Blogger Tuesday

My pick for Blog of the Week is Reactive Champion! Having a reactive dog myself, I can definitely say that it makes you feel a little less alone when there is someone else out there who has gone through what you're going through and totally understands what it's like to have to deal with these unique "issues." And it's even better when she's writing a blog about her experiences and training with such a dog!!:o)

Aside from just loving to hear about whatever Crystal and Maisy are doing, it's another blog that talks about training and all it's various aspects. The more I think about training in general and try new things out with my dogs, the more I LOVE it! And I just love reading about what other people are doing!

For instance, Crystal wrote a post about training schedules. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't really thought about it other than our little morning routine. I mentioned previously that I was a little frustrated with my training with Heffner and Bess because they are two halves to the perfect whole and it drives me a little bit batty. When I read Crystal's post about trying out a five time a day training schedule, it got me to thinking. We all know that repetition builds muscle memory and helps to ingrain things that we want to train. It seems only natural that repeating it multiple times a day would further help this. Sometimes it's hard though to set aside big chunks of time to do training. And when you're training the same thing with more than one dog, it can get a bit tedious. But what if you broke your training up throughout the day into five smaller segments? Why, wonderful things happen!

While I read the post last week, I knew that I was going out of town for the dog show and wouldn't really be able to start trying it out. I decided to start on Monday; yesterday. I wasn't entirely sure how it would work out, but I am already incredibly happy with what I've seen so far!! From a training stand point, woopy!! Heffner is totally getting the hang of the automatic sits and repeating them!! Both dogs are totally cluing in to the right finish (I was seriously struggling with both finishes for a while)!! And Bess is getting some very happy and quick recalls! I am ecstatic! Not only are the dogs happy about more training throughout the day, but I'm in a really great mood because it is soooooooooo easy to fit in short bursts of training and not get bored with what I'm doing. I'm excited, so the dogs are excited. The short bouts of training leave them constantly wanting more. I'm getting snappier responses to exercises that were a little lack luster in some cases. And it's just so much fun!!

Talk about a great post! So definitely pop on over and check out their blog.:o)