Friday, December 3, 2010

Adrift

Dog Blog Post #166: I'm feeling a bit adrift at the moment. With puppy class over and nothing "official" lined up until mid-January, the risk that time will just slip by is very great.

For all my lists and charts and graphs (oh, my!) I'm actually not that good at staying motivated on my own... which might explain why I make so many lists and charts and graphs (oh, my!)

I guess that means it's time to make some new plans, starting by planning what should be planned.

  • New Training Levels: Henry will continue working on Sue Ailsby's New Training Levels. Level One is essentially finished, so let's try for finishing through Level Two Step Three (although I'm not sure he's up to 1 minute duration activities, so we might have to wait on those) plus 50% of Level Four by the time the next round of classes start.
  • Conformation: I really need to call around to see if I can get a private conformation lesson or two lined up. I really need to work on showing for a "judge" (hands-on) and gaiting. If I wanted to, I could show him as early as February. Well have to see about that.
  • Photography: The more I do it, the more I love it. I definitely want to continue with Photo of the Week, and will post the "results" on Wordless Wednesday. I want to do more things outside, weather permitting, as well as "Greeting Card" type shots (staged cuteness).
  • Enrichment Activities: I had started thinking about this over the summer but got derailed by life. Time to try again.
  • Henry's Curriculum: It's time to take Zachary's Curriculum and create Henry's Curriculum from it. I'm thinking much, if not all, will remain the same, but I need to create new copies, buy new binders, and critically reassess what worked and what didn't, etc.
  • Field Trips: This probably falls under his Curriculum, but I wanted to call it out specifically to make sure it doesn't get lost.

And don't forget my "support system", which helps keep me motivated:

  • Blog - BZ Dog Activities: Must work harder to get the Weekly Worksheet updated on BZ Dog Activities every week, on Monday. Period. I used to be so good about it, but I definitely got out of the habit when we lost Beau. Perhaps I just need to reduce the number of things I list so that I can be more assured of getting things finished!
  • Blog - BZ Training: It's usually feast or famine here, but if I think in terms of at least posting on certain days (say, Sunday night - weekend summary and next week plans, Tuesday night - for Wordless Wednesday, and Thursday night - week summery and weekend plans) I might be able to even things out a bit. Or not. It might not even matter.
  • Web Site - BZDogs: Poor BZDogs. Just about the time I was getting somewhat familiar with CSS, I lost Beau, and everything came to a screeching halt. It's well past time to pick it up, dust it off, and come up with a true vision for it.
  • YouTube - BZFischer: The one place where things are going along reasonably fine!

As Zachary is on a diet, I'm afraid he'll have to be content with some long walks, plenty of play time with his puppy. And non-food games like "Find It!". He loves Find It!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Given his breed (hehe) will Zachary work for low calorie snacks like bits of vegetable (green beans work well, carrots are okay and a favorite around here, especially bits of carrot peel..) or dry air popped popcorn or ...? I have a dog who, for a while, put on a lb just sniffing food, so we found all sorts of low-cal things that would work as low-value treats. :)

BZ Dogs said...

Zachary definitely falls into the "put on a lb just sniffing food" category. Poor guy, he gained a pound in 10 days on the LAST diet we put him on. I might go back to Cheerios mixed with training treats... had kind of forgotten about that. Thanks for the memory nudge!