Being an IPO Newbie – Part 13 – Myths and Misconceptions

Welcome back, Newbies! It's been awhile, but as a relative newbie myself, I sometimes run out of relevant information to impart... Today, though, I wanted to address common myths and misconceptions that newbies might have about IPO. This will be far from an exhaustive list (honestly, this could probably become its own series), but I'll …

Newbie’s Perspective – We Need to Talk…

I spend a lot of time online. I'm a Millennial (whatever that means) - I basically live online. I socialize online. I get my news online. I even work online. And if I'm online, chances are, I'm also on Facebook. See where this is going, yet? Of course you do, you smart cookie, you. Now …

Being an IPO Newbie – Part 11 – Choosing Your First Trial

Welcome back, newbies! No more snark this week - instead we're going to talk about how to go about selecting your first trial. Now, if your club hosts trials, of course you're going to want to trial at home for your first time. The ability to do so gives you a HUGE advantage over traveling …

Being an IPO Newbie – Part Ten – Things You’re Doing to Annoy Everyone

Happy Tuesday, Newbies! Today I want to take a break from the serious and talk about all of the annoying shit that you are probably doing that is driving everyone around you up a wall. All in good fun, of course, but really though - stop doing these things. To be clear, I, too, am …

Being an IPO Newbie – Part Nine – The BH! – (Relatively out of date as of Jan. 2019)

***As of January 2019, the BH has changed quite a bit. I have a dog prepping for a BH for Fall of 2019, so I will hopefully write an updated post soon. Just please be aware of the changes!!!*** In today's post I am going to cover the IPO Newbie Mount Everest - the BH. …

Being an IPO Newbie – Part Eight – Spectating at Your First Trial

Okay Newbies, last week we covered scorebooks, which I hope was at least somewhat useful and didn't give you too much of a headache. Today I want to cover the dos and don'ts for spectating at a trial. First thing - yes, you really should try to spectate at a trial before you actually enter …

Being an IPO Newbie – Part Seven – The Great Scorebook Mystery – UPDATED

Welcome back, Newbies! In part seven of our series, I am going to be covering the very confusing world of IPO scorebooks and trial venues. To be honest, all of the acronyms and different organizations still kind of make my head spin, but I'm going to do my best here. If I've left an organization …

Being an IPO Newbie – Part Six – Let’s Talk About Time

I get hassled quite a lot for the amount of time I spend training my dog, mostly by new people just starting to explore the sport of IPO. Sometimes it's good-natured, sometimes it isn't. But for some reason, whenever people see Brody and I work, the subject of "time" always comes up. So, for Part …

Being an IPO Newbie – Part Five – Advocating For Your Dog

Today I wanted to take a step away from the choosing of dogs and talk about something that I think is really hard for newbies to the sport, but that is so important to keep in mind. We get into this sport for the love of our dogs, and it is important to remember that …

Being an IPO Newbie – Part 4 – Choosing a Breeder

Welcome back ladies and gents! This is Part 4 in my IPO Newbie series, in which I will be discussing the gargantuan task that is Finding the Right Breeder Parts 1 - 3 of the series can be found: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 *** Finding the Right Breeder First, a couple of disclaimers... …