New Training space on Forest Ave in Portland and other cool news!

Hello out there!

Goose and Finn love the new Forest Ave  space

The big news around here is that I secured a new training space at Forest Ave Veterinary Hospital in Portland on Forest Ave.  I share the space with another trainer and the staff at the clinic.  It is my hopes to be able to help more dogs and their families by cutting down on my travel time .  In the last month I have turned away quite a few dogs who live too far out of area, but would have been willing to come to me if I had a suitable place to see them.
I am hopeful that this will be a great thing!
My first clients at the new space start  this next week and most of the time slots that I allotted are filled!

Puppy class starts at Forest Ave starts Thursday, and I will be offering Therapy Dog Prep, Puppy Play and Learn, and Freestyle on Saturdays starting in June.

I have been writing lots for a new site Petcha.com . Currently I have 6 articles posted, but another 5 or more should be up soon.  You can view all my Petcha articles here.
Petcha has been  amazing to work for.  The biggest news is that they paid me a really good amount of money to write a puppy article for their new venture Petcha Puppies, which is a glossy magazine.  Nice to see that print isn't dead.  Don't think that it will be available until winter, but I am looking forward to sharing that with my parents who send me clippings of dog articles pretty much weekly by snail mail. They are adorable my parents, and I am very fortunate to still have them with me.

I have been working hard to try to make my web site easier to navigate, but so far it is not going that well. I created a page listing all group classes.  My web site is confusing to navigate because I am training at Mainely Agility, Poetic Gold Farm,two  Pet Quarters and now Forest Ave.  Have you ever seen that movie If this is Tuesday it must be Belgium? That is pretty much how I feel about life every day.  Here is the link to my new At a glance page.


I have been super busy, but I have pledged to blog twice a week because I have been told by multiple sources that Google is penalizing me in web searches for www.GooddogzTraining.com for having a blog that I do not update. For the past few years, I have focused energy on my Gooddogz Training Facebook, but moving forward I will be sharing my time between both.
If you haven't already, please visit and like my Facebook page.
Happy Training! 

Walking it -Red neck agility

Beck starts formal agility today and I am excited!  He dropped into a class last week and did really well, but that class was over his baby head a bit, so we  are starting at the beginning and taking Foundations.  Beck has taken to agility quite easily and we have started foundation work at home already. He  has been walking through ladders on the ground, nose targeting lids, playing 101 things to do with a  box, and banging  wobble boards. Beck has jumps in the yard and we are working on  the  table obstacle on beds.  But my most favorite place to play agility is in the woods.

Yee haa! It's red neck agility! 

Beck knows the term "walk it" means just that - get on and go. He has learned to shift his weight down, back,  and low and has no trouble turning around. Turning around is an important skill so dogs don't jump off and get hurt. The fact that he nailed turning around easily and willingly shows that yup, my dog is  agile!   Beck gets a lot of treats on the logs  and quickly developed a love of walk it.  If you try it, be sure to use a log that is  low to the ground so your dog doesn't get hurt if they jump off.  First thing to teach is to get on and off safely.

Foster pup DeeDee (Delilah from Canine Commitment), has earned her off leash privledge.

See why we call her "Bowling Ball Head?" 

 Think it looks like she is having a good time with us?

Beck says, "ya baby good times!"

more video-Beck's 5th jumping lesson and the sweetest pic evah

On the heels of my last post, I didn't want you thinking Beck is  partyboy/wild child/caveman dog all the time,  So I am posting something quick showing the dog's awesome. 

This video shows his 5th jumping lesson.  We have done some foundation work without jumps first to teach wraps.  As you can see, the dog is very (very very very)  easy to work with.  Although I am quite sure that in a regular pet home, Beck would have been a disaster.  His jumping style needs  work, and we will be working on distance soon, but I am sure proud of my guy who we adopted 2 months ago tomorrow.









Beck plays hard and he snuggles even harder. Took this next shot in the dark. Wasn't so sure I liked my new camera, but this shot has impressed me, and I am digging having  decent video capability.

Can I have an awwwwwww?

From May 3, 2011

click to embiggen

Good news --Pictures telling their stories

We had a good size computer malfunction here. Not really sure what caused it, but I think I am just going to go ahead and blame the kids. Why not right?  After all they break everything else. 

A lot has happened during  that time -too much to write about, but still I want to share, so I will tell the story in pictures  with  little wording.

Most important is that after spending a week or so with Poppy during April vacation, she was cleared by myself and Greely Middle School to go back to school with her boy Jack.
Woot!

In other news, Valli was adopted by a wonderful family who are totally committed to helping her with her skin issues.  Looks like they will be feeding her raw even.  Valli was a joy to foster. I will miss her gorgeous eyes, expressive ears and her overall wonderfulness.  She is a super lucky dog!!   It does feel good to know that the dog would have lived a life of misery without my help.  However, I am done "trolling" for dogs. There are enough needy dogs out there already without picking needles in hay stacks.

My son went to his girlfriend's prom.  While that is a big deal and a milestone for any family, my son has a complex cardiac defect (CHD) and had 5 heart surgeries before he was 2 and a half years old . He is a walking miracle of medical science and let me tell you it was a really big deal.  18 years ago I never saw this day coming.  He has had a Fontan operation and basically only has 2 chambers in his heart. 

Can I have a big WOOT for medical science? 

And yet there's more!

After a harsh winter, lots and lots and lots of rain, spring finally showed up at my house. It brought a shitload of mud to, but we are trying to stay in our a happy place today. So we won't mention that.

Meet Friday!!!  Hopefully Friday will by my friend Suzan's new service dog.

 

AAAWWWWW!!!

New kid on the block Beck is a blast.  That dog is learning everything so fast.  In between learning new tricks and agility, Beck is giving me a run for my money and pushing my training skills to the limit.

Wouldn't have it any other way.

I have not had the chance to get many pics of our new foster dog Delilah.  DD  loves my composted compost  pile and thinks it is her own personal sand box.    She is a  6 month old American Shelter dog with a high toy drive. Mostly likley she has some Shepherd in there.  DD and Beck play rough and tumble dog games really  well and she is a sweetheart of a dog. 

Oh and one last thing Osama Bin Laden is dead. Last night was one of those historical moments where we will all look back and remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news.  I like many many people heard it on  first on Tweet Deck .

 Social Media is here to stay.

Follow @gooddogz

oh and another thing....Training Beck

Beck thinks that 11 year old Daisy is a She Devil. Beck has met Daisy a few times outside her home when I was picking up Poppy and wasn't all too thrilled with her, but she is way scarier in his very own yard.   Poppy is an Autism Assist Service dog that I have been working with for the last few years who goes to school with her middle school boy Jack.

Poppy and Daisy's family are away and both dogs are staying with us. Poppy will be brushing up on her service dog behaviors during vacation week as she has been out of work for a while recovering from knee surgery. My youngest and her friends can't wait to take Poppy to the movies to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2. Movies are a great place to train service dogs. There are lots of people who try to touch when they should not, and lots of food on the floor to work on  lots of "leave it" practice . Plus Poppy LOVES LOVES LOVES kids and she needs to leave them and concentrate on her handler. I will be posting more on Poppy later this week.

Back to Beck and Daisy. I am pretty sure that Beck does not recognize Daisy as the same species as him and he thinks we are all in grave danger if she remains any where near us.

Therefor it is his job to BARK BARK BARK,

circle circle circle and BARK BARK BARK

and herd herd herd to get her to move the hell on.

I really thought he would give it up once he saw that she wasn't gonna budge and that she could care less about him, but he did not. He wouldn't let me catch him either, so I went in the house and grabbed the camera.

Live and learn. Tomorrow we will try again. This time I am bringing a hungry Beck and he will be on a LEASH.

As you can see, Daisy loved our cool swamp. I mean yard.  Daisy is ELEVEN!! and that is OLD for a Newfie.  By the way, Daisy didn't give a rat's ass about Beck. At first I thought maybe she didn't see or hear him, but I observed her carefully. Nope, she just didn't give a rat's ass.
She gets around ok, but is clearly not a spring chicken.  

This makes two posts in one day bitching, complaining about my sweet dog. 

I do love Beck,  he just needs a little help learning about the world.