I am so excited.
No, not because after two weeks of coughing I have stomach muscles that would be envied by a Navy Seal.
I’m excited to see how people took up the training challenge to learning something new with their animal friends and to build their relationships.
Challenge Champions
You can read each of the challenge stories. I know they’ll inspire you as much as they did me.
- Elka learned how to walk gently down the icy stairs to keep from killing her person, Jen.
- Over at Pit Bulls and Patience, you’ll see some great off-leash training.
- Amy and Rod at the Take Paws Blog now know why Buster gets so excited when he sees other dogs on leash and are working to calm him down.
- Kolchak the puggle has trained his Mama to set up K9 Nose Work games.
- Our friends at 24 Paws of Love started out training a recalcitrant cat and discovered a new friend.
- The dogs at Silverwalk Hounds Sanctuary have gotten training throughout the day and extra walks as part of their challenge.
- Thanks to some hard work, Frankie and Beryl of Greyhounds Can Sit are safely entering and exiting their new adventure mobile.
- The always-ambitious Kristine of Rescued Insanity has video evidence that a tornado on a leash and a fussy kitty can do tricks together in the same room. Impressive!
- You’ll also see some great video at Married With Dawgs showing the unique styles of “backing up” as demonstrated by Sadie, Maggie, and Hurley.
- Visiting dog Saydee learned that calm behavior gets rewarded with a fun game of fetch over at the .
- Jasper at No Dog About It Learned how to put his front paws up on a surface. And the blog readers made suggestions about what other tricks this behavior could be linked to.
- Bunny and her Mom of Tales and Tails are again participating in the IditaWalk. There is no better way to bond with a dog than by taking her for a walk.
- And over at Facebook, Christy shared her progress in teaching her dog Dixie not to enter into every conversation.
Everyone did a great job and I’m so glad you took up the challenge. You’ve inspired me to work harder with my Honey.
And the Winner Is…
Although the challenge itself wasn’t a competition, I did choose one participant at random to win a $50 donation to their favorite animal charity. Amy Burkert of Go Pet Friendly came up in the random number generator.
I haven’t yet heard from Amy where she wants her donation to go but I’ll announce it as soon as I know.
Same Time Next Year?
Although it’s hard to fit one more thing into an already-busy schedule, all the challenge participants seemed to find the training worth the time.
What do you think? Should this be an annual event?
I think it should definitely be an annual event! I might be saying that because I am still laughing about Kristine’s video with the cat this morning, but I thought it was a lot of fun and a great motivator. January is such a slow month anyway, it’s fun to have things to look forward to during the month!
Wow!! Thank you so much, Pamela. I’d like the donation to go to the Minnesota Sheltie Rescue – they did so much to help our friend Mel find her lost foster pup and bring Lady home safe. I’d like this donation to recognize them for their amazing efforts. http://www.mnsheltierescue.org/
Thanks again!
This was tons of fun! Count me in for next year. Hopefully my record will improve…1 out of 3’s not really that great although the prancing and hopping that Sadie & Maggie did all month long was fun to watch!
Congratulations to Amy! And thanks again for working so hard and putting all of this together! I hope it wasn’t part of what made you ill. 😉
As Roberta proved, training is a lot of fun and can be so easy to fit in when you make it part of your daily routine. Even just a few minutes here and there – a moment while on a walk, or while you are waiting for the pot to boil on the stove – can make such a huge difference.
I definitely vote to do it all again next year!
Awesome, Amy! Congrats!
Same bat time, same bat channel, next year! This was a lot of fun, and I love reading everybody’s stories.
Absolutely next year and the year after that! Such fun and following the rest who took up your challenge in unique ways – I need to set some time aside to simply visit everyone!
Congrats, Amy and MN Sheltie Rescue (in my home state!).
Congrats to Amy!
I’m so in next year… and I promise I’ll actually get a post up in time next go round! 🙂
Yay! Congrats Amy 🙂 It was really fun to see what everyone did – I can’t wait for next year!!
The Husband throws in His Two Cents:
I think it’s great that the Something Wagging Train Your Dog Challenge has inspired so many to mobilize around the common interest we all feel in improving our relationships with our pets. I just have one lingering question.
CAN ANYONE OUT THERE TELL ME HOW TO GET OUR expletive-deleted DOG INTO OUR expletive-deleted DOGGY RIDE?
🙂
Yes, we will definitely participate next year! Congrats to all those who made progress with their pooches!!
I really enjoyed the challenge and would love to do it again! Considering I’m kind of all over with training 6 dogs and this really helped me to center in with my issues with him. I really it was all being at the right place at the right time.
I really hope you are feeling better. This was a great idea! Thanks again.
(Even though I don’t know what in the hell a RECALCITRANT cat is, it sure sounds like Boxer!!) BOL!! Where’s my Webster???
Thank you so much for hosting! We had a lot of fun and I’m really glad Koly & I found this new way to bond. We’re closer than ever. I would absolutely do it again next year.
Congratulations to Amy and to Minnesota Sheltie Rescue:) Yes, lets make it an annual event:) I need something to keep me motivated …. actually let’s make it a monthly event! Just kidding;) Glad you’re improving, Pamela. There’s nothing to recommend being crook. Thanks for all the work you did putting on the Challenge. I think it’s been a resounding success:)
Congrats to all, I will be checking things out to see how everyone trained. Delilah and I worked on her jumping up and putting her front paws on my hips and learning how to walk with her head between my legs! LOL
But I really want to see how people are training so these links are great. Thanks for hosting Pamela, I think you should make it an annual event.
Oh Pamela – I am so glad you are feeling better. Both Mary H and I had the crud and we sympathize with what you went through. Hope you are feeling totally fine by this weekend.
It’s really exciting to read about all the different people’s work on training their dogs. I am so grateful so many offered great ideas for mine (we’re working on pray first) and we’ll be stealing some ideas from others too!
Thanks for hosting a fun event.
Take care of yourself.
Mel
Oh Wow! I just saw Amy’s response! Thank you Amy!!!!
Thank you for letting me know how to get abs. I wonder if it may be more effective than doing 500 situps every day. Hope you’re feeling heaps better now x
Congrats! We should definitely do it again!
Awesome! Congrats to everybody for being a winner!