On the Road Again

Off to BHM for a few days for lessons and check on the house. Plus prep the RV for our annual trip to Mississippi for the holidays. Fun trying to remember to pack all the stuff for running workouts, cycling, 8 week old puppy, 6 month old puppy and 5 dogs! Whew, I need a longer list! TTYL

Moring and Burrrr!

Cold and wet here in Canton. Can't believe that it has not warmed up at all this week. When it is this cold, make sure that you don't just warm up you dog before a training session, but make sure that you are also warm. This means 5 to 7 min. of easy to brisk walking or a few short sprints, side to sides etc. This will insure that you and your dog are ready for your training session or trial runs. Enjoy the run.

TGIF

It's Friday. For most of you that means time off with the pups, shows, errands, etc. But for those of us in the training business, it is the busy part of the week. So, instead of planning dinner and a movie (which I do have planned for Sunday night!) I am working on scheduling lessons, phone calls and coaching. Plus, I have several students at the AKC Invitational this weekend and I have to be avalaible by phone or text for them. This is not a complaint, I absolutly love my job. I just thought that it is an interesting contrast. Have a great weekend. Stay warm and dry!

A quick note on recovery

Good evening. I am tired, sore and brain drained after a day of everything from working on clients needs to doing the laundry! Now for some dinner and down time.

Speaking of down time, do you take enough of it? We have such busy lives and have such a glut of inputs from so many sources (like blogs!) that I think we don't take enough time to stop, have a break, pet the pups and let our minds go on neutral. If we go, go, go all the time, we never have time to revcover. If we don't recover, we don't have the natural down time that our Sub Consious needs to process all of our learning and experiences so we don't get the slingshot of being better after a recovery day. So, I am off to veg and get a good nights sleep. TTYL

Morning! - Planning is the key

Up and moving. Starbucks Christmas blend in the French Press, puppies x'ed, now on to weekly planning. I hope all of you do this, meaning weekly planning! I think that this is the most important part of your training program! I am not saying that you need to be so regimented that you can't make decisons on the fly, but we have to have a plan to get to our current goals! Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly. Also, I make sure to include a review of my traning cycles (F1, F2, S1, P1, etc.)

A Start and Puppies!

This is going to be a kind of diary of my random thoughts and a record of what has been going on in our lives.

So, have I lost my mind? Lele too? Maybe. W have 2 puppies in the house as of last Friday. Gage, is a MS that is Phin's son and is here for me to create another monster MS. Love it!

And our other big news is we have a new Sheltie puppy named Kenai. She, yes, she is Lele's new pup and is 8 weeks old today. What a great pup. She has handles our household with no issues. Which is no small feat, if you know our house! She has slept thru the night both nights, we picked her up Friday. Take a look at my YouTube account, ppk9s, for a video of her playing with the crate door, for a great laugh.

Also starting a preseason trainig camp fory pup. F1 work, foundations 1, which is easy contact, weave, stay work with lots of reward and not much proofing. Meanwhile, I will be working on my base fitness of cardio and core work. All of this is going to be focusing on this Spring, which has some big events for Shine and I and a targeted debut for Phin at Perry.

That's all for now, as if that is not enough! :)

Focus on what you want. Your focus determines your reality.