Aspen and I have been terribly busy the month of June... I can't believe it's almost over!! I'm going to do a little catch up and focus on the topic of training. The first weekend in June we had a chance to work with Anne Nichols. She has been a trainer for...I think her whole life. She has also owned the Bernese Mountain dog since before I was even born!! Needless to say she knows dogs.
We first met her briefly at a dog event, then more recently we saw her do a demonstration with her 4 month old bernese mountain dog A'kash. It was so AMAZING that such a young dog can learn so much. That is what prompted us to seek some advice from her. Unfortunately she does not live as close as we would like but we did manage to make a session with her in June and will hopefully have a chance to do some more work with her. Next time we will drag Ray along to get some great photos to share :-)
During our session she was able point out some things that I was doing wrong... ie grabbing for the treats too soon and giving Aspen entire sentences to process. She also gave us some ideas of games to play to help confidence build with him. She saw things in his behavior that I didn't. She was also able to give us some good advice on health as well. For those of you that do competitive dog stuff she competes with her dogs. Anyone looking for a trainer for any reason I suggest you give her a call or shoot her an email (ALL DOGS NEED TO BE TRAINED EVEN LITTLE WHITE ONES :-P * see pervious post on little dogs). Here is her site to get contact info http://www.becomedogsavvy.com. Honestly don't be afraid to contact her regarding health questions... she has been around the block and know tons about health issues. There is help out there you just have to look in the right place.
She does both house calls and phone consultations for those that live too far away or just have questions. So where ever you live she can help you problem solve. My hope is if I get enough people together down here in Rochester we might be able to convince her to do a group class. I think rally would be really fun!! So if interested surely let me know... it doesn't just have to be the bernese mountain dog. She works with all dogs and all ages!! I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday and are having fun training their dogs!!
