random thoughts from the weekend

  I never did mention that I cannot stay away from confrontation any more…call it rudeness on my part or just passion for the proper education of canine behavior and human behavior…within the first 5 minutes of the trade show opening as I was putting my backpack down in our trade show booth..and my 3 dogs were in a perfect downstay..a gentleman (I say this loosely) came over to me and started small talk….he asked if I knew a certain person…I don’t remember who…..I told him “No I don’t” and then he proceeded to tell me that person was the invention of the Gentle Leader head harness…I proceeded to say “Oh, that is the worst thing ever to be used on a dog”  He then spouted out about how collars are the number 2 reason for dog deaths….strangulation  on fences etc…he told me that Search and Rescue dogs use them….whatever….I then asked him “Are you a dog trainer” he said NO…then I said…”well, you don’t know what you are talking about” If he was a dog trainer I would have said the same thing to him….he then proceeded to talk smack about me to anyone he could find to listen to him…oh well..

   Let me make this clear to everyone….the Gentle Leader and any product that works like it is not only stupid but dangerous to use for your dog. Yes it works..I am not discounting that fact…but if you took duct tape and wrapped it around your dogs mouth and then attached that to a leash it would work to….using a Gentle Leader is not training…..and for a  S + R dog to be using it that is even stupider..why would you want any rescue dog being restrained like that when it is working….you want the dog to lead you to something and you do not want it to be healing…..you would never want a rescue dog to think it has to heel next to you when it is working.

Also if you are still using a retractable leash let me tell you about someone who was walking their dog on one and the dog was about 10 feet in front of them…got spooked and ran inot the street and got hit by a car….I am sure it happens all of the time…even the ads for the leash say “Give your dog the freedom” your dog should not have that type of freedom when it is on its daily walk with you..if you want your dog to have freedom, fence in your yard or train it to respond to your commands off leash and go to a park…

max, uma and bella in the back of the van on the way home from Baltimore..yes we all slept in the van for 4 days and all had a great time.

  romy and brodi enjoying the hill on the training yard

So..i am sitting on a bench at the VW dealership while my van is being looked at to get an estimate of what is wrong…Max, Uma and Bella are in perfect downstays at my feet and one of the salesman comes over and crouches down and starts to pet one of my dogs…Bella actually growls and the guy does not stop or pause…I say to the guy “Do you want to ask first” He looks at me like WHAT? I repeat myself and he gets up and says something about that the dogs were laying there and he just wanted to pet him…I don’t understand what people are thinking about….anyway….

Yes I bitch once a week…working 7 days a week..nonstop dogs…6 kids….no friends…you guys are all I have LOL…so bear with me once and a while.

 Fargo chilling out in the sun

All of the dogs are doing great..I am so proud of them and proud of my help…I have 4 part time people at the moment..they all work together along with me to make sure your dogs are not only safe but getting the best use of training and play time possible…

This morning Clover was asking about going outside on her slide…so that is cool…she gets up around 5am and will be out climbing and sliding around all day…this will make it easy for Linda to have her nice and tired out…and then having her swimming in the pool..it should be a nice summer for her…..also Linda is going to have more friends over the house know that the slide is up….swimming pool, swing set and slide what kid wouldn’t love it.

It looks like a either 4 bolts that hold 2 of the exhaust pipes together either came off or were not put on properly last month when the exhaust system was installed and they separated and  the gasket came out  which through off the O2 sensor and that is the problem…..I guess that is good in a way but getting 8 miles to the gallon between Baltimore and Providence did not help the pocketbook at all…truck is finished and I was not charged…i should not have been since the exhaust was installed 2 months ago…..