Social Sydney and Specialty Plans

It was a lovely day here! The water ran, no smoke from electrical sockets, the truck is not stuck, and the blue sky and bright sun made the snow look like a field of diamonds. Yes, it was cold but at least it was above zero! I walked all the dogs, tracked with three of them, set up the training room downstairs and practiced one jump agility and some obedience with Cadi. For my efforts I was able to check off quite a few little boxes on the sheet titled, "Specialty Training, Week One" that is prominently featured on the frig.

The National Specialty is a Big Deal to me, and I like to do well with my dogs. That is easier when one has just a couple of dogs, but suddenly I find myself with SIX and that is a bit overwhelming -- so I decided I must be organized if I am to achieve my Specialty goals.

The first thing I did was goal setting. I sat down and wrote out my goals for each dog, and then I reflected on what was realistic and revised them a bit. Based on the goals, I set up a training schedule for the week and will do this each week until the Specialty. Let me give you an example -- Cadi-Bug will be in Novice B obedience, agility, the TDX test (if she gets in), rally, and possibly draft. If she has coat back, she will also do the whole beauty pageant thing but that doesn't require much in the way of training.

So, for this week (I started on Friday so the week goes Friday - Friday) Cadi has to track twice, do five days of obedience, and three days of agility. I never practice for rally so that is not on the schedule and if I do draft, we will just practice for 4 -5 weeks prior so that is also not on the schedule. We are doing well -- the two tracking boxes are already checked off, three obedience boxes are checked, and one agility box is checked -- pretty good considering it is barely ten degrees here and it is only Monday night.

And so each dog has a training goal for the week -- well, the dog doesn't but I do FOR the dog :) Even Zoey is on the schedule -- she has to track three times a week and already two of her three boxes are checked off! I cannot decide what to do with my life but by golly, I can check off boxes :)

The semester starts tomorrow, and Galen has his first day of classes. I will miss the peace of mind that a Puppy Nanny provides and still cannot believe he is choosing college over a life as a Puppy Nanny -- clearly I did not raise him well enough :( Sydney is going to work with me and will hang in my office for some of the time, and sleep in her crate in the van the rest of the time. I am planning to make her a therapy dog and so got permission for her to sometimes come to work -- she starts tomorrow :)

Sydney is quite social, and she really likes the other dogs in the family. In this first picture she is chilling with her grandma Maize.


And in this picture Sydney is cuddling up with her cousin, Asia.


I sure hope you have someone -- two or four legged -- to cuddle up with, and that instead of endless snow you see the field of glittering diamonds :)