Hi Backyard Dog Trainers! Today is the last day of the May BINGO Challenge. Thank you to all who participated! Congratulations to Emily and Dunkin, Lori and Drover, and Lori and Doby for completing Bingo! And EXTRA congratulations to Charlotte and Bluebell, Jen and Sommer, Emily and Tali, and Emily and Brady for earning Bingo Blackout! Now, for something more serious. I've invested a fair bit of time and effort in this Skool group, but probably not enough to grow it to the point of being worth the money I'm paying every month to keep it open. This is my fault, but between looking at my dwindling bank account and my limited time available, I think that I need to make a change. I imagined this would be a group where people would interact with each other and drive the group a bit, but it seems to have dwindled to only a few people who interact with me based on my prompts. Skool is designed to be a site for people who want to make money and sell classes in their communities. I've not monetized the community in that way. However, to keep it going, I need to figure out something so that I'm not spending hours of time each week AND paying Skool to keep it afloat. My credit card bills say I need to take a different route, ha! I'm also very scattered across platforms, and that's making it difficult for me to have a successful work/life balance. As I see it, the options are for me to 1. create short courses or offer lessons through this Skool (but there would have to be people who want to purchase these regularly), or 2. move the group to a free platform and change up how it works. I'm leaning toward #2 but could be convinced of #1 if there is interest. In regards to moving the group, I feel like my options, based on what I know right now, are to create a Facebook group, which most of you are familiar with, or to create a Substack. I already run Facebook groups, and I already have a non-dog-related Substack, so I'm comfortable using both platforms. A Facebook group would allow people to post easily and would allow and encourage a lot of general chatting, which is what I thought would happen in this Skool group, but it's not. The notifications on Facebook are better than those on Skool. No matter what I do here, I don't get notified that people have posted until much later (if at all). I feel like it's easier to spot a spammer/scammer on Facebook and keep them out. I don't like trying to decide who is a scammer here and who is not.

Hi Everyone! After some consideration, I'm going to keep this group open and free for the foreseeable future. However, I am planning on offering private online agility lessons tailored to your personal needs and designed to fit in your backyard or training space. I will have more details ready soon. If you've taken classes with me, you know my style of designing courses and offering reviews, analysis, suggestions, and support. But for everyone else, I'll work on getting more info set up soon. If you're interested and you'd like to be one of the first involved, please email me ([email protected]) or message me here. I'm looking forward to this! In other news, next week, I'm going to set up a "Red, White, & Blue" challenge that will wrap up on July 5th. It should be fun and easy. I hope you'll join us! I'd like to get more conversation going in this Skool. Do you have a topic you'd like to talk about? Start a discussion or just reply here, and I'll do it for you. Did you train or trial this weekend? Brags, boasts, and tales of woe are all welcome! Thanks for being here! Brenna

If you are in the US, today's a holiday for many people. Aside from being a day off work and an extra day to train or trial with your dog, Memorial Day is a day for honoring and mourning members of the military who died serving the United States. If you are grieving a friend or loved one who died during military service, much love to you today. ~~~~~ How have you spent your weekend? Do you have any training or trialing successes (or thoughts in general) to share? I've been busy teaching my Backyard Training Matters class in the Clean Run Learning Center. It's a very busy 6 weeks for me because of the demos and video editing involved. My own personal training is currently focused on conformation work for my puppy since I am entering him in his first show in June. I'm pretty nervous about it. There never seems to be enough time! Congratulations to Charlotte & Bluebell and Jen & Sommer for completing BLACKOUT on the May Bingo Challenge! Want to play for Bingo or Blackout? Check it out here: https://www.skool.com/backyard-dog-training-matters-2491/may-challenge-coming-soon As you may know, I pay to host this Skool group, so if you'd like to help support it a little, consider checking out my coloring books for sale on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/author/brennafender) or start your Amazon shopping through my storefront here: https://amzn.to/49j8XxX. You can also follow me on Facebook and share my reels, which I'm now earning money on! They're always dog/animal/nature related, of course. Here's me: https://www.facebook.com/brenna.fender Thanks for being a part of Backyard Dog Training Matters on Skool! Please consider sharing the Skool with your friends! More people mean more fun! Brenna

How was your weekend? Did you train or trial? Tell us about it! Don't forget that our Bingo group challenge is still going strong. Just visit the Skool group and check out the pinned threads for more info. One of our group members is planning to do the challenge with some friends at a picnic. I'd be happy to help facilitate group efforts or team entries if you are interested. Just message or post in the group. I'd love to bring in some more members and get more conversation happening! Speaking of conversation, I would love it if you would reply to this post in the group! You can brag, report back on your weekend of training, or just include a picture of your dog (or dogs). And tell me what you would like to see in this group to make it worth participating in! Shameless plug: Did you know I created two super niche coloring books? In one, you'll spend a day at an agility trial with some adorable gnomes and their talented dogs. In the other, you can answer the question that I know you've been pondering: what if a dragon was your veterinarian??? :) Check out both books on my author page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/brennafender And please tell your friends, neighbors, and random strangers about them too :) Have a great week! Brenna PS: Attached are some photos from one of my coloring books: "Dog Agility Coloring Book & Story, Which Gnome & Dog Will Win Today?"

How do you manage training multiple dogs? Do you train one and crate the others? Have you trained dogs to do stays or something while the others are training? Or something else? Currently, some of mine are fit-pitchers and I train less because of it.