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 …

Sunday Internet Regrets

So this morning, I was browsing Reddit (I know, for my own sanity, I should really stop), and I came across this: “It’s fine to crate a puppy for 20 hours a day. They’re den animals.” And I just... Which reminded me of the time that I joined a bunch of Malinois dedicated groups on …

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 …

Sunday Recap – Stupid Pet Tricks and Snowy Misadventures

Good morning y'all - I know, I know, I'm late with the recap! It was an interesting week with some bigs ups and some big downs. We started out on Monday with group obedience. Shelby's classes are drop-in, which means that people can come on whatever days work for them, and skip whatever days don't. …

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 – (Relatively out of date as of Jan. 2019)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 …

Weekly Recap – White Girls Can’t Throw

Happy Sunday, y'all! I know I haven't been the greatest with the training updates, so I'm planning to make this a weekly feature to hopefully get a little better about it. This week was a little hectic. Club training yesterday was absolutely inundated with newbies. That's cool and all, but holy hell y'all, they obviously …

All I Want For Christmas is a Tired Malinois!

For those that don't know, I live in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, and last year, we had a record year for snowfall. I love snow. Adore it. But it was an absolutely absurd amount of snow. As you can imagine, this presented some problems for those of us with high-energy dogs in …