So this coming weekend I have another seminar. It’s in Colorado Springs, which is about a 10 hour drive from me. Jet has a working slot in a Denise Fenzi obedience seminar. I’ve been looking forward to this for months. I really hope we can learn some good things. I really love Denise’s blog and I’ve been reading it for a while now. And I need something to pick me up, as I’m still pretty down from Levi dying. I’ll… Continue reading
A couple of weekends ago I went to a Chris Zink Seminar in Grand Junction, Colorado. It was exceptionally good. I am pretty iffy about seminars. Many of them I don’t like. I don’t really have a good attention span for sitting and listening for hours on end. I really don’t like taking computer or work related classes anymore, they just bore me to death and put me to sleep. So I really like it when I find a seminar that is entertaining and interesting both at the same time.
Chris Zink was very interesting to listen to. She was funny and energetic and had a lot of good information. I do like dog information a lot better than computer information anymore.
Just a brief overview of what she went over… She said that the dogs’ sex hormones are very important. She prefers to leave all dogs intact, or with alternative sterilization methods. She has done studies, and was showing other information, that intact dogs tend to be prone to less injuries. And the old belief that dogs’ personalities became more mellow or less aggressive when spayed or neutered is actually incorrect. The information she showed told that dogs spayed and neutered actually tend to show more aggression and more behavioral problems. And the younger they are spayed and neutered, the worse the problems can be. Interesting. Jet is intact, and I’ll be leaving him that way. If I did anything I’d get him a vasectomy. Chris Zink said there are ways to remove a female dog’s uterus only, and leave the ovaries, so that they still get their sex hormones that are really good things. From all my PMS problems over my life, I believe that the sex hormones are important.
Chris Zink also said that a dog’s front dew claws are very valuable when it comes to performance sports, and just life in general. They actually use them a lot more than we realize. I prefer to have dew claws left on all my dogs. Unless they become torn or are floppy rear ones that may be dangerous. But then I prefer the dogs to all be natural and have what they are born with.
She also went over a lot of structure, so I think I can see a dog’s angulation better now. Especially the rear. The front I still can’t see so much. She talked about over angulation and how that can also be bad, like German Shepherd Dogs who are over angulated in the rear and it makes them less stable. So angulation is a good thing only to a certain extent.
The second day we did many jumping exercises and that was a lot of fun to watch. From the new dogs that have never done sports, to the advanced agility dogs. It’s all in her Jumping Books, which I own, and really should read more of. 
All in all I really enjoyed the seminar and I think I learned a lot and I would go again if I could. Though I’d prefer more and different information. And the drive wasn’t too bad, only about 5 hours from Salt Lake City, UT, to Grand Junction Colorado. With a stop to pick up a friend of mine. It’s always more fun to travel with her.
This is just a brief overview. I’m still pretty miserable about losing Levi. I’ve been trying not to think about him much. I have a house in my mind I go to whenever I start thinking too much or getting down. I think it helps. I haven’t been eating much either, though I have been eating sugar. I always eat bad when I feel rotten. If there weren’t so many diet pill side effects I might consider those. But really I just need to eat more vegetables, and stay away from the bread and ice cream. But the bread and ice cream are so much more comforting than vegetables.
I don’t know how long it will take me to get over Levi… but I just miss his face. His sweet loving happy face. I miss everything about him. My heart aches for my Levi.
Well tomorrow I’m off for a trip to Grand Junction, Colorado for a Chris Zink Seminar. I’ve heard lots of great things about her seminars so I’m looking forward to it. I have a working spot with Jet, we’ll see what she thinks about him. I’m not really feel very good today, a bit of a bladder flare, but I’m taking it easy and almost all packed up. Maybe some cedar furniture will be available in the hotel where I can relax! And fortunately it’s a mostly sit down type seminar… dang I better remember a pen. I always forget a pen!
Hopefully I’ll blog about it when I get back. I won’t have to be on my feet all weekend which, I think, will be a good thing.
Jet Flyball
I’m not a big seminar person. I don’t like them much… sitting around listening to different types of training that I may never actually do. But when Jet was having a bad weekend last June, I kinda panicked, and signed up for this seminar. After that trial, he started doing really well and now I’m not sure I’ll really get much out of it. And it’s supposed to snow tomorrow, and be cold, and it’s a 45 minute drive. UGH. I hope Jet’s not too cold, I’ll bring his coats and warm bed for his crate, but still I’ll worry. I don’t think I’ll be wearing yellow box sandals this weekend, I’m going to have 20 layers of clothes on!
So, if I have time, I’ll post about the seminar this weekend. Or next week, or whenever I can.
Well the Control Unleashed seminar is done. It was very interesting. I was, unfortunately, pretty much racked in pain for most of it and so I’m not sure how much I’m going to remember. I took some notes, which I don’t have with me right now, but I will go look them over and the information should come back. I’m still not feeling well, my neck still hurts quite badly today. That’s why I haven’t done much posting lately.
I’m thrilled that I have received a couple of comments from families who have Tatum’s sisters! How cool is that? I am excited to be emailing with them too. Tatum has two sisters… though one of them passed away recently. Her name was Foxy. If you want to see her you’ll have to head on over to Tatum’s Blog to see her.
Hopefully we’ll get some pictures of Tara, Tatum’s other sister. It’s amazing how much Foxy and Tatum look alike!
I’m not training much, trying to get my neck back in order. Going to go to some physical therapy hopefully this week. So until then, we can check out our futures trading to see what that is doing, and then get back to dog training.
This weekend I’ll be at a Control Unleashed seminar both on Saturday and Sunday. I’m looking forward to it. I will admit, I haven’t read the entire book, but I’ve skimmed most of it. It is not really an easy read, if you ask me. It’s here in Utah. Up in Farmington. I’m in Salt Lake City so I have to drive each day, but it’s not a bad drive and I’ll be carpooling. I’ll be driving with two people, my friend Marie who is coming up from Richfield, and Helix Fairweather who is a well known and excellent clicker trainer based in Oregon. I’m really excited to get to know her better! I am planning on signing up for her Cyber Agility class online to work with Tatum (maybe Muffit too?). I really need to get going with Tatum my collie girl in agility!
Maybe they will sell cheap t-shirts for CU this weekend… lol I might buy one so I can wear it around! But I am really looking forward to the hands on experience. Even though I’m going to audit. Still I hope to learn a lot, especially about what to do with Muffit. Oh I took Muffit to my friend Christy’s last night and I will blog more about that later! I have to get Lucy fed, go see a new park for flyball practice we may practice in, see a little or Border Collie puppies (sooo excited!) get some work in, and then clean up the house a little.
Busy day, as usual. 
Oh my gosh. Did I say, in my last post, that I had a great time at the Flyball Seminar given by Touch n Go? Well, it was beyond great. The seminar was wonderful. The Team Members that gave the seminar were phenomenal. They were all friendly and supportive and very tactful. I admit, I thought maybe they would be snobby, but they were not at all! Wonderful people!
We learned so much, and over the next few days I hope to post more about it. I am dead tired and have to get some work done. And I have to let the information seep into my brain too so I can digest it. Maybe I’ll need medicare part d to get through all the information in my brain!
This is a picture of our camp setup. JRTs in the high crates. I had the little one up top taken down toward the end of the day, he was making me nervous up there!
Today we had an awesome day at the flyball seminar. Touch n Go are great, they really know their stuff, and they are also very personable and easy to talk to and work with. They give us great advice and are very tactful. Even when they tell us our dogs are overweight! But we know that and that’s okay, they have some winter fat on them.
The picture to the right is of Tinker, a Jack Russel Terrier on our team that does such a great job! And, of course, I’ve been having a really fun time with my new digital SLR camera. I could just sit there and take pictures all day long of these dogs, and I’m learning how and when to focus the camera.
And to the left is Apache. She is an Australian Cattle Dog girl that loves her flyball. She is also part of the Dazzle Dogs show that her Mom puts on. And, cool of cool… Apache is deaf! She does such a great job and has a beautiful box turn.
If you click on these pictures you can see bigger versions of them.
Anyway, so today we went over the basics of training the box turn from scratch. We got some great ideas and I am going to start training Chase, Muffit and Tatum to, literally, bounce off the wall in the back yard. That will be fun to do. And now that I have seen the progress the dogs follows, including just getting their front on the wall to begin with, I am really excited to start trying it.
Anyway, I’ve had too much wine to drink and it’s almost time for bed anyway. And Monday we will have a long ride home, fortunately we are not driving home Sunday night. And our car insurance is all good so we should be set for our trip home!
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