Goals and Resolutions Review

Dog Blog Post #187: Well, today's the last day of the year, making it time to look back and see how we did.

(As mentioned the other day, my very first post in this blog were my Goals and Resolutions for 2010, and that is what I will be referencing here. My comments are in square [] brackets.)


Goals

Zachary: My main goal was to find "...ways to enrich his life and give me excuses to spend 'quality time' with him":

• AKC's Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Certificate [DONE]
• AKC Rally Novice (RN) - enter a match (if I can find one!) by the end of year [I had planned to try the local show in October but the fates conspired against us]
• Sue Ailsby's Training Levels [these are Old Training Levels]
• Finish Level 3 (which includes Level 1 On The Road) [DONE]
• Finish Level 4 (which includes Level 2 On the Road) - [Mostly Done, minus On The Road]
• Finish Level 5, but probably NOT Level 3 On the Road [Tested just a few]

I suppose my goals for Beau are immaterial at this point, but the Big Dog did me proud by completing level 3 and most of level 4. He even managed to do Level 1 On the Road (a big accomplishment given his acute Obsessive Compulsive Friendliness Disorder!)

My Resolutions

1. 10-15 minutes working toward their goals, per dog, five times a week [Oh the whole, I actually managed to do this! There were good weeks and bad, but I'm going to call it ACCOMPLISHED.]
2. Report back here once a week. A scale isn't any good if you don't step on it. [I was doing great until we lost Beau, which definitely derailed my training rut. Things are pretty much back to normal now.]
3. Video progress whenever possible. Like that afore mentioned scale, the camera doesn't lie. [I think this one gets a Gold Star. I have videoed EVERYTHING I could for Training Levels so far, and plan on keeping it up!]

The Dogs Resolutions

1. Go someplace "special" once a month.  (special to the dogs, that is) [Hmmm... need to try harder on this one]
2. Do something "extra fun" once a week.  (see above) [See above]
3. Learn a new trick every month.  (tricks = treats, need I say more?) [Assuming a broad definition of tricks, and averaged over the year, I'm pretty sure I did this!]
4. Play fetch EVERY day.  (Zachary insisted I add this one. He already gets it every day when the lawn isn't a mud pit and the weather doesn't have "watch" or "warning" attached to it, but he wanted it writing just to be sure.) [Ok... not EVERY day - the lawn couldn't handle it - but we play SOME game EVERY day]
5. Go to the pet store once a week. (this one is from Beau, who has quite the fan club there) [More like once every other week, or so.]

And there you have it. 

Stay tuned for our plans for 2011!