The Good News thread

That's redonkulous. However, if you feel it's your calling, rock on.

Yerp.

Yay for: Camera, tablet, puppy.
Excited for: Traveling across the country, again, meeting some new people and visiting the old ones.

And generally speaking Zander is being super cute and cuddly lately, and I have no idea why. But I'm not complaining.

This. I almost failed my last workshop because I let a eh-eh slip. Its all or nothing with those guys.

I came home, dinner was made, I cuddled my dogs, watched TV and cuddled the Denis.

It's the first night in too long that we're relaxing. I am so happy.

DESTINY OF THE DALEKS IS HEREEEEEE!!!!! Now I can continue my adventures in Classic Who.

Hmmm... That's actually really good to know. I know they focus on the clicker which is what I'm looking for. Ah-ah is definitely ingrained in my training vocab. I don't use the prong as often anymore mainly because Cricket has gotten so much better on the training side of things in regards to leash walking. But ya, I do still use it on rare occasions if we are going to places with much higher distractions. Bring lots of treats with to focus on training in distraction areas and never ever do I yank on her leash with the prong on. She has gotten to the point where she doesn't really need it anymore at all and I don't like the prong so I've been making it a point to focus a loootttt on her leash training. But still, KPA would frown on that.

We'll see. I need to do a lot more research to see what's the best road for me. The biggest thing drawing me to KPA is clicker training. I don't know of another program that emphasizes clicker work as much as KPA does and the majority of the training I do is clicker.

You might also look into the programs that Pat Miller offers - similar in cost to KPA, but probably not quuuuiiiiite as nitpicky as KPA. They have a campus in MD and NC now.

Also, if you're just looking for additional skills with clicker vs wanting the title, trainer listing, etc. check out Clicker Expo. It's a 3 day conference with working labs that you can bring your dog for and it's AWESOME. I'm going this year for my 3rd time since 2007 and I am soooooo excited!

I'll check out the Pat Miller programs as well. I didn't know Pat Miller offered training programs and MD is not a far drive from me at all. I definitely want to have a title and trainer listing. A LOT of people out this way are as my parents put it "credential snobs". They look for titles or some sort of proof of education in any given field and I feel like going through a program that will give me a title and list me in their trainer database will increase the potential of business as a trainer out here.

I'm going to check out the clicker expo as well because that sounds like a lot of fun! The expo they are having in MD this weekend that I'm going to have a few seminars they are offering. One of their seminars is for people that are interesting in actually starting careers as trainers so I'm planning on sitting in on that this weekend.

I have several friends who have done different programs with Pat Miller's group and they say that they are great experiences.

CE fills up every year, so if you do want to go, make sure you sign up early. I'm going to the Stamford one in March and it filled earlier this month. Kestrel is my working dog this year, but I took Maggie in 2007 and Ziva in 2010. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it only lasts 3 days.

eta: Link to some of the new topics for CE this year: http://www.clickertraining.com/clickerexpo/whats-new

DAVID IS COMING HERE!!! :hail: :hail:

I'm so excited! he will be here by tonight, hopefully he can see the dogs' classes!

My new battery from Saturday was a FAIL when they load tested it. So swapped it out for another new battery (that they load tested before giving it to us), popped it in the car, and hurray!! SHE LIIIIIIIVES! So it's not going to run me any extra cash!

I just stuffed a kong with pork chops and applesauce for my dog.


I'm awesome

Usually he just gets bananas/applesauce/raw honey mixed....not that he's spoiled.

I think he eats better than I do. LOL

For cereals.

He eats better than I do

I'm cutting out all store made treats because of all his food issues, so I've been buying baby food to stuff the kong with then freeze. I split them between Frodo and the rat girls, so it's something new every day.

While I eat the same crap day after day...

Oh I never thought about freezing the baby food in the kongs! I feed baby food as toppers! Ima get a couple of kongs for the office and the brats can have them n the morning while we are having our meetings so they are quiet! Thanks for that!

I had almost forgotten how awesome vet discounts are. I brought Happy to work with me last week but didn't look at/pay my bill until today... an exam, rabies vaccine, and 60 tabs of doxycycline... a whopping $6.37.

For some reason I thought the doxy would be expensive but I guess I was just thinking of the fancy Vibramycin that I'm used to using for rodents. =P

Also. Day off tomorrow wooo! Today was sad so it's appreciated.

They can be pretty awesome I haven't gotten the final bill yet, but I think Nog's neuter was $20 or something like that.

This just made my night, lol and I love my giant dog lol.





I am sitting in a freaking arm chair, made for one regular sized person, not a larger person and a dog the size of a normal freaking person.