Stray Dog Cafe, New Buffalo, MI

Nice atmosphere with view of the harbor.

Cross Country Skiing with Papillons

Structure and Performance Dogs - What is a Soundness?

What is a "sound" dog? rufflyspeaking.net Take a look at the article on the link above for a really nice look at the basics of evaluating sound structure in dogs.  Balanced structure is really important if you want a dog that can run fast and turn and jump efficiently for years. Badly built dogs will break down in just a few years of work and will have problems running and jumping. The early part of this article is a little difficult to understand, but the point comes through in the pictures at the end. Once you get a feel for deceiphering structure, it will blow you away how much correlation there is between the fastest, best moving performance dogs and those who just can't do. My only point of difference with the article is the photo of the chihuahua rescue. The angles are balanced, but I would want to see a little more angulation (especially in front) to absorb the shock of landing and allow the shoulder and arm to fully extend. The pointer below is fantastic. http://rufflyspeaking.net/what-is-a-sound-dog/

Nominated for 2014 Dog Writers Association of America Award!

Just heard that an article I wrote for the USDAA is among the top 3 nominees in the category,Online Article - Behavior and Training for the Dog Writers of America awards. 

Winners will be announced at a banquet hosted at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York in February. 

The article is one of three nominated in the category of Online Articles: Behavior and Training

Here's a link to the article: "Canicross: The New Secret Sauce of Dog Agility Training."

Part 2:  Training, Safety Considerations, recommended breeds, introduction to other dog powered sports

Samurai Qualifies for AKC 2014 National Agility Championships

Better late than never. We actually thought we would have to squeak out the last three points in our last two days of trialing for the 2013 qualification period.

But the night before we left, I checked the AKC website and found out Samurai had actually earned 10 points over the 500 we needed at our last trial.

So far this weekend, we've already picked up 22 points at from our Standard run this morning.

The Chinese medicine approach to treating his IBD, a raw diet and resolving (I hope) some of our weave issues have helped.

His time was 10 seconds under a similar run about a month ago. We're so glad he's feeling better.

We don't know if we'll actually go to Nationals. If we do, it will be for fun. It's just nice to know that after all of the issues that we've worked through that we were able to meet this goal in our first year of trialing in AKC Masters.

Power Eating @Taste of India, Merillville, IN

Vegetable Biriani and Naan. Very good.

Michael Ellis Teaches the Food Chasing Game

This is little seminar snippet shows a great way to build drive for the dog to move into the handler. The next step will be to turn this into a recall, but it would also be a great first step for training startline so stays and "follow the hand" in agility. 

It could also be used as a performance warm up for a non-toy motivated dog. 

The trainer gives a good clarification on the proper technique. Be sure to pay attention at the end where the trainer talks about lessons learned in over building drive. He makes the point that it's more important to be able to offer an appropriate channel for drive early on in foundations, rather than over building without a behavior to channel it to. With a drivey dog, this can cause problems later on with the dog throwing a lot of random energy that might result in a need for a correction which might be in conflict with the overall objectives of the training. 

The video is shot live at a seminar, so it can be a little murky at times, but hang in and it will be worth it. 

http://youtu.be/CciIIMXJ2_M