Continuing education

As most of my clients know, I teach to support my dog-training habit. I’ve had a good school year, but it’s been a challenging one (new age group, new subject, bigger classes than I’ve taught in a while, and a ridiculous commute that’s pretty well eating my lunch), and I. Need. A. BREAK.

To reward myself for getting through this bat-snot crazy year, I cleared my summer schedule and booked myself three days of training in early June with Doug and Elizabeth at Tenderfoot Training in Colorado. Their methods grew out of their work with the natural horsemanship movement*, which I’ve long admired, and after an hour or so on the phone with them today, I think their approach will dovetail nicely with mine while helping me add some new tools to my belt.

I’m still sorting out travel details, but the basic plan is for me to spend a week or so on the road with one of my dogs, learning new ways of communicating with animals and spending our down time hiking in the mountains. The only real question at this point is which dog to take along. At the moment, I’m leaning toward Marley, because I haven’t done much training with her since we adopted her last fall, but I may change my mind after I read the manual. We’ll see.

Either way, I should come home with plenty of new ideas I can incorporate into my training style. Thus far, every dog-training book I’ve read, video I’ve watched, and social-media account I’ve followed has yielded at least one useful tip that I’ve been able to use to help a dog — my own, a client’s, or a shelter mutt somewhere — and I’m eager to see what I can learn from a few days in the mountains with a pair of experienced trainers who seem to have the right sensibility about things.

Emily

*If you’re not familiar with natural horsemanship, Monty Roberts’ book The Man Who Listens to Horses is a good read. My father-in-law, who owned Clydesdales for years, loaned me his copy back in 1999 or 2000.