Tom Rose School....Tuesday, Feb 24, 2009

Lectures, Obedience, Forced Retrieves, Lunch, Tracking and Protection....OH MY! What a busy day it was today. And look at my beautiful Kyla doing a sit stay. She was soooo good! I had her near the door and there were people and dogs coming and going and she didn't budge. I was so proud of her!

The picture above that shows my cute little Alex running through a series of jumps getting ready for agility. (Notice that he jumped over the low part.....lol....my Alex ain't no dummy!) I wish that I could've been able to take some pictures of him climbing the ladders and running through the tunnels, but things were just moving too quickly, and the picture above that shows the class working on tracking. Kyla and I sat on the hillside and watched.

The picture on the top left shows Kyla watching intently as the class practices the forced retrieve and the picture on the top right shows the class working on obedience exercises.

I had such an enjoyable day! Lunch was GREAT!!! There were five of us who went to a place that is popular with the locals called PEGGS, and I had a delicious roast beef sandwich along with some very interesting conversations. Everyone was soooo nice! And they really did their best to get me to stay for the rest of the semester, but I just can't. Besides, they are already way beyond my present abilities. I wonder what it is that Tom sees in me because he keeps telling me that I am a "natural" at this. And he really doesn't say that to many people. It makes me feel good, that's for sure. I really think it's because I read the dogs so well.

Anyway, the lecture this morning was interesting because Tom talked about starting your own business. He gave ideas on where to locate, how much room is needed, how to get clients, and how much one should expect to make in the dog training business. For example, a person who starts out at a salary for a company should expect to make about $35,000 per year. A person who works for salary plus commission should expect to make about $50,000 per year and for the person who goes into business for him/herself, the sky is the limit! The idea that I liked the best was to rent a space for an evening in a place that would otherwise be vacant, such as a Knights of Columbus or a VFW building and hold a free clinic. He said that after the free clinic one should expect at least half of those attending to become training clients.

Kyla and Alex were absolutely pooped by the end of the day! When we got back to the motel, they jumped on the bed and fell fast asleep. It was truly a nice day!