Fall
I find fall to be a wonderful time to reset,
to analyze my goals and progress.
Not as a way to feel guilty or bad about what I have not done, but rather to adjust and see what things I want to spend the fall & winter working on. I don’t know about others but I find the shorter daylight hours during the fall and winter a time when I have more time at home to do projects as I tend to stay out a lot more when it’s light out. So those evenings when it’s dark at 5pm I find myself playing more indoor training games with my dogs, so this is the time I like to decide when my focus will be during these months. Where as summer tends to just be working with whatever the environment and schedule throws our way.
SO I WILL SHARE A FEW OF MY PERSONAL GOALS AND THINKING FOR THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN WHAT THAT PROCESS CAN LOOK LIKE.
I feel like his agility and scent work are pretty well on their way so I won’t keep weaving every day or doing jump drills at home and agility will go to a once a week training schedule when I go to the arena for the days I teach.
His scent work I will also dial back to a once a week practice.
My goal is to finish his novice agility and scent work titles before the end of the year.
I have one conformation show scheduled in November, October and November we will work on getting all of his health clearances done to see if we will continue showing in that or not. So I will not be putting in a lot of energy training or working on that until I know those answers.
Obedience and tricks took a back burner as I worked on agility and scent work this past year, so with those things settled in I will now shift back to those since they are great indoor activities.
I want to finish his trick performer title
I want to get him ready for obedience and rally competitions this spring
I would like to get him therapy dog certified
His cooperative care is very dialed in, but I want to play around a bit more with some things just for the training/teaching perspective for myself.
So my main takeaway is that I will shift from so much time spent on agility and scent work to working on more obedience and tricks.
FALL IS A GREAT TIME:
to set some fun trick training goals
to define what cues need more work that are easily worked on at home
for reactive dogs often it means less people outside and less stressful walks
however it can also mean seeing more things in the dark which can be triggering