Hobbies

So, what are my interests?  LOTS.  Probably my primary interest these days is my dogs.  I have 2 Afghan Hounds; Maija is 8 years old and Elvis is 10 months.  Here they are! We also have a Miniature Pinscher, Nina. My dogs are not just couch potatoes.  We do lots of things together. I have owned dogs almost forever, and when we were first married and got our first mutt, I started messing around with training.  When we got our first Afghan Hound about a year later, I joined my first dog training class.... and was hooked.  We started with plain old traditional Obedience and I had a lot to learn about training dogs.  Primarily that they are ALL different!  I took our first mutt, Sassy, and the first Afghan, Jason, to training class and learned right away that I had to treat them differently and reward them differently and that they learned differently.  That has been reinforced for me through all 11 dogs that we have owned (and a couple of extras that I have fostered for other people).  During the past 30 years my training methods have evolved.... I have taken classes from many different trainers, read lots of books and seen lots of videos and attended training seminars.  And I am still learning.  Most of our dogs have been Afghan Hounds, but we have always had a lap dog (first Sassy, the cock-a-peek-a-poo, and now Nina, the Min. Pin.) and when we lived in South Dakota I shared a couple of Collies with my friend, Geena.

To date I have taught dog training classes to the general public ( for pet dogs, teaching basic control and commands), and have been a 4-H dog project leader for 14 years.  I also volunteered on the South Dakota State 4-H Dog Committee for several years, helping them to revise their rules and reorganize their program.  Now that we are back in Illinois, I am active in a dog training club, teaching Rally classes and taking classes in Agility and Freestyle. I also help out in the local 4-H project from time to time. All in all, I have been active in all kinds of dog activities: Traditional Obedience, showing in the Conformation ring, Lure Coursing, Therapy dog work in nursing homes, Rally, Agility and now Freestyle.

My current dogs have been shown  in the Breed ring, but Maija retired from THAT boring stuff to concentrate on more interesting things.  She has her JC in Lure Coursing, a CD in Obedience, RE in Rally, has been a Licensed Therapy Dog and is now dabbling in Agility and Freestyle for her Senior years.

Nina, the Min Pin is 13 years old and fading.... but she has been a grand girl and served plenty of working time.  She was Aaron's 4-H dog until he moved on to bigger things, then she worked with other kids in 4-H, earning levels for them and qualifying for State on several occasions.  Then I decided to work with her in Rally and she earned her Rally Novice in quick order.  She was also a Therapy Dog and worked at that for several years, sharing all her tricks for the seniors.  She still has us wrapped around her little paw.....

Elvis is..... will he IS.  Elvis is our puppy but he is no longer our baby. At 10 months he has turned the corner to adolescence and is becoming a Big Boy.  He is already 28" tall at the shoulder and has developed a DEEP bark ;-)  But he is a sweet dog and a quick, willing worker.  I started him in Foundations of Agility just before he was 4 months old and he catches on quick!  We are also working on that boring obedience stuff, and he has had his first experiences at a Dog Show in the Breed ring (just running around and standing pretty.... which is really hard when you are a puppy!).  He is going to be a star!

That's all for today... more hobbies tomorrow!