Talisman & Totem SportDogs

"So there is no point in teaching them obstacles, if they lack the basics. So instead of training them, I started to get to know them better, and most of all – we started to play. Just play, no strings attached. And pretty soon, things started to change…" Motivation Puzzle ~~~ I love to be inspired. In training dogs, there are so many who are giving advice, but some "speak" to us, so well! Little nuances of underlying approach and respect for who a dog is, comes through to me in what I see in training. I want the shining eyes and heathen pup, with not so much perfect self-control...not having any issues with motivation in my dogs, but always looking for new ideas to improve our bond and fun in training. Polona Bonac is brilliant and I am glad to be in her newest running "Let's Play" online class.  If we like to have fun, why wouldn't our dogs? WE see them do silly things like tossing a toy into the air to catch it, a game! That joy and g...

Started this thought 2 months ago and never finished it...life has been busy! Dog injuries, illness, work, general craziness in life-all can eat up your time. Now that things are quieting down a bit, even with dark coming earlier each day-getting a bit more time to train the dogs, enjoy a gorgeous New England Fall and filter out unnecessary things.  Try! is about keeping going and focusing ahead to joy, even as roadblocks are thrown in your way...adversity and criticism can be motivators to build more Try!, unless you let them get you down... ~~ One of the qualities I love most in a dog, is Try! A dog who has Try! will often keep working towards completing one of the tasks we ask of them, or they are the pup who doesn't quit trying to get a rolled ball or treat out from behind a cabinet...the relentless ones. Some Try! very calmly, others are very obvious and overt. Sort of like the difference in introverts and extroverts in people-there are the boisterously loud "look at...