A Birthday

Today is my birthday.

I am sixty.

I do not feel sixty but then again, how is sixty suppose to feel?

I suspect the essence of a person is ageless and timeless, which is why so many of us are stunned at our chronological age.

American society is not kind to older people — especially women. I feel this often. It is like we become invisible and unimportant.

I think this is why so many of us become bolder and louder and just more forthright as we age. It is in response to social pressures that want to minimize us, or maybe just hide us away so everyone can pretend that youth is eternal.

I grew up in the era of Women’s Liberation and this has shaped my life and provided opportunity that the generations of women before me did not enjoy. As my generation ages, I hope we can carry forward that revolutionary spirit and redefine what it means to grow older so that our daughters and granddaughters and nieces are valued at every phase of their lives.

Live out loud at every age — the next generations are watching.

Less-Than-Optimal-News

Breeding dogs well is not easy for so many reasons — a big one is that it is hard on the heart. I am sorry to share that Sparkle is not pregnant. There is no explanation because everything was optimal — next time we will involve the Magic Wand.

This was hard news to hear and has taken me a bit to process. But I regrouped and considered and started planning because that is what you do in the face of Disappointment — no sense in sitting there.

I am determined and persistent. And I have other girls. Therefore, I hope to create my next puppy within the next 6 - 8 weeks.

That is why I breed these dogs — so that I can create the puppy of my dreams.

And maybe also yours.

Micro(wave) Training Sessions

I was pleasantly surprised by Daisy’s “stay” yesterday when I was doing photos in the arena…

That is our only relatively close neighbor’s house in the background.

Because I have been busy with the Specialty-bound dogs — and I was waiting for Spring to start on her agility training — Daisy has not been the recipient of any formal training time. But I do this kind of thing every day…

That photo, not the best as I just grabbed my phone, shows a micro training session as I was making my coffee.

A micro training session is a tiny unit of time, usually under a minute, in which I work one or two behaviors. I have cookies on the microwave and while I am waiting for something, I train. The dogs love this.

These micro sessions are effective. Daisy has learned both “down” and “stay” in small, regular micro sessions. Further, she was able to take the skills she learned and transfer them to the arena, staying perfectly while I went considerable distance from her.

What occurred to me is that we are doing micro training sessions all the time. However, we are likely not training with intention in these little sessions and therefore, we may well be training the wrong things.

Every interaction with a dog is a micro training session, truth be told. And so the dog’s behavior is nothing more than the result of our training, intentional or not.

This is yet another reason it is grossly unfair to a dog — and bad training — to blame the dog for undesired responses/behaviors. The reality is YOU likely trained that exact behavior. Congratulations!

The solution is not to “correct” the dog or even to beat yourself up (ouch!) but rather to take a step back and deconstruct how and what you have trained. Doing this allows us to make a new plan, proceeding with clarity and purpose towards desired results.

One intentional micro session at a time.

Micro(wave) training — the secret to Sparkle’s excellent “hold.”