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Do the verb – labels in dog training and life!
Being a noun, at least theoretically is pretty easy. I am an animal lover. I am a dog and horse trainer. I am a writer. I can sit comfortably with many nouns. Even if it's blurry doing is worthy! But to actually be any of these things I must ... something. If I love...
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Personal Potential – What?
I have been hard at work on one of my FDSA courses. (And the NaNoWriMo challenge - but that's another post!) Unleash Personal Potential is what I called the course many moons ago when it was first developed. It was designed to be a "handler's choice" class for mindset...
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Overwhelmed by record keeping? A short review of 10 tech options for animal trainers to use
A common question I get when I talk about record-keeping is "what system should I use?" Well, to know me is to know that's a tough question for me to answer. I don't know what you want to track, I am not sure how techy you are and I am not a very good "guru" when it...
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Venting , Ranting and the Power of Tears
This thing happens sometimes. We get upset, we vent and share our feelings - the way "they" sometimes say we should. We rant. We cry and rail about injustice or perceived wrongs. And then this weird thing happens. The audience we have shared our stress with gets...
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Best foster puppies ever …
There was a time, before this blog, before Facebook even (can you remember such a time? I barely can) when I spent a summer fostering two puppies. Those puppies were Sally's healthy brother and sister. Duncan Heinz and Sophie, as they came to be known, were amazing...
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Our normal dog …
Which dog do you think I am going to discuss here? You likely know it's not Dora - the quasi -feral wonder terrier. Even though yes, she very quickly learned a down when I realized it had never been a taught skill! Yen - the 7 year Toy American Eskimo who was in 5...
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The Power of Gratitude
The exercise of gratitude as an instrument for happiness has been known for years. Continuing studies support gratitude’s effectiveness, suggesting that a positive, thankful attitude contributes to greater success in work, better health, peak performance in sports...
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7 Years of Yen
Sometimes things just kind of sneak up on you. Facebook reminded me today that Yen arrived 7 years ago today. I don't think I blogged about her arrival then - though she is very present in the blog, as she is in life at the farm. She's feisty, fierce and a tiny...
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Grief – a tough path to navigate sometimes.
I've written about grief a lot over the years. I've experienced a lot of it. I don't think that's unusual or particularly remarkable, but when people ask me how many people I have seen die I don't know the answer unless I count. I cannot count the number of animal...
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Juxtapositions of the learning and teaching variety
Saffy is a very sweet dog! Today I had a lesson. Today I taught a lesson. I rode Wiser with Laurie's watchful eyes on me, then we swapped services so Laurie, and Saffy, could learn about loose leash walking and basic principles of positive training. I have had...
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About Andrea
I help handlers and their animal companions find the joy in training and competing together... and being the best they can be!
Whether you struggle with mental prep, planning, goal setting, or something else, together we will get your sails set the direction you want to go.