What is a lie in God's eyes?

So me and my friend were wondering about this during our bible study time at lunch. What is a lie in God's eyes? Say you know something that would cause a problem for your friend, and you hope no one is ever going to ask you if you know anything about it. In order to protect your friend from ill-willed people, do you lie and say "I know nothing about it"? Or maybe you should answer "I don't feel comfortable talking about that person". Or even more so say "I can't share that with you". Are you always supposed to speak the truth, even if it means that someone you love can get hurt? I find that very tricky. What if it is your direct supervisor? You are under their authority, so you are technically supposed to honor that. Just from a Christian point of view. Then we got reading 1 Samuel.... about Jonathan and David and how Jonathan protected David by misleading his own father and basically spying out his fathers plan to kill David. He then tipped off David to keep him safe. Does that constitute as lying? Deceiving? Plotting? Did he hear directly from God to keep David safe? Hmmmm, I am intrigued. So we decided to read all of Samuel to get a better understanding of what was happening. We are still working on it. So many questions......

Knitting for peace, love and orphans....

There is hardly anything more embarrassing than logging on to a blog I thought I would keep up religiously each week, and finding that I have not used it for a long time. I had the best intentions, and I had a good plan. But never enough drive. I do that with many things. I easily get excited about a new project or idea and am all for it, until it becomes a chore. I am dead set against chores. They make me feel burdened and quite honestly...... old. Deep down I am afraid I believe that I should not have to grow up enough to actually have a plan, do my chores and organize myself. That is a problem. However, one thing I have been very consistent with since last November is knitting squares. Many squares. I love knitting if it doesn't become a chore. I will not do projects that require more than a few hours of my attention. So after stumbling over "Knitting for Charity" last October, I downloaded a pattern for easy to knit squares. Without knowing where those blanket squares would eventually end up, I just knitted during my favorite TV shows. I can do that blindly, and it actually helps me relax and feel accomplished. A few days ago I was looking on the web how to join the squares together to make blankets, that I wanted to donate somewhere. Knit-A-Square popped up on my screen. Knitters from all over the world send their 8x8 inch knitted or crochet squares to South Africa for children that are orphaned by AIDS. The squares are sewn together by volunteers and then distributed to the children. What made me smile is that these kids don't usually have any possessions. Not much to cal their own. And they are given a beautiful colorful unique blanket that is theirs, that helps keep them warm at night and shows them that someone cares about them. Or many someones. So now my squares have a purpose. The Lord knew this way back in October, when He kept poking me with my knitting needles and gently encouraged me to start knitting, even though I didn't know what for really. Ta-Daaaa. And my doggies lay peacefully snoring next to me on the couch, dreaming little dreams of happy children. (Well, Velvet is.... I am sure Bunny is dreaming about watching them from a safe place somewhere behind me whilst yodeling a pretty poodle song for them).

No, not the crate!!!

For some months now Velvet has had a terrible fear of her crate, that never posed a problem for her before. We are used to fun crate games, for agility. Today she kept jumping in the part of the car that had no crate in it. I kept asking her to jump back out, after a few tries, and her refusal to get in, I left her in the house, and took Bunny, the poodle to Agility class. I will have to switch dogs for this time around. I will continue to serve Velvet all meals in her crate and play crate games until she has lost her fear of the crate. I am not even sure why she is so afraid of it. Maybe the door slammed on her when she jumped into the car? Maybe she got her foot pinched by one of the broken ones at the Club?
Anyway, Bunny tremendously enjoyed Agility, and she might even like Rally on Thursday! Who knows, maybe there is a title in her after all.....

I am still a dog trainer.....

I am a dog trainer.....

It has been years since I posted to this blog. I think it might be a wonderful time to begin again. A LOT has happened since. I had given up my stay at home mom status to become a kennel worker at a big vet hospital in Latham. I became Kennel Supervisor by accident (and did NOT enjoy babysitting the staff.... when it becomes more about motivating teenagers to work than it is about working with dogs, it can be very abrasive), and by chance a trainer position opened up in the Daycare departement. I told the big boss about my passion for training, and they immediately transferred me to be the second full time dog trainer in the mix. I have not looked back since. I am training a variety of dogs, that are being brought to us for daycare/obedience. Some have fear/aggression/separation issues, some are mere young dogs needing a nice basic foundation etc. It is great to work with all sorts of different breeds and temperaments. The training team is wonderful, I have learned so much already, and they in return (being "balanced trainers") have a great interest in my clicker background. It is nice to be able to use my brain again as is needed in training dogs and work with open minded people with a lot of dog training experience under their belts.

Since I want to incorporate Sue Ailsby's training levels in my training to be accountable and have a way of measuring each dog's success, I came back to this blog and the traininglevels group.
I think about starting my Velvet and Bunny back up with the levels and see how far I can take them.

Velvet might be sick.

Not again. She has the runs again. I am afraid she might have eaten something again that clogged her system. Last year around this time, she had clogged intestines and we had do to an emergency operation on her for a ridiculous amount of money. It started with diarrhea, and then went on to throwing up, not keeping any food or water in her system, and there we found ourselves racing out to the emergency clinic on a Friday night. Please, not again..... I will cook her some nice rice and try to get her stomach in tune again.

Training at the Club

Today, I took both Bunny and Velvet. Nancy was there again, with a friend, they had half the building set up for agility. Cathy also joined us with Daisy. I told Nancy that Bunny is learning to be more sure of herself in meeting people, and she came over to make Bunny feel comfortable. And Bunny really was very happy to meet her. I very much enjoy having people greet Bunny that way, giving her some treats, talking nice to her and just helping her to be more secure. Sometimes when she is not comfy with a person, she will start barking at them, or she will just hide behind me. She has come a long way, and I attribute that in large parts to the dog club people. I should take Bunny and Velvet to Petsmart sometime, just for training.
I had either Velvet or Bunny in a crate the entire time, and took them out to train one after the other. We got some excellent sit/stays and down/stays (Velvet, Bunny still has a hard time downing at the club), recalls, heeling, attention and for Velvet even a few broad jumps. Bunny got to sniff the broad jump, and got many treats for it. For a while, I fed Bunny just for enduring the see saw noise from the other half of the room. I just waited until the big bang was about to happen, and then fed her the best little treats.
What is funny to me is, that Velvet is trying so hard to meet people and dogs, when she sees them,but once she knows we are in training mode, it seems she has enough self control to contain herself. That is great to know, because I really doubted that for a while. Today, there was a lot of stuff going on, and she worked hard in the midst of it.... well reasonably far away from the actual people, but even in playing or when she jumped over the broad jump, she didn't run in a circle to go and meet the people or dogs in crates, she looked at them, and then paid full attention to me again. This extra training is very, very good for all of us. Bunny of course, I didn't even have to have her on a leash. She doesn't leave my side, unless I tell her to stay. She is excellent. I just wish I knew how to get that same attention in the backyard, and I could never put a leash on her unless we are out walking. I am learning so much!