New!

In order to attempt to hold myself accountable and to encourage me to keep trying new things and progressing in positive dog training, I've created this blog.  Hopefully it will not turn out abandoned like every other blog I've started, haha.

About Avery:  Avery is my (currently) 6 month old liver Curly Coated Retriever puppy.  She has been better than I could have hoped from the get-go, and has been a blast to train so far!  At this point, through puppy class, she's learned to come front, left finish into heel position, heel (no consistent attention yet, and heeling only in short amounts), a fairly dependable sit, a much less dependable down (still working on taking out the hand motions), watch me, go to crate, basic play retrieving, "crate" (from anywhere on the first floor of the house), and the potty commands.  ;)  Her AKC STAR Puppy test was a breeze and hopefully her CGC will be equally simple.  She most enjoys tug, retrieving bumpers, natural balance roll treats, and being fed.  We (I) have lofty goals for her, and would like to finish her championship and possibly grand championship in AKC and UKC (and CKC?) as well as dabble in competitive obedience, rally, tracking, dock jumping, agility, and hunt tests.  Will all of those happen?  Probably not, but I'd be happy if they did.  :)  Our current biggest challenge is having any sort of attention span, but she is young and ditzy, so hopefully it will come with time.

Avery and I visiting OSU

About Me:  I'm a 22 year old graduate of Ohio State with a degree in Zoology.  I aspire to be a zookeeper, and would like to develop my training skills both for my dogs' (and horse's... and cat's) sake as well as for my future career.  The first dog I ever trained was "Jade," my rescued Doberman and love of my life, who has since passed, and the second was my other Dobe, (now) 7 year old "Brandyn."  Both were trained using force/compulsion, and both made me think dogs and humans both hated competitive obedience.  ;)  We only showed in 4H until I quit the dog side of it after Bran continually frustrated me to tears at shows with her insecure aggression.

Several years after my 4H dog "career" ended, I chanced upon Jean Donaldson's book, The Culture Clash, and Karen Pryor's book, Don't Shoot the Dog.  Both were incredibly inspiring to me, and from then to now, I've tried to use positive techniques whenever possible (I'm still learning!).  Though Jade and I never continued formal training, our favorite game became "100 things you can do with ___" substituting a box for a milk jug, a wash cloth, or anything else lucky enough to be nearby.  Clicker games made training fun again, and seeing Jade's eyes light up at the idea of training rather than zone out was fantastic.

I am by no means a great trainer or even a good one, haha.  My biggest fault is my own lack of attention span and dedication... I tend to train reliably for a week or two and then do none at all for 2 weeks.  Avery seems to pick things up regardless, but I'd like to try to remedy this.  I also have issues with knowing when I can move forward, and rarely start training a new "trick" without being told to do it in class, so I am hoping the combination of documenting our progress and learning to train reliably will give me the confidence to move on and finesse the old stuff as I go.

I have no idea if anyone will read this, and I suppose it doesn't matter either way, but I am always open for critique, questions, etc as I am very much still learning and could very well be missing something or training something in the most difficult way possible and not even realizing, so feel free to comment on any post ever.  :P