Archives for July 2010

I’ve had very mixed results in my attempts at independent distance learning over the years. Most of those attempts were independent study projects, some for school and some not, and those were the ones that didn’t go very well. I’m not disciplined enough nor organized enough to keep things moving on a realistic schedule. I have a tendency to push things off until there is major deadline pressure, and then the results aren’t of the highest quality. I need to find something to motivate me that doesn’t involve being under the gun, but I’ve had this problem for so long I think a physical reaction to the adrenaline rush might be involved. Sort of like my caffeine headaches. Yeah, I know I should cut back on caffeine, too.

I’m giving distance learning another shot, though. I’ve enrolled in Susan Garrett’s online course “The Five Minute Formula to a Brilliant Recall.” During the years that I was a listowner and forum moderator for dog-related discussion venues, I probably made hundreds of posts saying something like “you cannot train a dog over the internet.” While I still believe that there are many training situations and behavior problems where you need to see the dog and owner in person to be of real help, I now believe that there are other training situations where the internet can help a great deal. I am about to find out if this is one of them.

Many of us use books and videos as part of our dog training education, and I can already see one benefit of an online course over books and videos: interaction with the course giver. Although this course doesn’t officially start until August 1, there have been a few “bonus” lessons to start us off. Participants can post questions in response to each lesson, and Ms. Garrett and other trainers on her staff will answer, and other course participants can share their thoughts as well. So far, questions from other participants and the trainers’ and other participants’ answers have been very helpful to me. In fact, I have not posted my own questions yet, as someone had already asked them by the time I got there!

I’m looking forward to completing this course. I will consider it successful even if I don’t get perfect recalls from both dogs, as long as they both show progress and improvement from where they are now.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 29 of 31)