Thanks everyone for following along with my training for dog sports! Loot had a rough year as another domino in his brain fell and connected the sounds of dogs barking to his fear of being rushed by a dog. And sadly it generalized very fast to all settings. But he's on meds and we're making some progress and hope that he will be at least able to trial outdoors again in agility and possibly inside. Ginny is really maturing in agilty and starting to give me some very nice stuff! She also did a...

New month, and not a ton of new things this month with the dogs! Loot is still working on his strong fear of dogs barking and we're trying out some different medications. Ravioli is 8 months old! And likely in another sensitive period as he learns he's ok in busy environments, and that it is actually ok to run to preplaced toys again! Ravi reminds me so much of Loot as a puppy and how he holds on to little things and just wants to cuddle when unsure! And due to some major house stress with...

I wrote a new blog bost! This post on why I don't place the reward on the dog's line (at the foundation level). Without a foundation in knowing how to leave the reward to get the reward, I see so many dogs running blindly to it as the handler attempts to work sends. This results in dogs continually being called off the reward when they invetibly skip obstacles on the way there. People trying to block and guard the reward as they try to convince the dog to go back and try again. A lot of...