Did you do anything doggy this weekend? I didn't do anything official; on Saturday, I just worked on socializing my puppy by having some family drop by and watch him pretend to be a show dog :) On Sunday, I took the show on the road by taking him to my parents' house to check out their pool. I brought my Whippet, who used to do a lot of dock diving, and he did a bunch of jumping in. My Chihuahua, who is suffering from liver failure, wanted to come too, so he did as well. You can see a silly video I made from our visit at the link below. Tell us what you did this weekend! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RBh4o-J1IFA

Let's talk about it! I competed last weekend in Fetch for the first time and it was a blast! My Whippet, Parker, got his Novice title. I think the next available Fetch event for me isn't until August, although I'm not sure about that. Hopefully we can be there. I think we're ready for Intermediate now. I'm spending today working on videos for my job (all the videos are starring my dogs, so that's cool). I'll post one of them in the comments so you can see what I'm doing. Tomorrow I'm going to do some conformation training with my English Toy Spaniel puppy. What's up for you?

Hello Backyard Dog Training Matters Friends! Let's celebrate together! I know we've talked some in the group about what we have done this weekend, but let's just BRAG IT UP! What successes have you experienced during the last few weeks? Dog stuff, life stuff, if you're happy about it, share it with us! I'm working on another challenge for the group. It's been suggested to me that we try a scavenger hunt or bingo card, and I think that would be totally fun! It would still be dog-training related; you'd be, for example, doing a sit in front of something blue, or paws up on something red, or doing a trick at a public park... stuff like that. If you'd like to play, let me know if 1. you'd be okay with taking a picture of each of the things to prove that you've done it (maybe just a picture of you and the dog at the park, for example, to make that easier), or if that would be an impediment and you'd rather just take everyone's word for it and 2. if you'd prefer certificates of completion for everyone, or you don't care about that and you just want to play. I'd also like to remind you that if you need a gift for a dog friend or professional, please consider my coloring books on Amazon! I've created two: "Dog Agility Coloring Book & Story: Which Gnome & Dog Will Win Today?" and "When a Dragon is Your Veterinarian" and you can find them both through my author profile at https://www.amazon.com/author/brennafender. Let's hear about your training and trialing successes! Have a great week!

I had a private lesson with Erin Batchelor Friday the 13th. We did a few things on creating the dog's path and the rest we focused on weaves. Round the clock weaves, running weaves in the direction opposite your dog (Ring was like -'What are you doing?!!). Learned so much stuff! So, we're working in the backyard on some of the things she suggested. I'll try to post a video of what we're doing. Right now I'm still on yard cleanup after the cold fronts and the Oak pollen clogging my pool. Oy.

Are you doing anything doggy this weekend? Training? Trialing? Hiking? Playing? What's going on for you? I've been evaluating runs for being in my new Semi-Private Lessons class over on Clean Run and I'm designing courses for that, but my own dogs only got a good ball playing session today. I'm not sure what tomorrow brings for us. I've been working with these flat rubber targets I just got from Clean Run, plus I very much need to finish one of my Whippet's Intermediate Trick Title. :) Hope you all are well and reasonably warm!