I've finally sorted out how to offer private lessons in a format that's similar to what is available in my popular training group, Backyard Training Matters, which runs twice a year in the Clean Run Learning Center! I have it set up on Buy Me a Coffee. There are two options: Personalized Small-Space Course Design - Receive one course layout with 8 courses to run without resetting the course! Upon purchase, I will reach out to you so that you can provide information on your training space (length, width, and overall shape, equipment you want to use and the sizes of equipment you have like length of tunnel and width of jumps). In addition, we will communicate via email about what you want to work on and the level of difficulty you prefer. We can focus on specific skills, like crosses or distance work, or general behaviors and attitudes like motivation and drive. Personalized Small-Space Course Design And Feedback - All of the above plus you may submit up to 4 minutes of video showing you and your dog or dogs training on the provided courses. Detailed analysis and instruction will be provided via text and video responses. Submissions can be made through YouTube or Google Drive. Responses will be provided via email with a link to any video analysis. If you are interested, please click the links and read carefully for all the info. You're going to hear more about this in an email in a few days :) Skool doesn't allow frequent emails and I wanted to share it with you all ASAP because I'm excited, plus I think I can only do a limited number at a time, and I wanted my regular students and Skool members to be the first to hear about it. If you have requests for other types of training options or any questions, please contact me at [email protected] or paste the ideas or questions in the comments below. I'd like to know what else might interest you in terms of private lessons!

Are you training or trialing this weekend? I'm doing a lot of work, but my dogs get to participate in some of it! I'm working on a product video for a new thing -- a case for the Ready Treat, a remote treat dispenser. So two of my dogs got to spend time eating snacks while I recorded them. :) Here's one of my 5,000 takes. LOL! What are you all up to?

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

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.