What's Next?

So what's next?  Three words that have been plaguing me in so many areas of late.  This short little sentence has been bouncing around in my head and every time I think I've answered it in one area, it attaches to another. 

At work, it frequently has to do with training plans.  What behaviors are we training for next?  How are we moving forward from one stage of the behavior to the next?  What equipment do I need to work on next to keep things moving forward?  Got everything under control withe colony, great, what projects are you tackling next?

At home, it centers around Dominic.  He's an only child, but we don't plan to keep it that way.  So what's next?  Getting on a puppy waiting list!  It's a happy thought to look forward to and not being in a hurry is the best position to be in.  Breedings are never a for sure thing, so I don't plan on saying much about the upcoming puppy until I have my greedy little hands on her. ;) But yes, we are going with another great dane and we are going for a little girl.  I love great danes and having the next puppy in the house NOT be one just didn't seem possible.  Maybe eventually we'll add a non-dane to the household, but that's still a ways down the road.

So what's next for Dominic in competition?  That is an answer that will be constantly evolving.  Currently, Dominic is officially retired from the conformation ring.  We're 99% sure that Dominic has wobblers.  He's seen a neurologist and she's pretty certain, but he needs to have an MRI done to officially diagnose him.  He thankfully isn't very symptomatic.  Most of the signs I doubt other people would notice, I'm just so used to what is off with him, that it seems blatant to me.  The most obvious symptom that he has is a slight tremor in his back legs while he's standing still.  Of late it's become more frequent.  He has no major mobility issues otherwise, just a slight tremor while standing still.  At the moment I'm doing strengthening exercises at home to try and help him keep up the muscles to support himself.  I periodically video the exercises so that I can later assess if he's declining.  I'll start incorporating more descriptions and explanations about how we work with his abilities and challenges, in future posts.  In the mean time, the short answer for Dominic's competition career is that I'm still figuring out what that will look like for him.  There are plenty of sports that he can still do, but there are others that are not in the picture for him.

What's next for training Dom?  Excellent question!  I'm afraid that I'm going to jinx myself by saying this, but I seem to have managed to set and stick to an actual freaking training schedule with Dom!  And we're even getting walks included in that! (insert wide eyed amazement emoji here ;) ) The only downside to actually being consistent with our training sessions is that I'm getting a little bored with the way that I've set it up.  I have two training plans that each involve five behaviors/exercises to work on.  I alternate each day so that we don't do the same training plan two days in a row.  Great!  Except that now I'm a little bored with the monotony of it and I'm wanting to add in a little something to keep Dom and I both jazzed to train.  With no set thoughts on competition in the near future (dude, it's the holiday season and there is no derailing my focus on that!), I've been mulling over what to do to keep things interesting and to keep me consistently training.  I am currently toying with the idea of the 100 days of training challenge.  I just am not sure quite how interesting that would be.  I started an Excel file (because I freaking love excel) just so I could start generating a list and see what I'm working with, and I think I can make it interesting.  So stay tuned!

I've also had the thought of what's next for this blog?  I have to admit that I pretty regularly wonder if I should keep the blog going.  I do enjoy it, but I wonder if my time and efforts would be better focused elsewhere.  I have the Facebook page for the dogs now.  Admittedly, I let that page falter and haven't done a ton with it, but I am getting back into that as well.  This blog seems like a good place for my dog related ramblings, but that's kind of what the Facebook page could become as well.  I'm just not really sure on that.  That's an area that I'll shelf for the moment, but will keep coming back to.  I also keep wondering if blogging is going to be one of those media forms that sort of fades into the distance.  I LOVE podcasts and would listen to podcasts over reading blog posts.  But there are several blogs that I still read, I just get them sent to my email to make it easier for me to stay up on.  I'm also not entirely sure that what I have "to offer" is enough to keep the blog going.  When I first started, I was soooooo enthusiastic about this blog.  I dove into it and the dog blogging world in general.  My life has changed a bit and my time commitments have most definitely changed.  And I've been wondering if keeping up the blog is one of those things that will change as well.  Who knows.

Changes are a commin'.  Mostly exciting.  I'm sure there will be enough of them that I couldn't anticipate, but I am looking forward to the ones in the works. :)