Lessons From and For 4 Legs

Snoods are Good

katie — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:05:48 +0000

Since was all serious business and ranting around here last week I thought I’d let the Monkey’s lighten the mood by FINALLY posting thank you pics of them in their Embee Cavaliers’ snoods.

We think snoods are just an evil conspiracy to humiliate all Cavaliers!

Snoods may not be good, but the foods you get wearing a snood is liplickin' goooood!

When I first saw snoods I though I would never use such a humiliating torture device on my Cav’s.Then I actually got a Cav and learned how much grooming is involved and now I’m very thankful Mary Beth was generous enough to give each of my pups . . . → Read More: Snoods are Good

My Dogs Are My Family

katie — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:25:25 +0000

My dogs are my family. When you indicate I should find more “real” friends, you might as well say my mom, my sisters, my brothers and cousins, the kids I don’t have, my FAMILY are not good enough company and I need to find “real” friends to replace them. My dogs are my moms, sisters, brothers, kids and cousins. They are my family. They are my constant companions. They love me at 3am when I’m sick or sad. When you’re asleep in your bed, they’re asleep in mine, snuggling me. They lick away my tears and lay their soft warmth on my sore joints. . . . → Read More: My Dogs Are My Family

The Road to Success is not Paved with Intolerance

katie — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:12:39 +0000

Our basic obedience class is called C.H.A.R.M. School. It stands for changing habits and reinforcing manners. The first week we have everyone leave their dogs home for orientation. It’s an hours worth of positive reinforcement theory and method and a dish best digested free of dog distractions.

I’ve been co-teaching and assisting in classes but my first C.H.A.R.M. class starts next week so to get some practice I covered the orientation two weeks ago. It was my first one and I could never have predicted how it went.

Anyone who knows me knows talking about dogs and clicker training for an hour is not hard for me. . . . → Read More: The Road to Success is not Paved with Intolerance

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: Magnus and the Mean

katie — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:15:51 +0000

Can’t go totally wordless on this one since this is a sight I’ve never seen and it sorta made me all warm and snuggly inside. I’ve shared before how Nellie is an evil spawn. Mehusbandy is the only person on earth she likes at all and she’s still a brat to him sometimes. So when she was laying in the only spot of sunshine and Magnus decided he needed to share her space for his daily sunny nap I thought he was asking for trouble. It was a pleasant surprise when instead of trying to slit his throat she let him snuggle up with her. I . . . → Read More: Nearly Wordless Wednesday: Magnus and the Mean

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Boy

katie — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:20:56 +0000

These pictures were taken in the St. Louis airport the day I met Magnus and he became part of our family. He was nine . . . → Read More: Wordless Wednesday: Baby Boy

A Dearest Award

katie — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:15:42 +0000

I hope better late than never applies because we were generously awarded the Leibster award by Baika, Brando, Humphrey, Ziggy and Chleo and the boys at Empty Nest a while ago, but I’m just now getting around to posting about it.

Wow! It’s pretty amazing to me we even got the award once, let alone three times! Thanks for honoring us with this guys and I’m sorry it took me so long to respond!

Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. In order to accept the award, we must do the following: 1. Copy and paste the . . . → Read More: A Dearest Award

An Interesting Day of 4Legged Lessons

katie — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 05:24:35 +0000

Magnus and I failed the CGC today.

As a trainer that’s one of those sentences I may be sorry for writing later. As a dog mom and a writer I feel no shame about it. I learned something more valuable to me than a set of letters after my dogs name.

We arrived for the test and the neutral dog that was there is one that Magnus just loves. I have no idea why, but he just goes crazy with excitement for that dog. I immediately thought he will never do Test 8: Reaction to another dog with that dog. Perhaps that’s a trainer fail on my part, . . . → Read More: An Interesting Day of 4Legged Lessons