Tesla's Sport Courses

I am so beyond excited to sign up for my next set of dog sport classes through the Fenzi Dog Sport Academy! I enrolled Tesla in her first Fenzi class about seven weeks ago which I believe was titled Intro to Obedience Games or something similar. Even though I have been working as a dog trainer for the last four years I still don't love teaching obedience to my own dogs. I teach them everything they need to know obedience wise as it is obviously an important part of having a well behaved dog but I don't love it the way I love teaching dog sports. I am a sport trainer, it is what I do and it is what I am most passionate about. Sports are fun, high energy activities that make me incredibly happy but I could never say the same about basic Obedience training. When I found the OB games class I was so excited because it went so far beyond the classic OB games that you are taught in a class environment. Most of the games played in these classes rely on having other dogs participate and if other dogs aren't around it generally turns back into the boring basic OB. The course I took however was 100% one on one games that are great for crazy high energy dogs and for owners who want to have fun. The course was not only basic OB but also taught the foundations (plus some) of the various OB sports that are out there. So not only do your dogs learn the basics they also learn complex skills and not once thorough the entire course did it feel like anything other than playing and engaging with my dog. The course was six weeks long and rather than one class a week it had new exercises and games added daily. It has been just over a week since the course ended and I have been chomping at the bit to get into the next set of classes. I perused their entire class list and found TONS of classes that I am interested in taking but I narrowed it down to three. I honestly wanted to sign up for so many more but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up if I overloaded myself so I tried to restrain myself. Before looking through the course list I was really just interested in continuing the OB games class but it wasn't available this semester so I broadened my horizons and went for completely different courses. The course I signed up for out of necessity more than it just being a fun class is titled "Dealing with the Bogeyman - helping fearful reactive and stressed dogs" it is a course specifically for reactive sporting dogs and something I really need for Tesla. Tesla was extremely reactive when we got her two months ago and while she is showing great improvement there is no way she could ever compete in any sport at this point. She is a stellar performer at home but being in my training facility she is a completely different dog, she can't calm down, barks her head off and at times even her absolute favourite thing in the world (her discs) can't get her focused. I bought Tesla to be a sporting dog and I am not going to let her reactivity get in the way of what an absolutely amazing athlete she can be. The other two courses I am signing up for are "Relationship Building Through Play" and "Flying Disc - Foundation to Flips". The play course is more for me than it is for Tesla. Tesla is the first playful dog I have ever had and I want to make sure that I am playing in a way that can build a strong bond between us as well as getting her more excited about playing so it is a distraction when she can't get focused. The disc class is 100% for Tesla, she LOVES to play disc. She didn't have any disc experience when I got her and she already performs like a pro. The intro to flips side of it means not only is she getting what she loves with the disc but also learning new fancy tricks, something else she excels at. I am seriously so psyched to sign up for her classes tomorrow. The only problem is I have to try to be patient and wait until April for the classes to actually start running. SQUEEEEE I am so so so so excited to get started on this new chapter of our adventure together.

New Dog

Exciting news!!! We got a new puppy!

We adopted Tesla on January 20, 2017. Tesla is an 11 month (approx.) old Australian Cattle Dog (aka Heeler)/ Greyhound mix. We adopted her from a working kennel who take in rescues and train them to be police sniffer dogs. Tesla didn't have the drive for sent work that they were looking for and they were looking to rehome her to an experienced sport/working family. I have been thinking about getting a new dog for quite some time but nothing ever panned out and in January the stars just seemed to align. My first dog Khazi is getting older now and at the age of only five she is having problems performing the way she used to, I still train with her and use her as my teaching demo dog for tricks and agility but she is not loving it the way she used to and her body isn't holding up to the harder stuff. When I bought Khazi I wanted a pet, my passion for dog sports came after I adopted her and I knew she would never last long sporting as she is a giant breed who is more likely to have hip issues and has a shorter life span. So I was ready to bring a sporting dog into the family. Dog sports are not only my passion, they my job and I need a dog who is ready and eager to perform. So Khazi is happy to slow down and be our family dog and Tesla is super charged and ready to go. Now Tesla isn't perfect, she is quite reactive to dogs and other  people outside the home, that is the risk you take when you adopt a dog and have not been there to raise them properly from puppy hood. These reactivity issues don't bother me though, I went though a fair share of problems with Khazi when I first got her so I am confident I can get Tesla to a place where she feels secure. Tesla is a sporting dog without a doubt, with out any prior knowledge she is already excelling at Disc Dog, Agility and competition obedience, so now it is time to work on her reactivity. I have worked to rehabilitate reactive pet dogs many times in the past however I have never owned a reactive dog myself, so we are enrolling in a reactivity class specifically tailored to working/sporting dogs. I am so excited to get started on that training as I know Tesla has such huge potential so be a stellar sporting dog. She is getting better every day and she can now go for a 40 minute walk where she will only bark about 3 times. When we first got her she barked at absolutely everything. So far I have not really been able to do much agility training with her outside the basic equipment we have at home. She does not feel at all secure at the training facility I work in and has a lot of trouble calming down. She will bark nonstop the entire time she is there and has trouble focusing. Now being the rockstar that she is, she will still take almost every piece of equipment and all the while working without food (she is too uncomfortable to take treats). She will work for her disc for a tug but again it is hard to keep her focused. In just three days I am enrolling her in the reactive dog class I mentioned above, a disc course (intro to flips) and an interactive play class. I am so excited to start. I took an Obedience Games class through the Fenzi Dog Sport Academy and I was extremely pleased with the results

so I have high expectations going into these new classes they are offering.

2015 Updated What's In My Bag?: Grooming Edition

This post is another back dated post and unfortunatly I don't have pictures to go along with it. About a year after I wrote this my new grooming bag broke. I had pictures on my old computer but not on my new one so it is a picturless post. If you check the link you can look at the bag and read what I kept in each pocket. After my bag broke I changed to a new storage method which I have not made a post about yet. I will get to it one day but for now here is my old grooming bag organization

If you have a dog that is prone to matting like I have, you probably have too many grooming tools for your own good. I used to keep all my tools in a gardening bag I picked up from the dollar store one day and it worked very well for a while but as I got more tools there just wasn't enough room. I needed more pockets, I left it in disarray for a while just working around it but it was tedious trying to find everything I needed when I needed it. At Christmas I was given a grooming table for my dog and that took away some of my storage problems, unfortunately it started some others. It has a nice wire shelf underneath so I figured I would line it (so my tools couldn't fall through the wire)  and lay my tools across it so there was no hunting for anything - the problem - I didn't take into account the little girl my family looks after who thought she should brush her hair with them (don't worry we caught it the very first time she tried and moved everything immediately). Next I started keeping my tools in buckets on the table's shelf. I had two buckets, one had my everyday tools and the other had all her bath supplies. All the bath supplies fit in perfectly but in order to fit all my brushes in the other bucket I had to put a smaller bucket inside to seperate my everyday tools and my weekly tools. I still had organization problems but at least it was away from little fingers and looked tidy. I eventually had enough of the buckets because my tools were starting to bend out of shape. I did a lot of research (I think I know the specs of every grooming bag (dog and horse) ever made). I really liked the horse grooming bags from Tough 1, especially their hanging bags but I wanted one that could fold up to fit on my table shelf and they weren't made to fold up small. I decided on the Top Performance Nylon Pet Groomer on the Go Bag.  I chose it because it looked like a good size, it has tons of pockets, space for securely holding dematting sprays (many bags don't) and it rolled out. I got it through the above link on Amazon.ca for $40.73. To be perfectly honest I was a bit disappointed by its size when I got it because I thought it would be much bigger. I was however  presently surprised to find out it holds TONS of stuff, in fact it hold more than I was expecting when I thought it would be larger. Every pocket is dedicated to a certain type of grooming.

The bag has a handle on top as well as a body strap.The outside of the bag has a zippered mesh pullout pocket, a medium sized pocket on the front as well as a small zipper pocket on top of it. The back has a fabric strip sewn on that has a magnet inside. I am not exactly sure what it is for and why it needs a magnet but my best guess is to be able to clip on your shears while you work. If anyone reads this and knows why it is there please let me know I would be interested to know.

The bag unzips all the way around the sides as well as on the base. The bag unfolds to have four see through pockets in various sizes. Every pocket is dedicated to a certain type of grooming or type of tool. The bottom pocket as a good size and I keep all of Khazi's oral care products in it. It was very important for me to have a space specifically for these because I use them every single day. The pocket holds an angled tooth brush, two finger brushes, toothpaste, Orapup (tongue brush), Orapup Lickies (the sauce that goes on the Orapup) and a tooth scaler. I also have dog mouth wash foam but it is kept in the main pocket.

The second pocket very thin and best suited for combs. I have two Wahl 58249 Finishing Combs, Bronze in there. These are my favourite combs and I actually purchased a second one at the same time I got my grooming bag because after a year of use the teeth started bending. It cost $12.99. I have a face comb as well but it is in my training bag because a friend asked me to help comb out his dog.

The third pocket is the largest foldout pocket. It actually has a zipper on both the top and bottom for cleaning purposes which I think is genius. This pockets holds my favourite slicker brush and a rake. It is actually my nail care pocket but it was best place for those two brushes to be kept. As for the nail care supplies I have a nail clipper, nail grinder and Kwik Stop styptic powder.

The final fold out pocket can be easy to miss, if the bag is sitting on a table you can't see it at all. It is 5small like the comb pocket and it holds my good shears, thinning shears and a pair of hemostats that can be used for ear hair plucking.

The front of the bag has four smallish vertical pockets with elastic to keep items in place. This is where I keep my various dematting blades and my triangle slicker brush. From left to right I have a Four Paws Magic Coat mat splitter, a Q Matts B Gone mat splitter,  Q Coat Wizard,  a Q 9 Blade Mat Comb, a Q Razor Mat Splitter, and Q Sensitive Area Slicker (AKA Triangle Slicker)

The main pocket of the bag has two pockets on both sides, and three elastic pockets along the back. The elastic pockets don't have a bottom which means you can easily store irregularly shaped bottles. The elastic pockets hold a bottle of The Stuff, which is my all time favourite dematting spray, #1 All Systems Mat Blaster Plus dry aerosol dematting spray, and a spray bottle containing water. I got the spray bottle from the IKEA gardening section when one of my first dematting spray bottle broke. Once I had emptied the bottle I cleaned it out and filled it with water because The Stuff works best when used on wet hair. It can saturate all the way through a really bad mat in two sprays. The side pockets contain my Facetime Foaming Face Wash and the other holds my Tropiclean Fresh-breath Instant fresh foaming mouth wash.

There is some extra room inside the main pocket that you can put a few things in, however if you fill it up too much the bag cannot fold up to close. I use it to hold my Natur Vet Ear Wash and Bio-Groom Ear-fresh Grooming Ear Powder.

I love this bag soooo much but it isn't perfect. It can sometimes be hard to zip up because of the shape and design of the bag, zipping around the corners from the bottom can be difficult and the more you have in the bag the harder it is to close. There are also some products that I use on a regular basis that just didn't fit. I have another bottle or two of dematting spray that didn't fit, an oddly shaped dematting blade, two brushes (a pin brush and a boar nylon bristle brush (AKA the Andreas brush), and all my grooming wipes. Currently my extra tools are in a bag that I got as part of a grooming supply kit. My wipes and whatnot are being stored on/under my grooming table until I can find a better solution

I have been considering buying another grooming bag to organize the left over items but I am going to have to review all the bags I looked at before and search for different criteria. I really don't need too many pockets for my remaining tools as I no longer have small items to organize. I think I might go for a small tote or maybe a ringside grooming bag so I can use it solely for my brushes, blades and wipes. Or I might go the opposite way and

2014 What's in my bag: Grooming edition

This is my Grooming bag from 2014 before my collection exppanded, these were all the basics I used on my pup.

What's in my bag Grooming edition

Inside

The inside of my bag holds, an electric clipper box, a pencil case filled with tools, a mini garbage can filled with tools, and my good grooming scissors.

I like to use a hard pencil case to store my smaller tools.

Here I have (from right to left) an undercoat rake, a sensitive area de-matting comb, a dual sided finishing comb, a dual sided small comb, a sensitive area triangle slicker and a zoom groom.

I like to keep my larger grooming tools in my mini garbage can because they are too big to fit nicely in any sort of case. I use  both the tools and the garbage can every day so it works well.

 These tools are a universal slicker brush, a medium oval slicker brush, a de-matting claw and a dual head pin/boar bristle brush.

This pocket holds Khazi's nail clippers and Kwik Stop, which thankfully, I have never needed to use. I also keep a mini lint roller to use to pick up hair from the carpet after grooming as well as for cleaning the inside of my bag.

 I use this pencil case pouch to hold my various scissors. My professional shears have their own sheith that is clipped to the inside of my bag.

 This pouch holds my long scissors, thinning shears, general scissors and snub nose safety scissors.

This case holds my tool cleaning accessories.

The top brush is my brush brush (for cleaning my brushes) and one of the tooth brushes is my brush brush brush (for cleaning my brush brush), o.k. I know I am obsessive.You can buy actual brush brushes or you can do what I did and get a large nail brush. The combs are also for cleaning out my brushes, the second tooth brush is used to thouroughly scrub under Khazi's chin as it tends to smell.

These are Khazi's ear products, ear cleaner and ear hair plucking powder

The Sentry product is a water additive for bad breath, this is something I bought before I realized Khazi's smelliness came from her beard rather than her mouth. I have only used this product once since I bought it and I doubt I will use it again. The other product is Khazi's dry bath spray

The blue spray bottle contains straight water at most detangling sprays work best on wet hair. The yellow bottle is my wags & wiggles detangling spray and the clear bottle is facetime face wash. I loved the facce wash when I got it but it does have a very strong scent which Khazi does not like at all so we don't use it too often.

These are all the extra Ora Pup brushes and Lickes that I have, they are back ups from when I run out of a product or when the brush wears out.

This pencil case contains all of Khazi's oral care supplies. Ora pup brush, Ora pup lickies, Tooth paste, tooth brush and finger brushes.

2014 Adventures in Dog Sitting: Tayngel days 1 & 2

Written in 2014, this was one of my doggy clients who used to be super demanding, I am glad to say that over the years she has improved greatly, calmed down and I really enjoy spending my days with her. :)

For the next ten or so days I will be looking after the beautiful Tayngel (pronounced to sound like angel but starting with a T). Tayngel is a 3(ish?) year old, female Siberian Husky. She is gorgeous and such a sweet heart and being with her is like signing up for a gym membership. She needs to walk all the time. She never runs out of energy no matter how long we are out, how tough the terrain or how long I stimulate her brain. I have never met a dog that sleeps so little, I mean I thought walking my dog five times a day was a lot. I don't mind the exercise, I need it and I enjoy it, the problem is that if she is not walking or eating she is howling. It dosen't bother me all that much but my client has a tenant living below her and I feel horrible about the noise all night long and I do mean ALL. NIGHT. LONG. Obviously I had to find a way to fix it. I knew I needed something to occupy her time that involved food as she is not play motivated. I needed a quick fix for the night so I did a little easy DIY. I had seen a project on Pinterest where a owner filled a tub with treats and toys and froze it to make a doggie Popsicle. I decided to try the same sort of thing but on a much smaller scale. I found some tupper ware containers in the cupboard and started filling them with Tayngel's favourite treats... fruits and veggies. Honestly that dog eats better food than I do and she lurves them. I put in carrots, blueberries, broccoli, asparagus, and in one I crumbled in a Stella and Chewy's Carnivore Crunch salmon and cod formula treat. That was a good idea but I came up with it too late, as bedtime was nearing and they would hardly even be chilled at that point. I had never used a Kong before but I had a feeling that it was just the type of product she needed. Of course the stores were closed and way too far away even if they were open. What is a girl to do??? I had given Tayngel a marrow bone earlier in the day - you know the ones that are hollow in the middle- so I figured I could use it as a make shift Kong. I filled the middle with Sunflower Seed Butter (I am allergic to peanuts) and let her go to town. This seemed to really help because she went to bed with far less howling, she still did howl but it was probably only half as much. I decided then that I would set out the next day to find her a proper Kong. So the next morning I woke up and we did our usual routine, she wakes me up at five, I feed her, walk her and we come home just to have her howl for the rest of the morning. This time instead of having her howl I gave her one of my home made freezy pup treats. It kept her occupied for a good long while and I was able to go back upstairs for a smidge more shut eye. That is not something I would normally do but Tayngels howling has been leaving me with only an hour of sleep every night, compared to my normal three hours.

Around lunch time Tayngel and I headed to High Park to have a picnic. I invited my family and those who could come were my mom, grandma, sister, of course Khazi. A very close family friend and her two daughters (to whom I am their fake aunt) joined us as well. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and when they left Tayngel and I got started on our nice long hike. It is so beautiful in High Park and there are actually some really tough paths to discover, my sore aching butt can confirm it. When we (pretty much just me) were too tired to continue we left the park and headed for Global Pet Food. I can't believe I actually found GPF, it wasn't all that hard to find but I am amazed that I did nonetheless.  The women in my family are all directionally challenged, I like to pretend I know where I am but most of the time it is just pure luck that gets me where I want to go. Anyway at  GPF I bought a classic XL Kong, Khazi could probably use the XXL Kong but she is not much of a chewer so I think it will be okay. I did go to get the Kong with Tayngel in mind but considering that it cost me $20 and I get paid less than minimum wage I am definitely going to bring it back home with me for Khazi to use.

When we returned home we were both pooped, unfortunately in Tayngel's case that only lasted for about 40 mins, then she was up and howling again. This time I knew exactly what the noise was for, it was dinner time. Rather than fill her bowl I put her dinner into the Kong and let her figure how to get the food out for herself. At first she was less than amused by it. She looked at it, then back at me, then walked away. Finally she wandered back and gave it a shove, I don't think she was actually trying to use it at the time but once she realized it would give her her dinner she was all in. I have never actually seen a dog play with a Kong full of food before and, man, is it entertaining. I was watching 24 on Nextflix at the time but I hardly looked at the TV at all, I was too busy watching Tayngel try to figure out the best way to get her dinner. I refilled her Kong every time she emptied it until she had eaten her entire dinner. Her Kong kept her entertained for about an hour and when she was done she went to have a nice long nap.

Later on she started howling again and after ruling out all of the basic necessities I decided to let her have the Kong again. Tayngel is the perfect dog for a Kong because her favourite treats (this time veggies only) are healthy and extremely low on calories so I an refill it over and over without it impacting her weight. This time I wanted Tayngel to have more of a challenge so I stuffed the big hole with a piece of broccoli. She had to pull out the broccoli to get to the carrots, asparagus and other pieces of broccoli. She worked extremely hard to get the treats out of the Kong and I am happy to say she has chosen to go to bed for the night . Success!

Nighty night everyone I am going to go to sleep myself before she wakens again and makes a fuss.

2015 Khazi Trick Champion Title!

It has been a long time since I last posted anything and so much has changed in my life. I started doing tricks with my dog and I came to the realization that that was HER THING. I always wanted a super dog to compete in Agillity, flyball, disc, dock diving etc. but I never thought of tricks as a sport, but guess what, it is!!! So you work with what you've got. My mentor told me a long time ago that people are always trying to get their next dog and have it all planned out that they will be their (insert sport type here) dog but they don't realize that dogs are a lot like people you may want your baby to grow up to be say an olympic gold medal swimmer but it doesn't mean it is the future they will want and/or enjoy. I will never stop doing agility with my dog and I do plan to compete with her in the future but I have learned that when she does agility she is doing it because I want her to, when she is doing tricks, she is doing tricks because she wants to work at them and she is obviously having a blast doing what she loves. It wasn't my first choice but I have never seen her as confident and happy as she is when she is performing for me. That being said we still have a ways to go with getting rid of her stage fright. I can see it in her face and body, I imagine her little brain is saying  "Yay it's trick time!!!! Oh wait, why are those weird people watching me, I'll just wait until they leave, then I'll show Mommy all my tricks" as I said it's a work in progress.

Khazi started getting so good at her tricks that my mentor suggested that I get into getting Khazi her trick titles through  Kyra Sundance and the Do More With Your Dog titling program. Flash forward six months later and Khazi and I have earned all five trick titles that can be earned including the final level of Trick Dog Champion (AKA TDCH) I also got a few letters after my name too CTDI (Certified Trick Dog Instructor). Do More With Your Dog is the official sanctioning body for the sport of dog tricks and I decided if I wanted to be serious about my future in dog training I should go through the best program to get certified. I am so happy with my decision

I always think things would be so different if I had her as a puppy or if she hadn't experienced what she did in her first year of life but I think if it was easy I wouldn't appriciate the little successes as much as I do and while it isn't easy the amount of work I have to put in to every little thing has made me a great trainer. I have never encountered an issue where I have been totally stumped as to what I should be doing next. I feel like I have fought every battle there is to be fought and I eventually won so I can relate that expience to every issue a student is having.

June Barkbox 2014

We got our June BarkBox today and I am even more disappointed with this month's box than last month's. There were only four items in this month's box and I can't really use one type of treats and I don't like the toy at all. Common Bark Box get your stuff together!

Okay I hate this month's toy. It is literally just a butt. Of course Khazi loves it, she carries it around with her and it is the only thing she will play with. No headI know it is supposed to be a funny joke toy but I really don't like it. I would be fine with is if it were a full toy with it's bottom showing, but it is just an animal butt and nothing else. It also happens to be the butt of the only animal in the world that I hate - a monkey. I seriously don't get it.

Benny Bully Banana and Liver Treats.

This is a great product that Khazi loves, unfortunately for Khazi, she is allergic to liver and they make her really sick. I know this from past purchases so the very most I will give Khazi at any point is about 1/8 of the treat once a day. I will probably end up using most of them at work for training. There are not too many treats in the bag but they are quite a bit larger than the average treats. Before I knew about Khazi's allergies Benny Bullys were my go to training treat, and knowing how expensive they can be it is nice to see them in the Bark Box.

Khazi has never really liked the fake bone chews. She has a Nylabone but it is very rare for her to actually use it but this bone is different. She shows no interest in it, she didn't even bother to sniff it. Then again she was probably too busy playing with that stupid butt toy...

I did love the other treats included in June's box. They are one of my favourite treats we have ever gotten from the boxes, this is mostly because they do not contain liver or nuts. They are nice and soft so they are easy to break up and are perfect for agility practice and trick training. They are also adorable, they are shaped like little waving dogs. I am very impressed with these treats.

Woofstock 2014

Last weekend I went to Woofstock. It is the second dog expo I have gone to this year and it is the second expo I have been to in my life.I enjoyed Woofstock much more than the previous show I went to, mostly because you were allowed to bring your own dog with you and, if you know me at all you will know there is nothing I love more than showing off and talking about my dog. I wasn't too impressed with the shows they offered but I am sure many other people loved them. I was looking forward to watching the "Stupid Dog Trick Show" unfortunately the dogs would not perform the very difficult tricks and all the other tricks they showed were ones my dog could do. I also work with a girl who's dogs are trick champions so I see a lot of impressive tricks on a regular basis. (now in 2016 my dog holds a Trick Champion title as well, oh how times have changed) I did like tight rope walking trick though.

 I did really enjoy the agility trials because it was different from the super dog shows I am used to seeing. It was 100% agility and the runs were timed and judged professionally. Now that I do agility with my dog I am much more interested in the handling and judging of a sport rather than the entertainment of a show. It is so encouraging to see some of the people trialing facing the same problems I face on the pitch. When the agility trials had finished you could sign up to try running on their beginners agility course. I was very excited about that because I wanted to see if Khazi would perform outside of familiar territory. Everything on the pitch was tiny which Khazi did not like, I swear I could hear her thinking "what is this, an agility course for ants?!?" she also did not understand why I wouldn't allow her to run the entire course all in one go and why she had to wear her leash. It was quite fun and a great photo op.

   

 

   

 After watching the two shows I was very disappointed because I had visited all the tents (all five of them) and that seemed to be it. Thank goodness we were mistaken and we were directed to follow a path for about four minutes to take us to the largest section of Woofstock. There were TONS of tents at the end of the path as well as a giant stage on which they were filming dog fashion show and breed shows for CTV. The tents were all vendors selling dog gear, food and accessories. The best part was all the free samples. We came home with three full bags of freebies, mostly food and treats. We also got a free paw print picture at a microchipping booth. They offered free dog photo shoots for anyone who wated to sign their dog up to me in the fido calendar and adds, I was going to sign up but the preson ahead of me in line took the last booking :(. Once you finished shopping you could go and eat at one of the food trucks. It was a fantastic experience but if you are thinking of attending next year here are some things to think about. Don't take your dog if it is aggressive/overly reactive, that seems pretty obvious but there were tons of aggressive/reactive dogs there. In fact one of the puppies that comes to the training facility I work in lost a big  chunk of it's ear while it was at Woofsock. An aggressive dog came up behind him and bit it right off. Bring water for both you and your dog, it is very hot and a lot of the dogs were over heating. It will also help to take a seat in the shade during the hot hours. Wear sun block, shade is few and far between. There are very few places to sit so, if you are expecting to stay all day bring some light weight folding chairs. GO EARLY, if you are driving it can be extremely difficult to find parking so head out as early as possible. 

 If you have a pug or dachshund you can enter them in races, they are free and fun and I think you can win prizes. If you are interested in entering the cute dog contest you need to sign up before you go. Many people wanted to enter their dogs but didn't realize they had to pre register.  

 The All About Pets Show and Woofstock are the two biggest expos in my area so I am going to give you a rundown of which show I enjoyed more.

Dogs- Winner: Woofstock - You can bring your dog with you to Woofstock

Freebies - Winner: Woofstock There were TONS of freebies at Woofstock almost all the vendors who sold treats or food offered either food packages or treat samples.

2017 UPDATE - The All Aboout Pets Show now allows you to bring your dog and the freebies have gotten better. I go to the AAPS every year and have not wanted to go back to Woofstock after my first visit

Spring has sprung 2014

Spring has sprung, and oh boy do I hate it. Winter was lovely, sure we had record snowfalls and deep freezes but I will take mass amounts of snow over mass amounts of mud any day. It also means it is time to whip my pup's matted coat back into shape. My dog LOVES the snow, there is no question that she is half Bernese Mountain Dog. You don't even have to do anything with her at all for her to be having the best time of her life. I just love the way she prances through the snow with a look of pure bliss. It is all well and good for her in the  winter but it kills me when spring comes around. I have probably said this a million times before (and I probably will again), but Bernedoodles have been dubbed the title "groomer's worst nightmare". I agree with that statement one hundred percent. They mat very easily and that is not a good trait even before adding snow, rain, and mud to the mix. I am going to be totally upfront about this situation, her current state of matting is all my fault. I normally groom Khazi at least 2 hours every single day and she needs it so badly. Missing a day can add extra hours of work to your next grooming session which isn't fun for the dog. I had to go away for work for three months and in that time Khazi became a giant walking matt. Okay that is exaggerating it because I see the rescue dogs makeovers a lot and she is not that bad but it is the worst I have ever seen her other than the matted state she was in when we got her. I did have family members at home who were willing to do some of the grooming unfortunately all they really knew how to do was a brush out. That was extremely kind of them for trying to help but I do see areas that were simply hacked off rather than being combed and dematted properly. I am finally home now and I am dedicating a lot of time to grooming her. He mats are bad but I am extremely dedicated to the subject, I made sure I read/bought every grooming book, blog, and articles aswell as all the youtube videos I could find. I am of course by no means a professional groomer, but I feel my research has given me all the answers I need to do all my dog grooming from home. We took her to pet value once for a sanitary shave and nail clipping and vowed never to go back for those services.

I think home grooming is great, it builds such a great bond and even if you have a dog that hates to be touched in anyway (like Khazi when we first got her) you can get to know your dog and train them to love grooming. Khazi still doesn't totally love grooming but she will always runs back to me after we have finished an area that was causing her grief and gives me tons of kisses. That being said, I have never in my life hurt my dog while grooming. Normally I pick one section of the body I want to work on first, then make my way around going from area to area. I completely believe that you should be working as a team as well as being able to read your dog's body language. I have taught my dog that if she doesn't want me working on a sensitive area any more she can chew on the matted area she wants my to work on next. I just simply say "show me" and she communicates exactly where this issue is.

Back dated posts

Back in 2014 and 2015 I wrote a large number of posts about Khazi, groming, training, my work and daily life with my pup. Unfortunately life got in the way (work, health problems, and a new relationship which eventually ended in marriage - yay!!) so they never got published. Over the next while I am going to work on actually publishing those back dated posts as well as working on new posts about the updates in my life (spoiler alert there is a new dog in the family!). So if you are reading along, you know if anyone actually does read these the posts may switch back and forth from back dated ones to new ones. I will make sure to add the date to the back dated posts to keep it clear. So keep checking back because there are many more posts to come :)

From Unpaid Apprentice to Head Sport Trainer

In 2014 I began training as an apprentice at a dog training facility. I started out as a gopher, mostly observing the teaching process and dealing with facility clean up. The next step up was becoming a Teacher's Assistant which meant I was now allowed to assist during classes and talk to students about any issues they might be having (although I still always checked in with my mentor before giving said advice). The TA position came to me simply because the regular assistant went on vacation and asked me to cover her shifts. During this time I developed a deep bond with my mentor and when it came time for the other assistant to come back to her job she was no longer needed. I believe the biggest underlying factor of this slight promotion can be attributed to the fact that the facility owners knew keeping me on as an unpaid apprentice would profit them more than paying for a salaried employee to work the shifts. I learned as much as I could from my mentor and she was more than willing to help me become better at what I do. She challenged me every day and I continuously proved to her I was up to the challenge. I got many more responsibilities because she trusted me to do as I was taught and she never second guessed me. At the beginning of every set of classes she would introduce me as her assistant and told the class that if they needed any help they could ask me as I was more than capable of answering any questions they might have. This was the biggest compliment I could have received and I made sure I knew every detail about everything we taught so if any questions were asked of me I could give a proper, knowledgeable and professional answer. I was a TA for close to two years before I was promoted to Co-Instructor. My Mentor decided it was time for her to move on with her career and leave our facility and she started this transition by dropping the Tuesday agility classes and only working one more batch of Sunday classes. When the Tuesday shift needed filling I was originally still a TA but as time went on my partner (who was the TA I took over from two years prior) realized I now had more experience and knowledge on the subject than she did so I was given the position of Co-Instructor. Once it came time for my mentor to leave for good she did the kindest most wonderful thing anyone has ever done for me by telling the facility owners that I was most qualified and skilled to take over when she left. Because of this I was not only given the position of lead agility instructor but also the position as Head trainer of all dog sports . This was a huge step up for me and this position meant I would finally be paid for my work and I got my very own apprentice to train. I have had the position for about a year and a half now and I couldn't be happier. I have been allowed to change the course outlines and brought them up to a new standard, to the point that we are now getting clients from other training facilities leaving reviews saying our program is far better than all others that they have tried. I am not one to feel confident and proud of myself but I am extremely proud of my accomplishments at work and I finally have something that I know I am good at doing. Agility was my first passion and what got me started but I knew I wanted to expand my horizons and become even more qualified so I got my CTDI (certified Trick Dog Instructor) certification and worked with my dog to earn her TDCH (Trick Dog Champion) title. This gave me the experience needed to be able to teach tricks. I may already have my dream job but I will never stop trying to better myself in my career, next on the horizon is to start teaching even more dog sports. I will become a Certified Trick Dog Judge qualified to judge competitions at Tridex 2018 in the next few months as well as learning how to properly teach disc, competition obedience and flyball classes. It has been a bit of a crazy whirl wind or hard work but I am so happy with how my life is turning out. So if you would like to become a dog trainer, follow your passion and never give up, even if you need to volunteer for a while to get there, do it and make it happen.