"Normal" Life?

Since Lucy and the puppies came to live with us, life has been anything BUT normal.  But that's a good thing.  This family in need has been a blessing to have in our house and the whole family has been working together to make this a wonderful experience for both humans and canines.

Good or bad, right or wrong -- we still have a life to tend to outside of mama and the puppies.  It's been difficult to fit it all in.  Last weekend I judged a great trial at Canine Sports in Vermilion and on Saturday, the whole family went along.  It was a wonderful day of judging, exhibiting, and spending time with family and friends.  But since Lucy can, and will, escape from the pen where the puppies are, we had to hire a "doggy sitter" for the day.  Our friend Augusta came and hung out with Lucy and the puppies all day for us.  Not terribly normal for us.

We haven't had much time to be with our own dogs lately, but they seem to be adjusting somewhat.  At the trial, they both did a really good job, getting great scores and placing in every class we competed in.  Unfortunately, that's a little bit of positive reinforcement for me for NOT training regularly!  But I know the good runs were more a factor of us being excited to play together as opposed to consistent training, so I am trying harder this week to fit in training sessions.

This morning we had things to clean up and papers to change in addition to our "normal" things to get done -- it meant something had to give, so we decided to miss a meeting.  I hate missing meetings, but it just wasn't going to work.  My hope is that lots gets done today so that I don't feel so bad about not going to the meeting.

As a trainer, I encourage my students to fit in training no matter what is going on.  The reality is it doesn't always happen.  "Normal" life is not so normal a huge majority of the time.  But our dogs need us, they need us to play with them, to snuggle with them, to train with them.  Take 3 minutes today and do something with your dog.  The benefits to both of you will be huge!