The busy dog trainer-June

How many of us keep track of our dog training? One thing I have learned over the years is the people that excel at what they do usually keep track of their training one way or another. I am a big fan of quick and easy record keeping. I am going to share with you one way to keeping track of your dog training. First, I make a spreadsheet on the computer. I list the skills for a week that I want to work on. Then, in the columns next to the skills I can place the date that I worked on it & the number of times a day. This helps motivate me to do daily training with my dogs & gives something specific to work on. Now that being said I use this for skills my dogs have already been taught & I am wanting to improve upon. When I teach a new skill I keep track differently because I need to do more writing on that new skill.

Tea Tree Oil

Most of us know that tea tree oil helps keep fleas & ticks away from our dogs but it can also help with another pesky bugger. I'm talking about chiggers! I just happened to run out of my dog shampoo (with tea tree oil) & was using another that had been sitting in the cabinet for a while. Todd & I keep getting chigger bits when we were in the house. I finally came to the conclusion that in years past we had never had this problem because I used shampoo with tea tree oil on our dogs. So, I set our to buy some shampoo & see if I was right. As soon as all the dogs were bathed the the furniture sprayed with tea tree oil & water we had no more chigger bits. The only down side to this is you have to bath the dogs once a week &/or spray them with tea tree oil every time the go out. That being said I live in the country were the dogs get into the tall grass. If you live in a neighbor hood then you are not going to have chigger problems like us country folks. Just thought I would share what I learned this month! -Heidi

The nine month old

Just before Ellie turned nine months she decided to try everything. Ellie started crawling, standing while holding on to things & her first tooth came in. It has been an exciting time! Ellie is keeping me on my toes now that she is on the go. Here are a few pictures of her.

The first zoo trip!

Todd & I took Ellie to the zoo today. It was fun taking her around & look forward to her interest in the animals as she gets older. What gorillas?

Ellie in her cute hat.

Ellie not wanting to wear her hat.

Ellie did finally notice the big elephants below us. The mommy was loving on her baby elephant & it was so cute.

April-busy dog trainer

As you can see April was a little on the busy side & I am just now getting around to make the April post. This past weekend I taught a workshop on walking the agility course & reading maps so I thought I would talk a little about that. Some people like using the maps and some don't even look at them. It really is what works best for you. Maps can give you a glimpse of where front crosses, rear crosses, serpentine and threadles may go. However, sometimes the angle, distance or even position of an obstacle can be slightly off compared with the map which may affect where those crosses may be. For some the maps help them to remember the order of the obstacles. When walking a course everyone has their own way of doing things. I'm not talking about handling systems just the fact that everyone does their course walk the way that will best help them remember it. For me personally I like to walk through the first time just to know where the numbers are at. This helps me to know where I have come from and where I am going when I walk it the second time adding in front crosses. I also like to stand at the front of the course and visualize what it will look like when my dog and I run the course. These things help me personally to remember the flow of the course. Above is a UKI course. Take a look and see if you know where to put the front crosses. -Heidi

Happy b-day!

My youngest dog Wicket just turned 2 years old. Mr. Wicket is growing up so fast. He has come so far in his agility training and is such a wonderful guy. Happy Birthday buddy!

April update...

Another month has gone by and Ellie is a little older. Ellie will be eight months on Easter! Wow, babies grow so fast! Here are a few pictures. Ellie's shirt says "Q" is my favorite letter of the alphabet. If you are an agility fan you know what this shirt means. Yes, Ellie supports her Mommy's agility habit!
Looking cool in her new shades! Poor girl has a peanut head like her Mama. We had to put the straps as tight as possible.

A beautiful Oklahoma sunrise from out deck.