I've been training since my wife and I got Molly, our first Australian shepherd, in 1999. We really didn't intend to do obedience, but Molly has always had a mind of her own and she manages to get things to revolve around her. That's why we call her "the princess".

From the start Molly had too much spirit and smarts not keep training. Once she made it clear that I was her trainer (we had originally gotten her for my wife) I started to get really interested in the process of training dogs. I read as much as I could find about training and how dogs learn, from Koehler and Woodhouse to Jean Donaldson.

I enjoyed that reading and absorbed quite a bit of the theory quickly. Unfortunately, like the man said, "In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice they're different."

In practice I benefited from the teaching of June and Rich Mintchell of RiJu Dawg Skool, who instructed and corrected both Molly and me (actually mostly me). I made loads of mistakes which June graciously pointed out to me in her inimitable style, but we actually made good progress for a first time trainer with a hard headed too-smart-for-her-own-good dog.

We had stay problems when we started Novice, which meant our share of flunks, but buy the time we finished Novice A we had 5 first or second place ribbons, with all but a couple of scores in the 190's. It took a year for Molly to get a CD, but along the way we learned a lot.

Now we are getting ready to start Open and there are new lessons, new worries, new mistakes.

So what do I know about training dogs? Way more than when I started but far less than I want to. So it goes.

More later, Vern