1. How do you teach recalls to your dogs?
When the pup is hanging out with the older dog(s), they will usually come when you call the adults. I am not nuts about a pup who hits the end of a leash all the time, so I will usually spend some time in the first few months with the pup on a long line, and will do recall work with them on the long line, killing two birds.
2. What is your favorite Restaurant or type of food? Clearly I have food on the brain much of the time.
Right now? Sushi. Hanging out with a meat and potatoes guy makes me want ... sushi!
3. What is your favorite interest outside of dogs/livestock/sports?
Other than photography? Live music with Mark. We went to the fair last night and saw Craig Morgan. Mark and I have been to see a lot of bands ... but we're going to have a hard time topping this one. Vocally, I loved him. He was a bit of a showman, like Mark said, but it's better than NOT being a showman. Fun fun fun show. If you ever get the opportunity, do it.
4. Describe your path from where you started out to where you are now! (For example, how did you get from Novice to Open? How long did it take? Train dogs? Buy dogs? I'll take answers for any sort of discipline, or even how did you go from wild dog that didn't listen to well behaved dog - interpret this however you like.) This question was suggested by Pippin.
Started out when Zip was a pup in Southern California with an AKC-type trainer. By the time Zip was three, we had already gotten many of his advanced titles in most of the titling herding organizations (AKC, AHBA, ASCA), and when I moved up here, I thought I was pretty hot shit. Then I went for a lesson with an open handler up here and basically got my ass handed to me. It was devastating when I realized I had to start all over again with a clean slate and forget all I knew, because what I knew was a waste of time. But I trudged through it, and worked with some very talented and knowledgeable people up here. I am not much into the trial aspect of this (probably because I suck as a handler, and like Katy mentioned, I take it all far too personally to have it be any fun when I inevitably screw the run up), but really enjoy training with the dogs and the relationship you build because of it. I am looking forward to getting back to training Reese, and she offers me yet another clean slate to work with, as I will need to learn how to work a more upright dog, something I haven't done yet to this point.
5. Is there a dog that you raised that, if you knew then what you know now, you would have raised them differently?
Yes, I would have listened to the person who told me, "Find a different trainer," when I was in Southern California. (The person who told me that is now an open handler, and won't give me the time of day because I'm not, but that's beside the point.) Zip turned out to be a great dog despite the myriad of mistakes I made with him, but after getting a real education from the locals up here, I wish I would have had more solid training from the start. I learned a lot from that experience, though, so if I would have gotten the right start right from the start, would I know what I know now?
Oh man, I loves me some sushi! I'd never been brave enough to try it until I started working for a guy that eats it at least once a week. Now I'm hooked!
ReplyDeleteThanks for playing. :)