I've had a long, dry spell of melancholy. Which explains my lack of posting and checking in here on the blog. These bouts are few and far between, but when I hit a skid into a training funk, it's best for me to keep my mouth closed...or my hands quiet on the blog.
There are several contributing factors to this funk. Briefly:
- uneducated veterinarians (few and far between, thankfully) who provide outdated, inaccurate information to their clients about dog behavior
- dog owners who are unwilling to listen to facts or to reason
- dog owners who only want to hear the easy answer -- even if it isn't the right answer
Add to storm above that my sweet Baby Caysun's going to be leaving us in two weeks [and there's no replacement pup on the radar yet] and you've got one big, emotional, grumpy, and frustrated trainer on your hands.
I've started [and finished and deleted] blog posts about all the things I listed above. I've made it my life's ambition to walk the clicker training walk, though, and found that almost all of the posts I wrote were not in the clicker training frame of mind. So I simply went silent.
The good news is that my funk has stabilized. I think I've hit rock bottom. The only place to go from here is UP! We're stealing away with the dogs this weekend to my parents place on Lake Anna. It'll be sweet Baby Caysun's swan song -- her last trip to the lake with us (I'm tearing up even thinking about it...) and I'm taking my shiny, new, fancy camera to get lots of pictures of that sweet girl. And video. And even underwater video with our cool GoPro camera! I'll post lots of pics and video upon our return.
If you've got an uplifting story about your dog, please leave me a comment! I need a little good news long about now...
