Welcome to October!

October is one of my favorite months.  It is crisp with fall, the leaves are well into their beautiful change, and we're gearing up for Halloween!

Lots of exciting things happening this October!  For me, I really hope October is the month of change.  There has been something in the works for a while that I haven't widely broadcasted because I needed to wait to give notice but now it is finally happening.  I am finally doing something that I've wanted to do for so long but I haven't had the courage to do it.

I am leaving Lucky Dog and going into business for myself!  It is about time I got out of a situation that has been so detrimental to my mental health and happiness.  I was just so afraid to do it.  I felt that if I wanted to train dogs I had to stay with Lucky Dog.  Maybe just fear of the unknown but it kept me in a situation that I don't have to suffer through anymore.

I have to finish my classes out there but after that, I'm done.  Amazing.

While I'm doing that I figured I'd just go ahead and change my body too.  I'm going to get my tattoo and I'm going to work out.  No really I am.  Okay so I know I say that and then it fades out because I'm rather lazy and like to be stationary, especially early in the morning.  But the girls at work and I are all on board.  Each of us is working out and eating better.  It's hard to eat well at work because there is so much fast food and crap around and it's so easy to go get for a fast lunch.  No more.  None of us are eating fast food.  In fact, all through October none of us are eating out at all.  I want to exercise more, eat right and lose some weight.  I don't really need to lose weight but I want to be healthy and fit.  I don't have to be an exercise nut, because let's face it, that won't happen.  But being healthy and fit would be wonderful.  Hiking 14ers next summer would be incredible.  So October is the month to begin.  I've already cut out soda, which was really hard.  Damn Mountain Dew Code Red for being so yummy and addictive.  But no more.  I haven't had a soda in over a month.  That's been hard but so worth it.  I still crave it but I've been strong.

So here's to October being an incredible month for me!  Yay Fall!

Goodbye to something

Announcement:  I've decided to pull out of one side of training.  I am leaving Central training and the Levels program.  I'm not interested in it anymore and it feels like I am just drawing out a long death.  I decided to work with dogs because I believe in doing what you enjoy instead of what can make you lots of money.  If that's really what I believe then I need to be true to that.  I no longer enjoy training at Central.  The whole reason I've been doing it for so long is because I am loyal.  I am loyal to people I love and I love both Astrid and Angie.  However, this is not fair to me.  And it certainly isn't fair to them.  So... I'm out.

I'm not sure how to feel about it but mostly this is a good thing.  You have to let go of things that don't make you happy anymore.  People who really care about you will understand.  Besides, I have Jake now and I want to spend more time with him.  Life isn't just about working anymore.  I want to be able to have a social life and stop working myself to death.  Is this the right choice?  It might be hard but I think that it will work itself out in the end.

That being said I have decided to stay at South, even if it is a bit toxic down there.  I went down and had a meeting with the manager today.  I want to change that area upstairs into my training area so I spent several hours today pulling things out and cleaning it. The area is so junked and cluttered that I am rather embarrassed to train there so that needs to chance.  I've been asking for help with it for months but really I need to just make the decision to do it myself and stop trying to get these people to help out.  It's not going to happen.

There are a lot of big changes happening at LD that I am not going to go into here.  Let's just say things that I was told were never going to change are.  We've changed up management a bit and I'm actually pleased with that.  Maybe things can actually change for the better if we can get the ball rolling now.  Who knows?  I know that I am glad things are happening finally.  I need to stop making excuses for things that I do not like and do not make me happy anymore.

Onward and upward!

Whitman's form of training

I have made some hard choices in regards to training.  Training classes are no longer as enjoyable for me as they once were.  I don't like it.  I'm bored and I need to do something else.

However, there are still moments where I find some joy in them.  Mostly when Whitman is ignoring all the working dogs and playing in the toy box like a kid in the back of the classroom eating paste.  Man, I love this dog!

Video Production

The time as come.  Angie, Astrid and I are all in Boise ID to meet with Tawzer Dog.  Those outside the dog training world probably have no idea what Tawzer Dog is but they are THE producers of dog training and animal DVDs in the US.  Being here and seeing how a DVD is filmed is pretty cool in itself but the fact that Angie is the one filming is pretty damn cool.

Angie was very brave today.  She got up in front of a green screen and talked about flirt poles.  Very intimidating and I would have been so tongue tied but she did wonderfully.  We got mostly done with filming today and we'll do some pick ups tomorrow then she's done and in a couple of months she's going to have a fancy pants DVD.

I'm very proud of her.  This is what it is all about.  Astrid and I came to give her some emotional support.  Which for me has been sitting just out of camera range with snacks and giving her thumbs up.  It's been a good time!  Couple that with a nice hotel and hot tub and this isn't a half bad vacation!

Congrats Angie!  Can't wait to see the finished product.

"Well, that's not intimidating at all." -Angie

Stop feeling stuck

Finally got some time to clean.  I reorganized a bit and it feels pretty good to get things under control again.  When I get busy and stressed, which I pretty much am always busy which has the potential to make me stressed, things like cleaning the house and organizing my life goes by the wayside.  Between work, training starting again and my social life, I feel like I rarely have time for myself anymore.  Good thing and a bad thing.  One one hand, I was in a rut of having a lot of time to myself.  Did that for years.  But I am also the kind of person that when I don't have time to myself to decompress and what not I get to feeling a little overwhelmed.  So it has been good to have the morning off to do some much needed cleaning.

Life has been good.  I am ramping up training again and I'm on the fence about that.  It felt SO good not to have to worry about it for a while.  That is probably a hint to my life.  I ran into Sandy from CCI the other day.  She was my trainer when I was raising puppies at CCI and she remembered me.  She has a program  now that she raises and trains service dogs on a smaller scale.  We got to talking and I told her that service dogs were really where my heart was and I would love to get back into it.  I think that having obedience under my belt is really important but day after day of the same thing is driving me a bit crazy.  Service dogs feel like I am actually helping someone.  That's the reason I like rescue.  Anyway, we got to talking and she told me that she's open to having someone take over the training side of her organization more because she'd like to do more traveling with her dogs to crisis points and such.  That would be an incredible opportunity.  Downside, not paid.  Upside, networking.

This really reminds me how much I need to get a puppy that can be a really solid dog again.  Whitman is wonderful and I love him dearly but he will never be a demo dog and he'll never be service or therapy dog material.  That's fine.  But that's what I want in a dog.  So I need to decide if I am going to start looking at breeders to get a really bomb proof puppy or if I am going to get involved in a program like CCI as a puppy raiser again.  I've thought about it and doing CCI would really be what I want to do.  There's no guarentee that I would get that puppy back, that's not really the point, but it is such a wonderful program and I got two incredible dogs out of it.

Sometimes I feel stuck but I need to remind myself that I'm only 27 and still young.  There is still so much time for me to do the things I want, even if I'm not 100% sure what that is.  I recently read The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths by Pat Brown, furthering my education into the creepy criminal mind and true crime, and it actually really inspired me in a way that has nothing to do with my crime obsession.  She was in her 30s when she became interested in the criminal mind and profiling.  Her career didn't really get started in that until she was in her late 40s.  But she made the decision that it was something she was interested in and something she wanted to do and went after it.  If you have the drive and the belief that you can do something and go for it you can do it.  Maybe finding that out later in life is a blessing in some ways.

So I need to stop feeling trapped.  Wherever I end up, go or stay, it was a choice on my part.  You choose to do something and you choose not to do something.  Either way it is a choice.  That's the beauty of life.  I say it over and over again.  Why don't I listen to myself?

Thoughts

I've said it before and I will say it again.  Daylight savings is like a kick in the gut.  I hate it so much.  Now my sleep is going to be really out of whack making it even harder for me to get it back on track.  Plus I'd rather have the sun up earlier when I'm getting up rather than it being up in the evening.  Why must we meddle with things we don't understand!  Isn't time one of those things us humans shouldn't be messing with?

Got a lot of good work done at the house.  Should be ready for move in next week.  I'm pretty excited about that.  I had hoped this weekend but the sanding and polishing the floors took longer than we thought.  Every project seems to.  After that I am just going to move in and continue to do small projects around the house.  I just so badly want to live there even if that means I'm still doing small projects while living here.  Honestly I don't think the house will ever be 100% done.

Happy birthday to Astrid, my partner in all things dog.  Just to let you know, I saw your comment on my last post and you're never too old to reach your potential.  You are an inspiration.

I got a second interview for Best Friends.  It is another phone interview on the 20th, which seems forever away.  The first interview was with the general HR person I guess and then she passed the information on to the Dogtown managers.  They contacted me by email last week to set up this second phone interview.  I have no idea what to expect but I think if this one goes well they'll invite me out for two weeks to do a trial period.  The thought of that requires me to do a lot of deep breathing to keep myself calm.

Angie did an announcement about it at the training apprentice meeting on Friday.  Man I'm going to feel horrible if I do end up leaving.  The people in that program are such a huge part of me feeling like I've made a place for myself.  For a long time I felt like I didn't have any connections to anyone until I joined that program and really let myself over to it.  I admire and love so many of the people I've met through the training program.  For the first time since high school I feel like I have people in my life that really know and care for me.  It means a lot to me and I don't contemplate leaving that lightly.

Plus, Angie has given so much to this program and found so many of us apprentices sticking around for more than six months and more than a year because of what she gives.  I have never found anything as rewarding as this and believe me I spent years looking.  Before I met Angie and started this program, being a dog trainer was just this silly little dream that no one really believed I'd really pursue.  But it was something I wanted so badly and something that gives real meaning to my life.  Without finding Lucky Dog University I wouldn't have gotten to do it and see my dream realized.  I am working to turn it into a career thanks to what I have learned and the path I've found.  I can't imagine leaving it all.

I guess we'll have to see what shakes out.  No one ever really knows where the path they are on is going to lead.  Which is terrifying but I think that we should strive to see it as exciting opportunity more than terrifying.

It's time to get my third tattoo I think.  I've wanted it for over a year I just haven't gotten around to scheduling an appointment for it.  I want "Not all those who wander are lost" (from Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien) on the side of my right foot.  I know it will hurt like the dickens but I really really want it.  I really never believed that tattoos are addicting but I guess they are because I have at least two more I want, including this one.  Then after that I really should be done because I'll have run out of really good places to put them.  Which is a shame.  My mother will be happy though.

In other news, I am all set to get my second certification through the CCPDT.  This one is the Knowledge and Skills certification so I have to upload a video of me actually training a dog.  I'm excited about that except for the fact that it was a nightmare getting myself signed up for it.

A while back my email was hacked and I lost a lot of emails I had been holding on to.  Course I didn't know what I had lost and what I hadn't.  So the cut off for signing up for this certification was March 2nd.  Come February 25th I went looking for the email they had sent me with my first certification in order to get the password to confirm I was eligible.  No email.  So I got to the website to request another one.  They say call this number and email this email.  So I call the number and leave a message and send an email.  No response.  The next day I call again.  No response... this goes on all week until I'm finally getting pissed off and contact the CCPDT directly.  No answer.  No call back.  Nothing.  I try this for a week and the deadline goes past and I still haven't heard back from anyone.  I was so mad.

Finally I heard back on March 4th with an email saying, sorry but the deadline has passed and we can't help you.  If I wasn't pissed before I certainly was then.  I went all they way to the president of the CCPDT about it because I shouldn't have to be punished for very poor customer service.  Keep in mind this is not the first problem I've had with them.  They wouldn't update my address for a while and had me in CT at one point.  Just stupid stuff like that.

They did put it right though so I'm all set to go for the KSA.  Astrid is also ready to go for it though she had a much easier time of getting set up.  She's the good one, haha.  So we're going to meet at some point this week and figure out how to do it.  We have three things to train with a dog and an owner then one thing to train a dog alone.  Should be lots of fun and hopefully we both get certified.

Anyway, I think that's about long enough.  I should probably pretend like I'm doing work even though it is so uninteresting.

My brain is stuffed full!

I'm a little late updating this but things have been crazy.  I have several updates I need to do but I'm going to slow myself down and try to get them all in thoroughly.

First of all, I was in Denver last week to see Dr. Sophia Yin speak.  Dr. Sophia Yin is a veterinarian and behaviorist.  It's a rare thing to find a veterinarian that straddles over into behavior and training.  So there was definitely a lot to learn from her.  She's one of the great trainers out there and I highly recommend her.  It was an entertaining four days and my brain got crammed full of information.  It always is after a seminar like this.  There is a lot to learn from these big time trainers.

I was surprised to find that a lot of this was review.  There are the basics of positive reinforcement training that all the big time trainers seem to have.  Of course everyone has their own spin on it which is interesting to see.  Even if the information is review, the way that particular trainer presents it is new.  I have started to find that I can pick and choose what I want to take from each seminar.  The first bit seminar I ever went to was Dr. Ian Dunbar.  I came back from that feeling like I had to change everything I was doing and would ever do.  Then I realized the point is that you take the information you need and use it in the way you need.  So a lot of the information that Dr. Sophia Yin presented was a review and I wasn't exactly sure I bought into her take on it.  She definitely has a different style.  But I did find gems I could pick out and that I want to use in the future.

What I'm going to use:

• How to safely handle a dog at the vet.  Whitman may be my fluffly lovebug but he's not the vet's fluffy lovebug.  So if I can handle him safely and desensitize him to that our vet trips will be 100 times better.  And of course, those techniques can be used at work for handling injured or sick dogs safely.  I'm going to do my own mini seminar for the handlers at work.
• How to approach fearful dogs.  Of course because I own a fearful dog.  But I also give a bite prevention talk at a lot of events.  I want to incorporate a lot of what she had.  The biggest thing I loved was her pictures of an inappropriate greeting from the dog's point of view.  She also had some great analogies about fearful dogs meeting people being people meeting spiders.  Good stuff.
• Psychopharmacology.  It hurt my brain but I know I'm going to need to know at least some of that for my certification.
• Walking on lead.  I already have a good way to teach this and I wasn't completely in love with how she does it.  But I am going to steal starting with backing up and sitting on a hands-less leash.
• Kitty Kindergarten.  I'm super excited about this.  I want to make a kitty training class from scratch.  If that goes well then I can do a cat training class.  That's going to be SO much fun and I really hope it takes off.

There was more but I'm sure you don't all want to hear about it.  I learned A LOT!  And my brain kind of busted by the end.  That's why I take notes so that I can go back over and think about everything.

I left that seminar with a HUGE training to-do list to add to my everyday to-do list.

• Reinstate my Premiere trainer account for discounts
• Go through my IAABC notes and put those together
• Also go through the brochures I got from the IAABC and find the puppy groups I wanted to join.
• Doggone Safe
• Get my certification going with my hours, recommendations and flashcards.
• Apply to write the APDT blog
• Write a new bio
• Go through my client packets and add them on my professional Facebook.
• Update my professional Facebook, BranchOut and LinkedIn
• Set up South training
• Kitty Kindergarten
• course schedules
• Get the posters from Sophia Yin and frame them
• Look into a possible Mannersminder
• Get Whitman's blood work done so that I can find a motivation for him.
• work on targeting with Whitman

That's my to-do list.  AAAA!

So I learned a lot from Dr. Sophia Yin and got inspired but one of the best things about going to a seminar is that we have a blast!  The apprentices and trainers really get to know each other and cut loose when we go on seminars.  We all have steam to blow off and we do that.  Thanks to some liquor, a pool and Quelf.

It was an amazing experience.  I'm so lucky to be a part of an organization that gives me these opportunities.

Whitman visited the seminar!

APDT Blog Possibility

So the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers), of which I am a member, are launching a new blog.  The blog is going "aimed specifically at dog trainers and behavior consultants or those who want to follow this career path".  It is supposed to cover "topics of interest to the professional community."  That is kind of broad for me to pin down exactly what to write but I'm VERY interested.  I am a writer at heart and I miss doing it as much as I did when I was in school.  This would really be the perfect mesh of both halves of my life, dogs and writing/literature.  It would be an incredible experience.  Plus it would get my name out there, which is super important.

So I am thinking I should apply.  But that makes me nervous.  I have to apply with possible topics and provide writing samples.  Now writing samples I have.  When I was in college in Boulder I wrote freelance for the Colorado Daily newspaper.  I wrote articles featuring independent businesses.  I had a lot of fun with them and I don't think they were terrible.  I can use those as writing samples.

But are they good enough?  Which is best?

Here they are:


Articles

Okay I know that's kind of awkward but that's the easiest way to do it.

So which one/s are good?  Can I use any of them?

Also, what topics should I choose?

Just one more thing to tackle.  I feel like the list is getting bigger and bigger.  Never ending list I need to get done to get my feet under myself for training.