Pieka’s Weekend: Suzanne Clothier Seminar
Pieka and I spent the weekend in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Suzanne Clothier seminar. First, I really enjoyed the seminar. Suzanne is an entertaining speaker with a relaxed, low key manner. The facility (Clermont County Dog Training Club) is lovely and the people were very nice.
Saturday’s session was focused on canine body language. Always a fascinating topic, but Suzanne focused on some techniques with anxious dogs. It was especially nice to see a very anxious, stressed border collie relax in front of the crowd after her owner began working with her more appropriately. ….and realized the dog has poor vision. The ears came up, the tail relaxed, her whole body softened. Very rewarding.
Sunday dealt with “relationship based training.” The topic called for a totally different type of dog – confident, intelligent, the type of dog who can take some responsibility in the dog:handler relationship. Sound like anyone we know? Pieka was the demo dog for Suzanne’s “Auto Check In” technique and she was a ROCK STAR. She turned on for the crowd. We were in front of a crowd of approximately 40-50 people, several dogs on mats in the front row, for about 30 minutes. Pieka maintained focus beautifully. She was relaxed and engaged, even after dogs were worked (and tugged with) nearby. I was incredibly proud of her. I cannot count the number of people who approached me afterwards to compliment her.
Suzanne seemed impressed as well, mentioning that Pieka has great confidence, stability, as well as great physical beauty. Thank you, Julie, for gifting me with this dog! We are having so much fun.
Traverse City Pups
Sorry it’s been so long since we’ve connected. Paula and I check your website routinely however to check on the stories and pictures of everyone’s pups. Our kids are doing quite well. We all have spring fever right now and can’t wait for the snow to melt. As you can see in the photos, we had more than our share this winter.
Hector is doing fantastic! What a great companion! We are most proud and excited to tell you that he past his Canine Good Citizen test in December. We really have enjoyed working with Sam Jones, he’s a great trainer/teacher. We often talk about Hector needing a playmate!!! But not so sure we can manage three.
Katy is doing great too! Hector seems to be keeping her young and tolerant. At age 10 she’s still playing ball and enjoying her daily romps through the woods. She’d love to be able to say she’s alpha in this household, but we haven’t let her take that position from us. So she remains content to boss Hector around when he starts crossing the line, although she’s a little more cautious as he has long since surpassed her in size. He’s already 87 lbs. How big did you say Omar was?
We talk often about how fun it would be if we lived closer to you. We read your website and envy the people who do.
Refrigerator Magnets!
Just returned from a trip to England to see my Mum and bought this hilarious card. Thought it was such a coincidence with all the “talk” of magnet swallowing, so just had to share! Just in case it is too small to
read, it says “Well tell me Randy, has someone eaten all the refrigerator magnets again?”
