- Mmmm.
These are actually really good.
My favorite part of baking, is eating the dough
off the spoon before you do anything with it.
This is gonna be awesome.
(dog barks)
Morning.
It is a gorgeous day so I decided to have my breakfast
on the deck this morning.
It's nice and quiet this morning, Ken's off to fire,
get the dogs ready, shower, get everybody breakfast
and I have to head into work soon.
This afternoon is sort of a weird day for me.
My good friend Meg, who I've mentioned in the blogs before,
she is about to have a baby.
She still hasn't had it, she was due two days ago,
and she's teaching classes, or had been teaching classes,
so because we don't want her to come in anymore,
just in case, I'm covering her classes for her today.
Now, I have taught obedience classes at our family
dog training school since the age of 16, I think.
But in the last three or four years I've primarily
taught all of the agility classes,
and then done a lot of the program development
and stuff.
We just launched a brand new grade one course,
just a few months ago and I was heavily involved with that
but I haven't actually physically taught it yet
so today is gonna be really, I was gonna say cool,
but I'm actually kind of nervous about it.
So I haven't taught an obedience class in so long
it's a brand new program which I should know inside
and out but it's one thing to write it down on paper
and design it and another thing to actually physically
do it so I'm looking forward to today.
I have really excellent floor help, two really experienced
people so I think I'm gonna be good.
It's definitely a change for me, back to agility training
tonight but today's gonna be a little strange.
So I'm at work now, and I just sat down to go over
my lesson notes for the week.
Now it's a bit weird for me because I'm coming in
to teach a lesson, number eight, there's only nine weeks
in the program so I get them for the last two weeks.
Meg's taught everything up until now.
She's assured me that it's a great class
so hopefully this is gonna go really easily.
Now I helped write these, like I said before it's one thing
to write them it's another thing to teach them,
so I'm highlighting all the points to make sure
I don't forget anything and make sure they're well prepared
for next week when they graduate from the program.
(uplifting music)
Just finished all my notes for class, a lot of the stuff's
coming back to me actually.
I'm not nearly as worried about it, it's amazing
what happens when you just give yourself a little reminder
so I've just come into the grade one hall, I'm gonna
turn the lights on, make sure all the chairs are set up
back here, make sure I have everything they need for class.
But the last thing on the list is trying to figure out
where my headset is.
We speak over the microphone so that everybody
can hear us really easily.
I haven't been in here to teach for a long time
so I really don't know where I put mine,
so hopefully it's not too hard to find
otherwise I'm gonna have to borrow one.
Okay I found my microphone, it's hiding in there.
I really like lapel mics rather than the ones
that go over your head because it squishes my brains
when it's on there for too long.
So I'm gonna show you some behind the scenes stuff
that we don't normally show, might as well, right.
So, this here is the attendance book.
We keep track of attendance really closely
so that we can monitor who has taken what class
and we can make notes and that type of thing,
but then we also have a makeup sheet
so one of the cool things about our classes
is that we have so many classes running in a week
that if somebody can't come one week that they can book
into another day and time of that week.
But we like to keep track of it so that if somebody
is joining a class that maybe we don't know
we just have a better understanding of who they are,
what their dog is like and whether they've missed
a week or they're doubling up or whatever it might be.
It just helps everybody stay on board.
And then after class we always head into this room
back here, this is our meeting room
and in our meeting room we come back here
every single week to talk about different topics
like jumping up and recalls,
we have a bit of a question and answer period,
this is just sort of an intimate type of setting
where people can feel comfortable asking questions
and that type of thing but we also really like it
for the dog training aspect because it sort of simulates
a similar experience like a vet office or what not
so we also can work on the dogs learning to lay quietly
under everybody's feet and just being in a bit closer
quarters with other people, we have spaces obviously
in the corners and other areas
to take some of the pressure off some of the dogs
that aren't as comfortable with that so we try
to give the students a lot of different experiences
so that when they go out to the real world
they're feeling more prepared.
(classical music)
Okay well that was fun, I haven't done that in ages,
it went a lot better than I expected.
They started off a little bit quiet
and they sort of loosened up by the end of the class,
I don't know whether they just didn't understand
my humor or maybe they didn't think I was funny
I'm not really sure but hopefully next week
it'll be a little bit easier.
Now though I have to head home, look after the dogs
a bit, get some dinner and then be ready to come back here
for six o'clock.
I'm really excited about this week's classes
because we are going to be doing a games week,
so we are focusing on gambles and snooker
and a lot of the lower level students
have never played gamble or snooker yet
so we get to go over some of the rules
and teach them how to play
and they get to try for the first time
which is always fun because it blows their mind
at first and then by the end of the class
they are kind of excited about the game,
and then of course the more advanced classes
who have played a bit more, we always have fun
by throwing a tooney on the line,
or something just to make it a bit more competitive
so that people sort of razz each other
a little bit more so I'm looking forward to tonight
it's gonna be fun.
(classical music)
(rain)
I just got home from work and it is now rainy
and gross and wet outside so I don't think
I'm gonna take the dogs for a run,
I might just train them after classes.
So I have a few hours off so I think what I'm gonna do
is make some energy balls.
There's this recipe that Angela shared with me
so I've got all the ingredients the other day
and they're like the perfect snack
and they're really good for you.
So I'm gonna whip those up apparently they are not
very difficult to make which is good
because I am not much of a chef
and I am going to spare you
from watching me videotape myself make them
since I don't really think that's that interesting.
We all know Ken does, so sorry Ken.
However, if they do turn out to be delicious
I would be more than happy to share that with you
and I'll even share the recipe so you can try making them
yourself as well.
They look really easy so hopefully I don't screw this up.
Does this look delicious or what.
Not really.
(fun music)
Man, those few hours off really go by quickly.
Sadly, my balls weren't done, I couldn't try them.
I had to leave them in the freezer.
That sounds really wrong but I'm looking forward
to having them as a snack when I get home.
Now I have my dinner, the top is not the dinner,
that's B's treats for class, and I have to get to the hall
because I have class with B and then snooker
and gamble classes tonight which I'm really excited
about so I've got to go.
(fun music)
Sit, yes wait.
Wait.
Yes, good girl, wait.
Okay.
Lie down, lie down, yes.
Good.
(fun music)
So everybody's walking their snooker course,
they are coming up with their strategy,
I get to be the judge with my sparkly purple whistle.
They don't want to hear this sound because that means
that they are eliminated and they have to leave the course.
So we'll see what type of courses and strategies
that they've come up with and see if they can execute,
I'm excited.
(fun music)
The arena is dark, all locked up, we did our training,
we did our talking, I'm exhausted, it's been a long night.
I am now starving and I cannot wait to go home
and try one of those balls I made, I really hope
they are delicious.
Okay, the dogs have been out for the last time tonight,
there are a few dogs that insist on chewing their bones
in the kitchen as loud as they possibly can
but whatever, better than getting into trouble
and now I have the balls from the freezer.
Let's see if these things are any good.
Yep.
These are delicious, just as I suspected.
I don't know how these possibly could be healthy for you.
Now, as I eat this, I'm thinking to myself,
how am I going to hide these from Ken.
Anytime I have anything that's like, remotely yummy
in this house, he wants to eat it all,
so I have to like, hide it all over so that he can't
get his hands on it.
And I would be a total liar if I said
that I didn't sometimes use baking and delicious food
to get what I want, because basically if you want
Ken to do something for you or you want
to win his heart over, bake him a delicious treat.
It works every single time.
I'm starting to think it might work on me too.
I don't even want to speak.
They are really delicious.
Now, you may have noticed in previous episodes
that we often like to sing the word goodnight.
It's something that I don't even remember where it started,
it started as this inside joke among Ken and I
and my family especially, I think it might have started
with my sister and then now with our friends.
I don't know why we think it's so funny but we all do it,
one person starts, we try to sing as terribly as possible
and then everybody else follows and tries to harmonize
and it just, I don't know, I guess it just makes us laugh,
so, with that, I sing you goodnight.
(sings)
(fun music)