3 bits of good news

1) After several weeks of building up to swimming 51 laps (102 lengths) at the Marietta YMCA, and thinking that a mile was 44-45 laps, I discovered that a mile is actually 35 laps. So I’ve been swimming 1.5 miles in 75 minutes, on 3 occasions this week. According to YMCA stats, this pace means I’m burning about 1,000 calories each time. No wonder I’m coming home hungry!

2) A young woman visited the shelter last week with a friend. She was interested in volunteering, working with dogs and cats, and spending time helping. I gave her each of my shelter “2 minute dog trainer” brochures. While this young woman was in the dog room her friend told me the young woman is bipolar and suffers from anger and frustration issues. Today I watched this same girl working very nicely with animals. She told me she’d been at the shelter five times this week to work with the animals. She also said she’d read all my brochures and, in just 4 days, had taught her own dog to sit, lie down, shake hands, and walk on lead. “Now I’m going to start training my Mom’s dog!”

3) The HSOV shelter has reinstated their mandatory spay/neuter policy! The new board president, the new executive director, and the new shelter manager are all on board. Every dog or cat over 5-6 months gets spayed or neutered, then returned to the shelter for pick-up. This removes the opportunity for the veterinarian to influence the adopter to hold off on the surgery. Any pet under 5 months being adopted prompts a phone call to the adopter’s vet to set up an appointment for spay/neuter. These surgeries are being verified by phone call. I believe they’re also still doing the spay/neuter certificate with a discount, though I shared that the consensus is that our $20 certificates need to be bumped up to $100+ in order to have some “teeth.”

Tomorrow I’m driving to McConnellsville (about 30 minutes northwest of here) to do a trick-training workshop in preparation for the Canine Follies planned by Anne Deliman, a former student of ours and a groomer in Morgan County.

She’s been frustrated at the lack of interest in this event. She’s excited about the Morgan County Opera House’s hosting of Canine Follies in 3 weeks (late April). And she thought folks would be thrilled to be offered training workshops. Yeah, well, I guess it’s a tough economy for follies.

Tags: basic dog obedience, Bud Houston, dog performance sports, Marsha Houston, Shelter dogs