Me, me, me!!!!! I can't wait!!! I love, love, love the foundation skills you teach and know that my dogs and I can only benefit from more work with them. Ever since the first time I ever worked with you I have always been on board with your beliefs and philosophies and I have applied them to the best of my ability (all with lots of room for HELP and improvement), I never tire of watching you work with dogs - I am always amazed at just what you see "in the blink of an eye" and the ability you have to read whichever dog happens to be in front of you. As LeeAnne said recently, I do think much of what you "know" when you work with a dog is part of you and that most of us will never "see" what you see, but I am certainly willing to keep trying to "see" what I can.
I had the coolest experience this past weekend - I was given an opportunity to utilize so many of the philosophies and beliefs with a dog who I have never worked with. This particular dog has some serious impulse control issues - at least that is how I saw him - if given a chance he seems to be perfectly willing to be in charge. I could tell as soon as I started to play some space games with him, he has a great foundation - reads body language, follows body language and wants to work, so I did many of the food steps in the space of just a few minutes, setting my boundaries with him, which he absolutely seemed to understand and respect - the beauty of the thumb and forefinger and the back of my hand and how even when I was going to "offer" the food, if he came toward me all I had to do was turn my hand away and there was no fuss, no muss, and no treat. That in and of itself was awesome and I could have been happy there, but I warmed up with him and decided that I would walk in the ring and expect him to do what I asked and if he didn't I'd go from there, and don't you know, we walked in the ring, I told him to wait and walked away expecting him to stay and he did, not once, but in 5 different runs. In Weavers he got a little frustrated with me and I was able to call him to me and put my hands on him, reconnect with him and we were able to finish as a team, just so cool to have this experience with a dog I don't know. Now, I realize if I ran him regularly he would ABSOLUTELY test my commitment, but it was an awesome experience for me to execute the "skills" (or as I choose to think of it - the way I have learned to speak dog to a dog, rather than human to a dog) I believe I have learned and to use them on issues I am not currently working through with my own dogs. This is also a dog who tends to be VERY vocal on course and I didn't realize until after I had run him most of the day that he had hardly barked at me, only twice actually - once when I insisted he weave before he get to do the next tunnel and once when my timing sucked. Just so, so cool!!! And, then on Sunday after his Dad ran him, I thought maybe he would be different with me, but he wasn't, so it just affirms what I have always believed - dogs are SMART!!!! And, wow, he seemed really happy with the boundaries I set with him - the adoring looks - priceless!!! Sorry I have gone on and on, but it was just so much fun and such a great experience.
So, yes please sign me up again!!!!
Karen
