2013 Goal Review

Joker – 11 years and going strong

Goal is to keep him that way.

He tore his cruciate in July, but laser treatments, rest and time spent in the Ontario woods around our cabin got him back on track without surgery. He had an eye injury in the fall but seems to have recovered from it just fine.

Ty – 8 years old.

I've accomplished what I hoped to with her – Ch UDX OM2 SH WCX, and applied for the FCRSA HOF. She needs a job, but I don't know what it ought to be.

At this year's FCRSA National in April, Ty and I did obedience (2 NQ's, but pretty decent effort considering a lack of training), rally (won the Excellent B class and had a blast), and conformation (3rd place in Veterans 7-9 bitches and 2nd in the Gun Dogs Sweepstakes class she was in).

Ty tried to take over leadership of the dog pack after Gryffin’s death last year, but in a bullying and stressful way. Adele considered placing Ty in a new home for several months. When the right home came along, we made the difficult decision to do so. She is an only dog in her new home–something that we think makes her a lot happier–and there is a lot less stress in our lives. She brings a lot of joy to her new owner.

Little – 2 years old

I'd like to have her ready for the WCX at the National and for Senior by fall. Helen may do Novice with her at the National if she has Little enough to train her regularly, and maybe rally.

Little earned her RN in March with Helen.
She earned her WCX at the National with me and a BN leg with Helen.

She earned her Senior Hunter in August and September. While it wasn't a totally smooth ride–steadiness is not her strong suit, nor is handling on blinds –we still reached the goal. She then returned to Helen, who finished up her BN in October and made a stab at Novice B. Alas, the Stand for Exam is HARD for this wiggly social girl. She also earned 5 points in the conformation ring during 2013.

Sonic – 16 months old

Get to do water in the Derby at the April National, which means doing land well enough to move on to water. In my dreams, we place. But being realistic, getting to water would be a grand achievement.

We were one of 3 out of 5 dogs called back for water. Then everyone failed the water test, so there were no ribbons. Goal was met, and it was a fun new adventure.

Finish her JH.

Earned our 3rd leg at the National and finished the title in May.

Get her running cold blinds:

land (March) and water (May)

Earn her WCX - 4/21/13
Run Senior with her in the fall. While I'd love to earn her SH, that is a pretty tall order - I think. (pass 1 July, pass 2 8/17, pass 3 8/24, 8/25 TITLE!!!). When we first arrived in Florida, Little was ahead of Sonic in terms of her skill set. During that trip, Sonic got almost caught up on water, and moved ahead of her on land.
Earn her RA (March 15) and RE (4/22).
I've been completely focused on field work with her lately, and plan to continue that as much as possible this winter, so I don't know if I'll devote the time to obedience titles or not. If I do, we might do Novice in the fall. Or Beginner Novice (4/22). Or Grad Novice (10/22). Or none. WC Novice 11/22 - very nice performance! 198.5, 2nd place.

Myself

Update the Northfield Dog Training website! It has been on my list for at least a year, and other things keep getting in the way.

Finally, my web programming skills reached a critical mass in the fall, and I started serious progress on the website. Right before Christmas, I got the "get rid of frames" release done. It was a huge undertaking, but I've learned a lot, and find I still really like programming. After a brief break to get ready for Christmas, I've returned to work on implementing PayPal. The list of additions/changes I still want to make is lengthy, and will most likely continue to occupy me well into 2014.

Continue with my field training education – to that end, I'm already signed up for two seminars with Mitch White and plan to sign up for the Carol Cassity one that Marshbanks will be sponsoring in July, and maybe one with Bill Hillman in June.

I had a great time at both seminars with Mitch White, the first one a water workshop in Florida in February, and the other his 4-day summer camp in July. The following weekend was 3 days with Carol Cassity, from which I got one particularly helpful exercise, as well as a long list of great ideas.

Keep honing my Getting Things Done chops.

While I did manage several 'Weekly reviews', it is still a weak point for me when using the system. However, the overall framework of GTD is what allows me to keep on top of all of the dozens of projects I seem to have going all the time.

Blog more regularly again.

With only 12 blog posts all year as compared to > 20 for the previous three years, I'd say I failed on this one. My muse only grabbed me by the hands a few of times, forcing me to get some ideas out there.

Get back to some form of aerobic exercise. Aim for 100 workouts.

Started out the year by getting my Nordic Track functioning again and used it for a while, but then when I started PT for my neck and shoulder in late January, that stopped. I got the bike tires pumped up right before Christmas and have biked Sonic and Joker several times in the building since the cold weather has set in.

Work on some multimedia product. I have some half-baked ideas. Website first, though.

I have even more ideas for new projects, but the website will continue to dominate for the immediate future.

Back in June, I said I would take over the Midwest Waterways FCR Club's website. Worked on it a bit in August. Once I did the NDT website release, I spent < a day getting a skeleton site released. Having based it on the Marshbanks site, it didn't take too much effort.

Volunteering

There are a lot of ways I volunteer my time. For Marshbanks, I chair the fall obedience and rally trials; I am worker organizer for the August hunt tests; I take care of the website. I co-chair the November eye clinic. For AADTC, I help at the fall trials (stewarded this year), and just chaired an obedience match, with sign-up done using the Google Docs framework I've used so successfully for my NDT matches. The ladies who have been running the club's matches are all eager to use the new system, as it greatly simplifies the process.

2013 was a super year for me. I'm grateful I get to spend so much of my time on work that I love so much.