The Life of a SD Dog Trainer/Handler

I figured it's been awhile, since puppy brain took over, and I owed you guys an insider scoop post. So let's start with today!

A Day in the Life of  a SD Dog Trainer!

I no more than woke up and has a text from a client/friend in distress. After getting Azul out and making his breakfast, my coffee and grabbing my breakfast, I return the call. A 10 min call turns into a 1 hour chat on multiple topics with my breakfast still sitting on my lap. But hey, I got to enjoy hot coffee while I chatted and my friend hopefully had a better day! That's what matters.

Inhale breakfast, take Azul out to pee and run to the office for Zoom.

Between meetings I skip lunch to go play with Azul in the backyard. Then right into the next meeting. After the meeting, it's race to the car to go pick my son up which is an uneventful trip. Thankfully!

Once home, I finally have time to grab a hot meal before returning messages. And I'm looking forward to a relaxing evening.

What happened with Rosie?

The short story is the breeder pulled her because I spent 10 days building up Rosie's confidence and the breeder saw that confidence as "alpha tendencies" and said I was too weak to work with a strong breed like Ridgebacks who would take over the house if allowed. Despite telling her that Alpha theory was debunked and you didn't have to teach a dog whose boss, she was not going to allow me to continue training.

The longer story...breeder attended my Monday night puppy class with Rosie's sister who growled at Rosie the moment sister walked through the door. Of course sister was corrected and spent the rest of the class shut down at owners feet too afraid to move. The breeder didn't like the class because we spent too much time developing calm and not enough time drilling sit, down, and heel. Of course she wanted her money back! Despite that being against my policy, I gave it to her.

Within 30 seconds of getting Rosie back in her arms, Rosie bit her in the ear and breeder squeezed her nose so hard Rosie cried in pain until she could no longer breath through her nose that was being pinched. At which point, with nothing else I could do, I said goodbye.

I don't regret losing Rosie, I regret having ever started working with her. With the confidence I built up, I know this will cause several beatings down the road unless some kind sole saves her by buying her before this breeder who said they used positive reinforcement training methods can spend too much time breaking her spirit.

The rest of the week.

Monday: Awesome first class for the Positively Puppy Class. This was despite having a toxic person trying to sabotage this week's SD Handler Chat. Thankfully I have skilled Admin that could watch groups to be sure this toxic person didn't start a war while I taught class.

Tuesday: Awesome SD Handler Chat with several new people attending and joining the Working Paws group shortly after. Rosie then went back to the breeder.

Wednesday: All plans got cancelled for other reasons but it gave me a chance to get most of my house back in order and spend some much needed time lovin' on Azul. For those who didn't know, he stopped doing any SD Tasks while Rosie was here. (Perhaps because nothing major was happening so he didn't feel the need.) But Wednesday evening he nailed several tasks. 

When picking up my son, the brakes on my car failed or semi-locked up. Thankfully I was stopped in the parking lot and didn't realize the problem until I started trying to move again. Tow truck called. Husband retrieved us. Take Out for dinner. Then back to meet the tow truck. All easy, just time consuming turning a 1 hr trip into 4 hrs of time. But it was on my pharmacy run at the end of this that Azul began tasking again!

Thursday: Another fairly low key day filled with lots paperwork, but I lined up an awesome speaker for the February SD Handler Chat. You guys are going to love this guy! I have a lead on the speaker for March and potentially one for April as well. I also found out that I'm going to be presenting on the "Kindness Is Essential Not Optional" (KIENO) Conference hosted by Dr. Holly Tett. I'll be presenting a rough overview of the Confident Canines Class for Owners & Coaches.

Friday: Today, as you know was filled with meetings. But all I can say is that Crazy2Calm Canine Coaches are going to have some amazing resources available in 2023!

So in recap, I've had 3 people tell me that I'm not good enough, strong enough, educated enough or some other complaint but several more who let me know in no uncertain terms that what I do as a Dog Trainer and SD Handler is making a huge impact in the world. 

And the reason I felt it necessary to put all of this in a Rockstar Azul update is that there will always be unhappy people filled with hate, but surround yourself with happy people that build you up and you'll always end on a good note.

One Final Rockstar Azul Moment!

Azul and I ran into another team the other day as both of us headed into the same store. The other team let us go first, then didn't realize our direction and accidentally ran into us still by the entrance. The other dog over-reacted and the owner appropriately led him away from the door. The greeter complimented Azul's behavior, then asked why Azul didn't bark back. Not thinking much of it, my reply was that "He was a fully trained service dog!" The greeter came up to me at checkout happy with herself for finding out the other team was still in training and that they went out, refocused and came back successfully to train and had already left the store.

Azul will be 3 in a few months and he is finally at a point where other dogs in the store are not hugely distracting. If you're not there yet, don't worry! It takes time, but you can get there!