Gooddogz Training

11/15/2025

I have been trying to get to the root of Perry barking at me during Freestyle Competitions. I have tried different suggestions from friends and trainers, and video taped us quite a bit to try to pick up on things that I have been missing.

My conclusion is that I need to be a better handler, and cue early and know my part cold. Also some moves are more exciting.

This week, I took my own advice, and worked on self control with his favorite thing, Frisbee. This is an advanced version of a game I teach, where dogs need to be able to disengage from the thing they want to get it . Basically at Perry's level, I would describe it as Turbo Doggie Zen.

Facebook business accounts only allow 1 video. Here is where we got to after he basically yelled at me for the 1st 2 attempts. The yelling vid is in the comments, along with a different game we played.

He does understand the part about not barking, but basically I think he yells at me from frustration, and I have always thought that. For the record, Perry is often right. I owe it to him to try harder. We moved up a level, and can no longer coast.

So there is no confusion, we do Canine Musical Freestyle, not Frisbee Freestyle.

11/15/2025

Fetch King

11/15/2025

My friend Roxanne Hawn wrote a beautiful book after she lost her heart dog Lilly, due to a Rabies vaccine. Her book helps people heal.
Coming out on audio soon.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1A6kWYKpxc/

11/15/2025

😢 😭 😿 😢 😭
Beautiful 😍

"A stranger followed me through Walmart and asked if she could say goodbye to my dog.
I'd brought Pepper with me—a ten-year-old chocolate lab, service dog vest on, totally normal grocery run. But this woman, maybe mid-60s, had been watching us from the produce section. Following at a distance. Not creepy, just... sad.
In the parking lot, she finally approached.
"I'm so sorry to bother you," she said, voice shaking. "But is his name Pepper?"
Red flags everywhere. I stepped back. "How do you know that?"
She started crying. Right there between the grocery carts.
"I raised him. Puppy raiser for Guide Dogs of America. I had him from eight weeks to eighteen months, then had to give him back for formal training. It's been almost nine years, and I think about him every single day."
She pulled out her phone. Photos of a puppy—same white spot on his chest, same expressive eyebrows. Pepper as a gangly adolescent in a blue training vest. A final photo: her hugging him, both of them crying, the day she had to return him.
"They told me he'd washed out of guide dog training because he was too social. Too friendly. I always wondered where he ended up." She looked at his service dog vest. "What does he do?"
"Diabetic alert," I said. "He's saved my life sixteen times."
I don't know why I knew that number. I just did.
She covered her mouth, sobbing harder. "He was always so good at noticing when something was wrong. Even as a puppy. He'd bring me my phone when my blood pressure medication alarm went off. I never trained him to do that. He just knew."
We stood there for twenty minutes. She told me stories—Pepper stealing socks, Pepper afraid of the vacuum, Pepper sleeping upside-down with his legs in the air. Things only someone who truly loved him would remember.
Before she left, she knelt down. Pepper walked right to her, tail wagging, and put his head on her shoulder like he'd been waiting nine years to do it.
"Thank you for keeping him safe," she whispered to him. Then to me: "And thank you for letting me see that he's exactly where he was meant to be."
I sent her a photo every week now.
And Pepper? He still sleeps upside-down with his legs in the air.
To everyone who's ever raised, fostered, or loved a dog you couldn't keep—they remember you. They carry you with them. What would you want yours to know? ❤️"
Credit: Kaytee Amerson

11/14/2025

Our Freestyle Club Dancing Paws of Maine, is holding our yearly Auction Fundraiser. Lots of great items including custom art work from 4 amazing artists, dog items, jewelry, training from 4 trainers including me, and more.
Check it out!

11/13/2025

Show us your sweet and creepy sleepers.

11/13/2025

Good morning!

11/13/2025

I do believe I Spy Sarah and Riv!

11/12/2025

This! It a journey, not a race.

🐢🐇Fast Success and Slow Success

Every now and then, you come across a dog who seems to have it all figured out. The one who walks into the ring and makes everything look effortless. The one who understands the game almost instinctively, reads their handler perfectly, and performs with a kind of magic that leaves everyone watching in quiet awe.

🦄🦄🦄Those dogs make us dream. They make us believe that success in Dog sports can come easily, that maybe if we just work a little harder or wish a little stronger, we too will find that smooth path to victory. People often call them the once-in-a-lifetime dogs, the unicorns of the canine world. And while it’s inspiring to see, it can also quietly plant the idea that if our journey doesn’t look like that, then maybe we’re doing something wrong.

💪💪But the truth is, for most of us, success doesn’t arrive in a flash. It comes slowly, sometimes painfully so. It looks like muddy boots, tired evenings, and the moments when you wonder if you’ll ever get it right. It’s built on the falls, the fumbles, and the endless small adjustments that no one else sees. It’s the quiet persistence of showing up again and again, even when progress feels invisible.

❤️Every team has its rhythm, its own story unfolding at its own pace. What works for one won’t necessarily work for another, and that’s the beauty of it. The relationship you’re building, the lessons you’re learning, the resilience you’re forming together, all of it matters more than the ribbons or the titles.

❤️💚💙So take your time. Let go of comparisons. Celebrate the messy, beautiful process that belongs only to you and your dog. Success that takes time often roots itself deeper, lasts longer, and means more when it finally arrives.

11/10/2025

Congratulations to all the titled graduates in my AKC Community, and AKC Urban class.
This field trip class will return in the spring.
Great job!

11/10/2025

Sprout is a new addition to Freestyle class. She is the 1st dog to take this class with very little formal or trick training. She loves all of it .
She could not be cuter.