Thursday, October 28, 2004

First Full Time Week as Dog Trainer

I just finished my first week of doing this full-time. I have to say, I love it. I especially find it rewarding to give help to owners that others have "given up on". One lady, that is part of a couple, was given up on as "clueless". However, she just needed a pep talk on not giving up and timing. It made all the difference in our last class, and I can't wait to see how she is doing next week. I almost saw the light bulb appearing above her help. I had private lesson number two with a dachsund owner today, whose dachsund tends to think he owns the house. Second lesson, she was really getting it. In the middle of the week I called, she was not practicing, so we had a little talk about that. I fully expected that i would need to correct her by singing Christmas carols to her today (I am somewhat tone deaf). Luckily, she took my warnings to heart, and a lot of progress was made in practice with her Dachsund. She was positively beaming when I left today, and her dog was learning place and recalls. His little behind was just about swinging back and forth when I left. Knock on wood, nothing horrible has happened yet. Only positive experiences with my group and private lessons, thus far. It feels really right so far, and so much more rewarding than making sure a corporation makes enough money so that the shareholders can buy the vacation houses/cars of their dreams. Sorry to gush. I just feel like I have been caught up in a really good dream in the last couple of months.