Happy New Year! Here’s to hoping 2013 is a great year for all!
Happy New Year, everyone! With the coming of a new calendar year, it’s a great time to reflect on everything that happened in the previous one and look forward to everything the new one can bring. Two thousand twelve was a pretty good year for us. I finally returned to the work force after 2 years of unemployment. I was able to buy a house. Risa and I attended several doggy events and had a great time with new and old friends. Her tolerance for other dogs has increased and her reactivity is much better controlled. I was able to bring a foster dog into my home, train him, and find him a great new family. On top of that, he and Risa became good friends. We did several freestyle demos, attended seminars, and made attempts to start some training classes. Risa finished her AKC Rally Advanced title in January, added a few more legs in APDT Rally, earned her Wylde Courser Extreme title this summer, and earned her Intermediate title in WCFO freestyle in the fall.
Training a dog is an ongoing process; one is never done. So, like I do every year, I would like to set forth some goals for us so I have a solid plan of action!
1. Continue working on improving her comfort around other dogs and decreasing her dog reactivity. This is a goal I will have every year until the day she dies. It’s an ongoing process and she gets better every year! 🙂
2. Work on focus. This is the biggest sticking point in our training. I am pretty sure I’ll never get her to be one of those dogs who locks eyes with you and never breaks until given the release to do so. It’s just not in her nature. But that won’t stop me from trying to improve my training so that she is less likely to disengage completely and check out things while we’re working.
3. Positions. Ris’ knowledge of the various positions is pretty weak. She knows left-side heel pretty well but her right-side heel and front positions are pretty bad. She has no rear position at all which I am planning on teaching. Thankfully we learned how to use platforms at the Michele Pouliot seminar last year and I got her DVD “Step Up Your Training For Dog Sports” for Christmas so this should be an easy goal to achieve! It’s still going to take a lot of time and effort, though!
4. I would like to start and finish Ris’ Excellent title in AKC Rally this year. She will be attempting to earn two legs towards her title this upcoming weekend. It’ll depend on how well that goes as to when we might be able to finish it. 🙂
5. This year, I would love to earn our Championship title in WCFO freestyle and dabble in HTM a bit too.
6. I’m also planning on continuing to foster dogs which will help other unfortunate dogs like Risa and Jagger find great new homes. It will also help Risa become more comfortable with other dogs, especially in tight spaces. I also would like to add a second dog to the family this year.
Here’s to hoping 2013 is a great year for everyone!
