Attention: Advanced, Intermediate Classes Start This Week!

If you're planning on continuing your journey now's the time to get in and sign up! Advanced Class starts on Saturday 9/13 at 12:00 Noon, and Intermediate Class starts Sunday 9/14 at 10:30. Are you ready? See you then!

4 More Smart Pups Graduate!

What a FUN class! Two Labs, a Lab/Shepherd and a Scottie! Congratulations to this group for a great job! Only Lilah the Yellow Lab and Bonnie the Scottie could keep from wiggling for their "hat" photo shoot! Are they cute, or what?

Turbo Meets "The Horse"

Anyone who's driven up and down the Newport Hwy north of the Y knows the Aslin-Finch Horse. It's one of those life-size fiberglass horses, black, posing with one hoof slightly off the ground. It's on wheels, they've wheeled it out front of their store for years.
Well, the Aslin Finch readerboard has been touting a 50% off on perennials message so I thought I'd drop in and see if there was anything I would be interested in. The plants were all pretty sad so I headed back to my car. When I got in, Turbo was zeroed in on something and he was growling! My goodness! What had his attention was "The Horse". It was behind a stack of pallets and a supporting post, but it was staring Turbo down and he did NOT like that one bit! Of course all his growling did nothing to alter this vicious horse's gaze and it must be one heckuva predator because it hadn't moved a muscle; wily, stealthy, vicious horse that it is...
So, always up for a chance to socialize Turbo, I seized the moment and clipped on his leash. "Lets Go", I said. When we came around the front of the car and he saw I was heading for the dreaded horse, Turbo, for the first time in his life, balked at moving forward with me. He started sounding off at that horse, and he didn't want to move forward much at all. I let him process this experience until he came up by me, and then I moved forward. The growling and barking hadn't let up, and now he was bouncing around back and forth as if to say "Come on you horse, come after ME, leave my MOM alone!" Then he would run over to me and do the bounce off my legs as if to say "Lets get outta here mom, this horse is dangerous!"
By now, I'm up to the horse and I'm patting it, which thoroughly incensed Turbo. His "ruff" was up, he was still growling in distrust, but he was now able to get close enough to take a sniff of those razor sharp hooves (right above the wheels). We're attracting an audience too. The warehouse guy heard the barking and came out to see what was up, he was over by the building watching and snickering at Turbo's antics. An elderly couple had pulled up too, and were laughiingly observing my little man meet his first horse.
Finally, when he'd gotten to go around and sniff every leg, when I'd walked around it with him, and let him get over himself, he started to calm down a little bit. When we left, he was still looking over his shoulders to make sure it wasn't a trap, and that the horse wasn't going to make a surprise attack on us.
Everyone always comments on what a perfect little dog Turbo is, but when he's out of his element, he can be shy of things, weird about his surroundings, and forget his manners. It's taking the opportunity to socialize whenever you can that helps your dog become a well-rounded personality. Only socializing with the neighbor dogs, or your folks dogs isn't really socializing. Going out with you in the big, wide world and experiencing all kinds of stimuli is socializing!
So here's your challenge: If you're out and about the Newport Hwy, stop by Aslin Finch and see how your dog is affected by The Horse! Feel free to leave your story in the comment box!

Get 'em While It's Hot

What am I talking about? Why, heated water bowls, of course! As much as we rue it's arrival, colder weather is coming. Last year we ran out of these babies and couldn't get restocked until January. Apparently they don't "get" cold weather in Phoenix, consequently those shining stars at corporate hq didn't account for the fact that it gets COLD in Spokane. We could have sold 3X the number of heated bowls they sent us. So, Heads Up - Heated Water Bowls have arrived. I don't want MY students to go without! If you are thinking about investing in one for your puppers wintertime waterbowl the time is NOW to stop by and pick one up!

ADVANCED class coming soon!

Ok you Intermediate Grads, there's an Advanced Class beginning on Saturday, Sept. 13 at 12:00. High Noon. Showdown at the TC corral! If you've been wanting to take that last leg of our training program and get your CGC now's your chance to sign up! Space is limited, so don't delay!

Contratulations Graduates

Maggie, Annabelle, Carter and Sophie graduated beginner class last night! A great class, hope to see you guys all in Intermediate class soon! Maggie the pomchi and Annabelle the border collie started out with some real shyness issues, but everyone agrees that they have come a long way! Sophie is a great ambassador for the bully breeds, her sweetness really helped Maggie and Annabelle come out of their shells. Carter is such a Doodle, he's been fun to have in class too, coming out of the class a much more well-mannered Doodle!
It's so hard to take good pictures with a cel phone, little Maggie wouldn't sit still so her picture came out too blurry to post, but here's individual shots of Annabelle, Sophie and Carter along with a rather active group shot.




Congratulations, everyone for all your hard work! It shows!

Intermediate Class Starting 9/14

That's a SUNDAY, at 10:30 am. There is still room, so if you have made it through Puppy or Beginner level, be brave and take the NEXT step in training your dog! We'll work on HEEL and WAIT, to name a couple of the behaviors Intermediate focuses on, and we'll keep practicing the things we learned in Puppy/Beginner. In addition, we'll show you how to keep "raising the bar" on your pup to keep making progress in your training program. Please join us!