BRRRRRRR

Mary-Ann Sontag January 15, 2024

Greetings from a very cold Montana. It is currently -11 but that is warmer than it was the last two mornings. On Saturday, it was below zero all.day.long.

Yesterday it reached about 10 (above) and so Harper B got a quick snow romp with her gnome (with Pozy objecting in the background).

Boise also got snow — this is Bright Star Atlas.

His littermate, Dallas, came over for a snow date.

New Hampshire also got snow, much to the delight of Zuber (Bright Star) and Kiri (Sparkler).

Kiri — so clearly Sparkle’s daughter

Love this photo of Zuber!

Thank you, Alison and Kira, for the photos ❤️

We are hunkered down, staying safe and warm.

I am doing training that can be done inside — like Scentwork.

Between the cats and Sparkle, this is not quite as easy as I suspect it should be.

Not the best photo but you get the idea!

Winter, apparently, has arrived!

Happy Monday, Friend 🥶

Perfection, Part III

Mary-Ann Sontag January 6, 2024

I was reading an article this morning about New Year’s resolutions and the author mentioned that she doesn’t like to set herself up to fail and so she doesn’t make resolutions too “grand.”

I disagree — make those goals grand, with glitter and sparkles and balloons.

Yes, of course the goal need to be something we can do — I should not, for example, set the goal: “fly to the moon.”

UNLESS I am a NASA-kind of person and there are things I could do that would get me closer to actually reaching the moon.

But I am not an astronaut and so there will be no moon trips for me, and I am okay with that actually.

Maybe the trick is learning to be super proud and happy with the getting-to-the-moon journey — and have gratitude and pride for how far we go on our adventure?

I trained Claire for perfection in obedience — for a moon landing, so to speak.

I know what a perfect score of 200 should look like — and I trained to achieve it. We worked and worked on all the tiny pieces that make up perfection in a novice obedience run.

She scored 199.

Do you imagine I was disappointed and sad with that score?!

Of course not. I was over the moon — with glitter, sparkles, and rainbow-colored balloons!

Could we have achieved the score of 199 if I had not aspired to perfection? Absolutely not.

Perfection can mean different things to different people, and that is perfectly okay. In fact, perfection can and does mean different things to me with different dogs.

What matters is (1) having a clear vision of perfection, (2) breaking that vision down into all the tiny parts that I call Least Trainable Units (LTUs), and (3) working diligently to achieve perfection in all the LTUs before (4) connecting them together.

We cannot build a perfect Lego person with imperfect pieces. It just doesn’t work.

Dog training is the same. Perfection happens when all the pieces are perfect — and fit together perfectly.

My tracking Lego pieces are fitting together nicely. This is Pozy from earlier this week demonstrating a lovely start to her track — and finding a well-placed reinforcer (treat) for that excellent and quick start.

And this is Pozy demonstrating a perfect corner 💃🏼

Please — have a perfect day, whatever that looks like for you today.

Perfection, Part II

Mary-Ann Sontag January 2, 2024

Do you follow Jennifer Zaayer on Facebook? She is one of the very best at socializing a puppy, and following her progress with Gable is inspiring and informative. It is clear that she is thinking things through and being so very intentional to ensure the best possible outcome: a well socialized puppy.

Jennifer is a wonderful example of aspiring to perfection.

Alison Jaskiewicz is another example. She can see the desired outcome with a dog — the perfection — and systematically work her way through the steps to get there. When Alison encounters an obstacle on her way to perfection, she just figures out a different way.

Both of these women are creative and kind — and intelligent — trainers who do not “settle” just because aspiring to perfection is hard, and imperfections are inevitable.