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.
