November Newsletter

Just as I sit down to write the November newsletter, I realized that I never did one for October!  Oh my!  Well, I have been busy, which is a good thing and something I am grateful for, but it wasn't my intention to skip October!  So, here we go with November.  Welcome Fall!  My favorite time of year. Things will be winding down with classes soon, but I have some cool things coming up for January and next year that I am going to be excited to share with you.

Likely the main reason I forgot the October newsletter was that I was preparing for my trip to Florida. I attended the Natural Encounters professional animal trainers week long workshop.  The workshop is designed and taught by Steve Martin and Susan Friedman, both regarded as two of the top animal trainers in the world.  They consult with zoos, teach trainers and Steve trains birds for free flight shows including the free flight macaw show for Disney.  It was a very exciting, fun and enriching trip.  The schedule was intensive with two hours of lecture every morning and every afternoon and two hours of hands on training every morning and afternoon.  We were split up into groups of four with one leader per group.  We were all given a macaw to train for our duration there.  In addition to the basic things we worked on such as building a relationship with the bird, delivering food reinforcers to the bird, teaching the bird to turn in a circle and reinforcing for flying to our hand, we were also allowed to choose a behavior or chain of behaviors that we wanted to train.  My bird was a gorgeous and social Hyacinth Macaw named Sulley.  If you have never met a Hyacinth before let me tell you they are amazing.  Easily one of the most beautiful of all the macaws and the largest.  Sulley was the only Hyacinth in the workshop and I felt very lucky to get to work with him.  In addition, each group had a corvid to train as a group.  Ours was a pied crow named Garfunkle who was amazing.  We also got to see some young Bald Eagle training, their Harpy Eagle and some work with a Red Tail Hawk.  It was an amazing trip and I am so glad I went.  This month I will be back in Florida for the Pet Professional Guild Summit conference to learn even more!

Here are a few photos from the trip:

With pied crow, Oreo

The magnificent Sulley

Sulley flying to my hand

Not where he is supposed to be

With Steve Martin

DOG OF THE MONTH

Valencia is a beautiful and sweet young Pharaoh Hound who is trained, loved and handled by Theresa Harper.  Valencia comes to Braveheart for her show ring training and is doing a fantastic job!

Ins and Outs of the Show Ring 1/2 Day Workshop
San Leandro, 12/6
I have so many clients that are just starting out in the show ring that I have decided to offer a 1/2 day workshop covering much of what you need to know about showing including what the dog needs to know, ring etiquette and procedure, classes to enter, what to wear and so much more.  Dogs do attend this seminar and space will be limited so register today!

Cooperative Care Class
I am designing a new class that will be offered in January called Cooperative Care.  The focus of this class will be teaching husbandry behaviors with your dogs such as nail trims, ear cleaning, grooming, examination, and much more.

UPCOMING CLASSES
Conditioning and Skills for the Show Ring, Pleasanton, Fridays, 6-6:50pm, starts 12/4
Scentwork Flash Class, San Leandro, 12/1, 6-7pm
Conformation Flash Class, San Leandro, 12/8, 7-8pm
Old Dogs, New Tricks Flash Class, San Leandro, 12/15, 7-8pm
Cooperative Care, San Leandro, 1/7, 6-6:50pm
Beginning Obedience/Manners, San Leandro, 1/9, 9-10am
Puppy Preschool, San Leandro, 1/9, 10-10:50am