April Newsletter

Welcome Spring!  It is officially Spring and I am excited about it, I just with that the weather would be more reasonable!  For me and my husband Spring means going to the nursery and getting all kinds of flowers and plants to plant.  Because our dogs love to dig in "good" dirt, the majority of our plants are for the front yard and the area of the backyard where the dogs don't have unsupervised access to.  We have a fence gating off the top of our yard, but you could use exercise pens or simple fencing to keep the dogs out.  This area was designed to give our cattle dog Bill an area to play ball so it is completely covered with decomposed granite. The 1/2 barrels make great planters but are arranged to offer little caves and cool areas for the small dogs when they are playing up there.  If you have a dog that really loves to dig you might even consider getting your dog a small area, such as a baby pool and filling it with sand for them to have a legal digging space.  Here is my upper yard with the dogs enjoying playing up there.

DOG OF THE MONTH

Beckham is an Airedale Terrier who is loved and owned by Nancy Dirgo and Marguerite Stetson. We have been working with Beckham, as well as his father Pele and Nancy and Marguerite's older girl RoXxi and their yorkie Maxwell for years.  While Beckham has been our focus lately the dog of the month is really the entire gang at Hat Trick Airedales.  Beckham finished his championship with flying colors.  He continues to attend our conformation classes to improve his skills as he continues to work towards his grand championship and other accomplishments.

UPCOMING CLASSES
Four Week Conformation class
San Leandro, Wednesdays, 12-12:30pm, starts April 9, $40

Canine Freestyle
Castro Valley, Mondays, 6:30-7:20, starts April 21 (register at www.cvadult.org), 5 weeks, $125

Tricks! Flash Class
San Leandro, Thursday, April 17, 7-8pm, 1 session, $20

Indoor/Outdoor Intermediate
San Leandro, Thursdays, 7-7:50pm, starts April 24, 4 weeks, $125

Beginning Obedience/Manners
Castro Valley, Saturdays, 9-10am, starts May 3, 6 weeks, $150

Puppy Preschool
Castro Valley, Saturdays, 10-10:50am, starts May 3, 6 weeks, $150

CANINE FEAR AND AGGRESSION SEMINAR
I will be co presenting with friend and colleague Lisa Mullinax of 4 Paws University in Sacramento on May 18. This day long seminar will explain fear and aggression in dogs.  Click here for more information!