Champion of My HeartA real-time memoir about life with a fearful border collie, by Roxanne Hawn

Subtitle? How Lilly spent her holiday vacation. Being a crazy-smart girl, Lilly knows how to ride a snow sled while being pulled along, but she also sometimes rides down the hill with me. Over our holiday break, we enlisted Mr. Champion of My Heart to shoot some video.

I’m not keen on being immortalized in video bundled up in my bulky snow suit. We thought you might enjoy seeing what we did with all the snow that fell on the Winter Solstice.

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It’s December 22! We made it. That days now get LONGER again. In celebration of Yule, two videos from years past of Lilly showing happiness knows no single season. Read the rest of this entry »

Taking a week “off” is relative, of course, meaning mostly not owing drafts to clients. Other demands of life continue. HOWEVER, Lilly and I ventured to Boulder for dog training class with our dog trainer Gigi Moss … for the first time this year. I’ll tell you how it went tomorrow. Today? A video showing just how much Lilly loves her dog trainer.

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As promised, some agility humor for our dog training friends who already have earned or aspire to earn a Master Agility Champion title (MACH) with their dogs. Meet Chaos, a nationally ranked Labrador Retriever who TWICE had to earn her 20th and final double-Q to get her MACH #5. All this … at the age of 10.

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The day after Thanksgiving, when many still have pots and pans soaking, is a good time to share this video of Lilly putting away her dog toys. You’ll notice that she holds them down with her foot. That’s because she often puts her toys away with such enthusiasm that they fly out of the basket. No reward for that, so Lilly learned to make sure they stay put. Therefore, the foot bonus action became part of the dog trick.

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Happy Thanksgiving. To celebrate this festive occasion, we have two videos to share. The first shows Lilly howling on cue. The second shows Lilly “laughing.” This noise has been isolated by researchers and deemed dog laughter.

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In today’s backstory video, Lilly — our intrepid dog — learns to SIT-STAY atop a small sled while being pulled along in the snow of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Clearly, she finds it very, very funny. Read the rest of this entry »

As a special Thanksgiving week event, we’ll be posting a few of our favorite videos of Lilly, our canine heroine, each day. Whether you’re seeing them for the first time (welcome, new readers) or get the chance to enjoy these reruns, we send our best holiday wishes. Today, Lilly on her home agility course.

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RC Pet Products, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, sent me this terrific dog pack to try out with Lilly. I love it. Lilly? Not so much.

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Thanks to everyone who shared our Kissing Booth Dog Video last week. As promised, here is a behind-the-scenes look and answers to the most-asked questions.

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Here is the video we promised. Lilly’s newest and (we think) funniest one to date. If you agree, please share far and wide … and let’s see if we can get it to go truly VIRAL.

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Since we have no herding news of our own, after a long lapse in lessons due to non-stop work and family demands, today Champion of of My Heart looks at how someone else uses some clicker training in a herding context.

Herding is often taught using mostly pressure and “corrections.” And, when you ask about how clicker training might fit into the process, you’ll hear some grumbling about things like:

• The livestock are their own “reward.”
• Clickers make dogs focus too much on you and not on the task at hand.
• It’s a natural, much more dynamic process than teaching another kind of trick or easily segmented task.

So, when our pal Anna from Happy Healthy Pup, who recently relocated from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Atlanta, Georgia, suggested I talk to Astrid Smith from A Dog’s Journey … well, I sent and email and got on the phone.

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Oh, it’s Monday alright. I made a few decisions these last 3 days (you know, like spending time with my hubby, pups, and family) that sends me into a new week behind on pretty much everything. Yes, I had some coffee (rare for me), but I thought we’d share a little Lilly-style mojo.

So … if you are feeling:

• Under the weather
• Under never-ending deadlines and demands
• Under the influence of negative people or energy
• Under the pressures of worries or emergencies

Then, Lilly and I send you our very best wishes for strength, patience, grace, and productivity via this new video showing … Enthusiasm Border Collie Style.

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The Bedtime Book for Dogs by Bruce Littlefield is dedicated to Littlefield’s Good Dog Wes and all Good Dogs in our lives. Check out our video book review.

The Bedtime Book for Dogs: Summary

The Bedtime Book for Dogs tells the story of a dog who wanted to play, but his friend was busy … so the dog uses a variety of talents to seek his own adventure.

Since Lilly has been known to get into dangerous scrapes while making her own adventure, you might be saying, “Uh-oh,” about now.

Rest assured all is well in the end, but I’m confident my friend Susan McCullough, who writes the Northern Virginia Dog Blog (which is often about the importance of scooping the pooping), would blanch at this Good Dog taking care of business at the local park.

As our friends at GoPetFriendly.com like to say, “There is no poop fairy.”

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The challenge of working 10-12 hours every day for weeks (possibly months) on end is that the pace leaves little room for much more than survival. That means, other than the usual daily dog training cues and rewards, not a lot happens. So, to keep myself on track and to renew my commitment to all of you who follow our dog training tales, here is a recap of what’s currently on our dog training dock / dog training wish list.

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