I met an icon!!

It's taken me a while to write this post, I'm still processing everything I saw and learned almost two weeks ago in a one day seminar by Sue Sternberg. If you are unfamiliar with her you should definitely check out her link! She has been an outspoken advocate for better quality of life conditions for the country's shelter dogs and has been a controversial figure at times because of it. She believes greatly in the quality of a dogs life versus quantity and it has at times pitted her against the "No Kill" movement. Regardless of the controversy she is a gifted trainer, great speaker and has developed some wonderful tools for shelters all over to implement into their programs.

The seminar we attended was the last day of a 3 day seminar and it focused on body language, evaluations and dog/dog interactions. It was eye-opening to say the least in discovering little nuances a dog may provide that would otherwise go unnoticed; the difference between a side nose lick or a front nose lick, a partial freeze and a total freeze, a play bow with an edge versus one with a soft body…I could go on and on, it was amazing! We saw all these things on live dogs and got to experience the evaluation right along with her. We saw some jaw dropping things and some common things we may dismiss that should not be dismissed.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the conference, she is a wonderful speaker and for me the best part was holding her dog while assisting her in a dog/dog introduction. An experience I won't soon forget! I will see her whole seminar again someday and I hope this is the first of many seminars, by other amazing icons, to come! I am dying to see Patricia McConnell!!

Here is a picture of Sue and I ( I totally geeked out and had her sign my book and pose with me, I get a little weird around people I find important!)

Thanks for visiting!!