By Lynn –
Apologies for the lack of blogs lately…someone ran off with my flash drive, and I’m scrounging around for floppies so I can have something to store stuff on…and school and work are keeping me uber-busy, along with pulling my weight so I can continue to live peacefully at home.
But personal life aside…
AIKI has another client that she will hopefully be getting a call from in order to set up an evaluation. I was helping someone find some chews and he mentioned something about the Dog Whisperer and how he needs to come to our area (which he actually did once and I wasn’t available for it unfortunately). I said “Oh, you have some behavior problems?” and things went downhill from there 😛 I explained some things, answered his questions, and he did admit that it’s really that he needs to be trained more than the dogs (think Reagan-omics), but would I really be interested in working with 2 Beagle littermates who are about to turn 3? You bet. I gave him my name and number, told him that I was out this weekend (friends from school coming down for burgers and beer), and I was available pretty much during the evening when I wasn’t working.
Which also got me thinking seriously about starting some business cards or something like that. Or at least join the APDT so I could have some title or something beside my name since I’m not connected with any breeders or kennels or something (sorry about harping on that, the whole credentials and titles…my family has mucho experience in the medical field, so we know how important education is, as well as the ability to prove it from somewhere :\ ). And that got me to thinking…
This is really the place that got me started, Adam and everyone else from the Westhost version of DogProblems to this one. And yes, I had a crazy name back then, but then I shortened it and realized that it had a meaning (linky to Wikipedia entry). Weird thing is, I never really would’ve connected it to dog training, but when you think about it, when you have a working relationship with your dog, some of those concepts really pull through! So maybe if I can scrounge some $$ together and make some business cards, I don’t even know what I’d call my ‘business,’ if it could be called that… “AIKI K-9 Academy” or something like that, with a slogan or something about how your relationship with your dog should be harmonious, you work better as a team, etc…don’t get me wrong, I like some Eastern stuff, I dabble in New Age some, and while I don’t really like this whole “Natural, no-punishment, no-violence dog training” out there, I do think (like I mentioned above) that some of the concepts can really work when applied to real-world training.
And then I crash back to Earth and realize that yes, it’s doable, but I’d have to quit for a few months when I go back to school to finish my bachelor’s. But then I fly again when I remember I’m going back part time (only 3 classes left, darnit!), and I can build a clientele up there, or even work as a behavior consultant for the local vet. And not only that, but I’ll be coordinating with Animal Science advisors at my local uni, so those classes plus a bachelor of Psychology, I’m really starting to realize what an opportunity that fell into my lap when I couldn’t find the funds to pay for winter quarter!
Today’s just a great day…totally offsets the horrible morning I had in which the horse spooked at just about ANYTHING and had the flexion and lightness of a 2×4. Which I was about to use to beat her upside the head. I keed. 😛