Here Comes 2010!

It's almost upon us (and for those of you ahead of the west coast, Happy New Year!)! I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions. If I want to do something, I don't want until the end of the year to make myself start doing it. If I want to make changes in something, then I just do it. Usually in the form of a list. A list that is usually contained within an Excel spreadsheet.:) Did I mention that I'm a little nutty about Excel sometimes?:)

So instead of doing a resolution of some sort, I'm just going to spit out the goals for the new year that I've already thought of. I'm sure plenty more will occur to me throughout the year, but I'm hoping that keep things a little more under control this year and try to not over commit myself. Hmmmmm......maybe I can make a spreadsheet for that.....he he he....I'm mostly kidding. In no particular order, here they are:

1) Even though I've already started some initial ground work, my new activity with the dogs is going to be obedience. With Bess I want to do Rally and traditional Obedience. With Heffner I want to do Rally (even though he has really improved, his hatred of intact males doesn't mix well with the long sits and downs in obedience). We're shooting for monthly private lessons with our agility instructor (once I've got BOTH dogs up and working) and occasional group classes as time and money permits.

2) Get Bess finished!! 2010 is the year! I want that CH in front of Bess' name. With regards to going for the Canadian CH, we might do some shows this summer, but I really want to start focusing on performance events with her.

3) Skijoring! Heffner is retired to training runs next winter when he's back and at 'em. This winter Bess will enter her first skijoring races and we're doing the recreational skijoring division because it's only two miles and doesn't take much preparation. Next fall and winter (the part that's still in 2010) I would like to start training her for the advanced skijor division, which is six miles long. I know she can do it, but I want her in peak form for it and I'd like to do the whole six miles at a good clip.

4) Agility! I want to do enough AKC trials to get Bess into the Open division by Oct. For Heffner, once he's allowed to go back to training and eventually trialing, I'm shooting for reducing his stress at trials and getting him to focus on me for the entirety of each run. I have some ideas how I'll achieve that, but we'll see! For CPE, I would like both the dogs to finish off those individual legs in Level 1 to get that out of the way.

5) Tracking! Um, actually do some of that! I tried to set a goal for 2009 and too many things got in the way. My goal for 2010 is to just get out there and practice. That's it. Keep it simple, so that I can actually stick to it!

6) Scrapbooking! I used to LOVE scrapbooking and did a fair amount of it. I pretty much stopped around the beginning of 2007. I just sort of stopped making time for it I guess. I'm planning on doing a monthly get together at my house on some weekend day, for scrapbooking. Invite some friends over and we can sit around and have some chat time while also doing something. I have PLENTY of general use items like scissors, hole punches, and things of that variety that other people can take advantage of. Plus it'd just be fun! I should do a post in January about the scrapbooking that I've done in the past!

7) Education! I'm always trying to expand my doggie knowledge base (it's what I love, so it's what I can enthusiastically throw myself into). This year I'm shooting for trying some seminars, preferably working slots as money allows, but auditor slots would also be helpful. I just want to learn more about so many things. I've already got Bess and I signed up for a Corky Vroom handling seminar in March that I'm crazy excited about! Maybe an agility and obedience seminar somewhere else in the year?

8) Photography! I want to learn more about picture taking because I love it! I've started by joining the Flickr group 52 weeks for dogs and I think that'll help. But I also want to do some reading and learning about cameras, lighting, and how to get that great picture. Who knows, maybe a new camera will be in my future? (I put that in there just in case my husband is reading my blog!)

I think that about covers it for me! Here's hoping that 2010 is a great year and I'm excited to see what it holds!