January Syllabus

The first month of the shiny New Year.

As I haven't a clue how long New Training Levels is supposed to take, I've thrown in quite a few Steps just to make sure I'm covered.

Too many? Too few? Haven't a clue. Keep in mind that Henry just turned 5 months old and training a teenager can be a... humbling... experience.

My goal for Zachary is to catch him up to where Henry is. This will be a problem only if I see his weight creeping back up again.

Finally, new for this year, I've added a box for what I should be doing (the "Mom" part.) There isn't anything there that I don't already try to do, but I thought it's good to spell it out (and I was trying to fill
that spot on the page.)

(As always, click to see larger)

August Syllabus

July was a rather... different... month, but as I'm running behind I'll refrain from rehashing it. You can always read about it in the Weekly Worksheets:

• Week 27
• Week 28
• Week 29
• Week 30
• Week 31

I have high hopes for August, but of course, only time will tell.

(As always, click to see larger)

July Syllabus

I keep forgetting how hot it is during the summer...

With Level Three behind us, and Level Four bogged down by a few stubborn items, I've decided to put some Level Five things on the list. I do this after realizing that one can only spend so much class time on "difficult" items, beyond which class will no longer seems fun.

I'm also working on "Warm-up Exercises" to keep fun in the game - but those aren't really ready for prime time yet.

June Syllabus

Ah, the lovely month of June…

According to my “Master Plan”, I should be finishing up Training Levels Four this month.

(I can hear the laughter from here)

Of course, that assumed the CGC test was going to be mid-may and not tomorrow (some 3 weeks late.) Then again, if you look at what I’ve got left (included at the bottom of the June Syllabus for easy reference) you’ll quickly see I probably wouldn’t have made it anyway.

No matter – we shall press on and hope that with summer’s arrival we’ll magically find extra time that we aren’t finding now (hint: my son will be out of school, which could either be a good thing (no studying, projects, or Lacrosse) or a bad thing (depending on how the vacation, Lacrosse camps, and camping winds blow.)

There are no more classes or tests on our horizons (near or far) and so our motivation must come from within.

(As always, click to see larger)

May Syllabus

This month promises to be The Month of Canine Good Citizen.

Let's keep fingers and paws crossed and hope the rain, rain, stays away (at least on class night!)

I tossed a few other items on the list, both undone things from last month (many to choose from on that front) plus a few others lying about, but I'll be honest and say I'm not really going to be focused on them.

On the bright side, the project that consumed my time for much of April is completed, and so if I don't get things done I have only myself, the weather, and the remains of the Lacrosse season to blame!

(As always, click to see larger)

April Syllabus

As mentioned in the post for this week's Weekly Worksheet (lucky #13) this promises to be a very busy month.

To make the most of the time I have, I'm going to focus on On The Road things (weekends being slightly less busy)  and Canine Good Citizen items as Zachary is now in class.

Well, he will be in class... starting next week... as a ugly green rain blob filled the radar, temperatures plunged, and class was pushed out by a week.

(I hear next week should be lovely)

And so, without further ado...

(As always, click to see larger)

March Syllabus

Two months down, ten to go.

Oh dear... how quickly the months pass!

As I was writing up my March Syllabus I realized I made a tiny mistake on the February Syllabus. It seems I neglected to account for Training Level Four’s On The Road requirement, which is Training Level Two.

Oops.

While I had noted it in on my master calendar ("Do four items") they never made it to the February Syllabus, and so never made it to my Weekly Worksheets, and so never got done.

(Sigh)

So, this month I’m looking at eight, count them, eight items. In light of that, I dropped all Canine Good Citizen activities except Out of Sight Stays, which automatically get worked on during the daily “Hide The Duck.”

I also need to redo Zachary’s Training Level One (On The Road) video as the clipped turned out horribly and I’m too embarrassed to upload it.

Those wretched Training Level Three items are still hanging around – Leash Manners, Stand-Stay and Zen… all still lingering about due to lack of a filmable stranger – or lack of my desire to dredge up a filmable stranger. They are about to be joined by Training Level Four’s Leash Manners – I am so going to have to solve this soon!

I’ve added more Electives to the list. In addition to my much-loved (by me) Photography items, there are now things from Excursions (down in Field Trips). Companionship, Manners and Tricks will be explored to see what the boys already know.

If all goes well I’ll write up another four Electives in March, to begin being worked on in April, and I’ll be so swamped with things to do that I won’t get anything done.

Ok… it’s probably not that bad. Electives are supposed to encompass many real-world things, so assuming I’m getting my boys out, I should be able to cross things off as we go.

Right?

(Stop laughing.)

And finally, we have the Trick of the Month, which hails from The Helping Paw. I might never need to close another door again!

(As always, click to enlarge.)

February Syllabus

One month down, eleven to go, and I’m thinking I bit off a bit too much for my 2010 goals.

Fine. A lot too much.

The problem isn’t that I put too much stuff on any one dog, it’s that I need to do all those things with both dogs, as just about everything you see on my Weekly Worksheets needs to be done in duplicate.

The weather hasn’t helped, either. All the Citizen stuff was a total washout (literally) as we’ve been pretty drippy out here, and while my boys don’t mind getting wet, I do mind them getting everything else in my house wet.

As I contemplated February, I realized a choice had to be made. I could either revamp my schedule (roughly planned out through May) to take into account what I learned this month, or I could charge ahead full steam and see how many walls I could plow into before the month is through.

I opted for Full Steam Ahead. If I’m going to go down in flames, I’m going down in style. Most of the things that I didn’t finish in January were moved to February, making the shortest month of the year look a wee bit cramped.

I did push Training Levels - Level Four Watch out to March, as I can’t work on it until I finish Level Three. I dropped Level Three Crate since both dogs are quite comfortable in their “home” crates and this is more a technicality of filming than anything they need to actively work on. As watching a dog sleep in a crate is akin to watching paint dry, this whole task might disappear into the ether.

( On The Road Crate is a totally different story, as that requires the travel crate and Zachary is not nearly as comfortable in it… but we aren’t quite there… yet. )

Canine Good Citizen is a Good News/Bad News scenario. The Good News is that the Canine Good Citizen class got rescheduled and now we can actually go. Yeah! The Bad News is that now I can’t strip those items out to try to slim down the month.

On top of everything else, I added items from my two new Electives, Photography and Dance. That’s not quite as foolhardy as it may seem as (a) I’m having a great time photographing the dogs and I would do it anyway, and (b) I’m going to pick the Dance items that help out my Leash Manners and CGC requirements.

Field Trips hasn’t changed – It’s a nice mix of activities and I don’t see any reason to muck with it at this juncture.

And finally, there’s Just For Fun. As last month’s activity came from The Helping Paw, this month I picked a pure Trick: Balance cookie on nose. This is a blatant effort to help me catch up as (a) it’s a really easy trick and (b) Beau already knows it!

January Syllabus

Here's the battle plan for January. It's a rather ambitious plan - we'll how see it goes. Of course, as Dean of BZ Dog's College of Canine Enlightenment, I reserve the right to alter the syllabus at will!    :)

As always, clicking on image takes you to a full-sized version.