit. I’m trying very hard to take my time, go through the material slowly. But it’s hard. I want to gulp it all in. I’m not working with…

Putting Elbow Grease to a Dream

For a couple of years I’ve harbored a secret dream to delve deeper into dog behavior and learning. I’m fascinated by how dogs learn, and how they communicate with humans, especially when humans take the time to try to understand. I’m fascinated by watching how very quickly dogs respond when that communication goes both ways…