last week after i had been doing some training i talked to Lois (the woman who owns the dog training school where i go) and we got on the topic of how she does a kind of mentorship/apprentice thing with people who are interested in dog training. there is another woman there who has been apprenticing under her and helping teach class for 1 year, and now she is teaching a puppy class of her own. i told lois that i was very seriously interested in apprenticing — now i just have to wait for a new session of classes to start! 
i took some time to digest the Tight Leash Judge’s advice, and realized that she was 100% correct. it is too complicated to really explain, but basically i was not training harley the way i should, because i was afraid of her (harley’s) reaction to the training. it’s nothing extreme, but basically she tries everything she can to avoid doing what i’d like her to do, in the exact way i’d like her to do it, and it is embarrassing to me. i felt like if i were a better trainer, she wouldn’t behave this way. i realized though, that it really shouldn’t be embarrassing. dogs are only dogs, and sometimes they flip us their little doggy middle finger, despite whatever talent we may have as a trainer. i also realized that instead of avoiding the correct solution to a problem due to fear of embarrassment, a truly good trainer would not be embarrassed and would instead stick to her guns and train the dog the way she wanted and just keep at it until the dog figured it out. so that is what i did, and boy was it empowering. as predicted, harley sometimes (still) gives me her doggy middle finger, but i kindly and consistently remind her that behavior will no longer be tolerated, and she *must* take time to think about things a little bit before she does them. i feel so much better — i truly feel like i am doing the right thing. this is one case where i am not as much proud of her, as i am proud of me for learning a valuable lesson and empowering myself to face my so-called fears. go me.
and that i could quit and do this part-time, and try to find another dog-related job to do part-time.
i wish things were free so that it didn’t matter how much you got paid.
last february, i went to a dog show in des moines. the judge of my class was a gruff, weathered-looking woman who must smoke at least 3 packs a day. (everytime there is a training break, i see this woman out with a cigarette, so i can only assume that she must go through mass quantities of cigarettes.) harley and i had a beautiful performance, but she got on my case because she thought i was holding my leash too tightly, and took a bunch of points off of my score. it turns out that we would have won our class if she hadn’t taken off those points (and after the class she told me that i had the best dog in there), and everybody thought she was crazy for thinking my leash was too tight.
this woman is from the twin cities, and actually trains at the same place that i do. while she is very gruff and stern, she is a good trainer and has some very nice dogs. i think she felt bad after the “tight leash” incident (either because everyone guilted her into it, or she truly did change her mind about the seriousness of the offense) because after that, she started being “friendly” to me. (i put “friendly” in quotes because you must remember she is a very curt woman, so “friendly” for her is not what you might typically think “friendly” to be.) she started watching me pretty closely and giving me training advice. i definitely welcome any advice that anyone has to give me, but this woman has such a negative way about her that i find it really disheartening. she has told me several times that she thinks harley is a great dog, and i am doing a wonderful job with her. however, she repeatedly tells me what i should be doing in certain situations and does so with this look of disapproval that makes me feel terrible. in my mind it just brings up all my insecurities and personal wishes that i was more experienced and had done things differently with harley from the beginning. i must admit that her advice is usually very sound and reasonable, i just wish her delivery were a little better.
these feelings were all sparked last night because i am having a few problems with harley. in the words of one of my best training friends…”teego will be a wonderful dog for you to compete with…and harley will be a good competitor too, but most of all she is a very smart dog who will help teach YOU to be a great trainer.”
i haven’t competed in a dog show since March – which for me is a long time. before that, harley and i had been competing at least monthly. we were competing at the first level of obedience, called Novice. in addition to the fact that we were busy moving and doing vacations, the main reason for our hiatus from showing was the fact that we had basically mastered Novice, but were not yet ready to show in the second level called Open.
well, months and months have passed, and i feel that very soon we will be ready to show in Open. i have begun thinking about our show schedule for the fall and to sum up – i am REALLY excited to begin showing again. this level will be more challenging and nerve-wracking, but more exciting also. we will earn a new certification from the AKC (American Kennel Club) when we successfully compete and meet minimum qualifications three times. hopefully that will happen easily — although it is certainly a possibility that it won’t. we will also begin showing in the second level of Rally Obedience, a more informal and less precise form of competition. that will also give us a new certification after 3 successful qualifying performances.
i can’t wait to get started. i hope that my eagerness to compete does not influence when we begin. i don’t want to start competing too early and be not-as-successful because we jumped the gun and weren’t prepared well enough.
On Sunday, I did an informal practice competition with Harley to start getting geared up for competition in August or September. She did really great — much better than I had expected, given we’d had a week off at the cabin and had only gotten home the night before. If it had been a real competition, I would have been thrilled with her performance — we won our class and only missed 4 points out of 200. Most of the points were for little dumb things that will be easy to tune up. Last night we went to a different place and did another practice run — once again Harley was a very pleasant surprise. Our performance wasn’t scored, but she would have done very well if it had been. Now I just have to decide when we should start the “real” competition. Might be in mid-August, might be in mid-September. I am going to train a few more weeks and see how things go before I make up my mind. In any case, I am going to be really busy this fall with dog shows. I really would like to get Harley ranked nationally against other dogs — this means that I need to show more and get more points. It’s not like I would win anything, it’s more a matter of prestige and building reputation.
Teego is also doing really well. He is a very fun dog to work with — although much different than Harley. I am constantly getting compliments on the both of them from respected trainers in the area, some of whom are judges for the competitions also. We are definitely in a peak right now…hopefully it lasts and we don’t fall into a valley anytime soon.
