Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Treading water, Isnt this supposed to be Spring break?

I had big plans to get out there and get some video to post of just a few tips that have worked magic for us to get more play in or training. UNFORTUNATELY life has had other plans for me this last week, and I am feeling a bit overwelmed right now, so hopefully soon I will get caught up with everything else and I can get on that little assignment I had set for myself.

It is Spring break for the schools here and since my husband is a teacher,...everyone has been home this week. what a time for our very old, HUGE, TV that had developed an hourglass shaped picture with wavy edges finally died. Can you believe my husband and kids were not complaining about a picture like that and really did not want a new TV? Go figure! ANYWAY, the TV did DIE and I had to replace it. I have no cue how old the old TV was-but it was really old and really heavy and HUGE. Going to shop for a new TV was like going into a new country, it is so hard to get up to speed with what is going on with TVs now days-and I felt totally lost trying to compare and make a good choice-but we did get an awesome new TV, that actually cost way less then I thought we would have to pay. How often can anyone say that?

Next the new Susan Garrett recallers course started. I do think it is going to be fun because the dogs and I really worked the last one and have incorporated a lot of the exercises into daily life, and this time I think we can work on more difficult levels of the games. It is still the type of course where you need to keep up to really get the most out of it...so I feel a big pressure to get going-we started last weekend.

What do I think of the new Susan Garrett course? This is HUGELY PREMATURE...This is only my opinion....and I may be eating crow as time goes on but I really feel like the new ecourse so far has sort of taken a lot of the magic out of what was in the first course. Have to say so far I am a bit disappointted in the delivery of the info, although the info itself is still pretty terrific.

There is a new web site that is S L I C K! It is very professional looking, and set up to be like a social networking site and a whole world. You go into the web site and there is your dashboard and from there.....well,not sure where you go.

The problem for me is that it seems very difficult to figure out what is posted and where and you would have to sit for hours and hours and wade through pages and pages of posts saying things like "I am so excited" and "hey where are you guys from" to try to find relevant questions. IN the old site you went to her web site every morning and the daily exercise was right there along with the video showing you what to do and all relevant questions, comments and clarifications were right there on that page. To me it seems to take a lot more time to figure out what you are supposed to do then doing all the training. You can pop in and just get the info but the shame is then you miss out on the little details that you get when you can more easily see all the comments related to what you are training-but who has hours to pour through a web site like that every day?

The worst part of the changes is that to me it seems to have taken away the warm, comfy, we are all part of a big group feeling. I think they are trying to foster that by letting you follow certain people on the website, sort of like a social networking page, it seems to foster a lot of conversation that is not necessarily related to the course. I really don't have the time to wade through tons of social conversations to find peoples questions about what we are doing and the answers that I know fit with what the course is trying to teach. It is a shame because the information is really great and maybe I will find my way around it and come to like it, but not a big fan so far.

So I freely admit I am not a big fan of change so hopefully as time goes on and I figure this whole thing out I will feel silly for making these comments, but for today I am very disappointed because it just feels like another job to try to even shift through way too much useless info to find the relevant information. I just want to get in there have all that I need in one place, get in and get out and spend my time training and if I want to do more social networking then I could go to a site aimed at that.

At the same time the Sylvia Trkman puppy ecourse started....so far, first week it is mostly stuff we have sort of worked on except one exercise which will be a HUGE challenge, but it will be good to get it all more polished up. Day three and so far we are having a lot of fun.

Three dogs, two courses, trying to keep working on the weaves and contacts with
Cricket and get a little handling work with her in....spring break with everyone home....of course, normal life keeps marching on...so I am feeling a bit overwhelmed getting started. Hopefully in the next few days we will get our routine down and it will not be a big deal.

Today I feel like I am treading water and trying to make sure I don't fall way behind-and at the same time this is supposed to be fun and it is important to keep balance in life, soooooo..........
THE GOAL FOR THIS WEEK IS: Keep things short and sweet, I am trying to make sure to have everything ready before we train, have everything planned in my mind and do really, really short, sweet sessions. I do think that my training skills will be improved by having to learn to work more efficiently and keeping the time spent much shorter.

6 comments:

Chris and Ricky said...

Gosh I just don't know how you do all the things that you do and so well too! Give yourself a little mini-break to help with feeling overwhelmed and then maybe you'll be refreshed enough to start again? I so admire all the training you do with your dogs on top of being a great mom and wife! Hang in there and I will enjoy hearing all about your two ecourses and your tugging tutorials!

Diana said...

I signed up for the Recallers class to. I havent logged on for today yet. Am I behind already???? LOL I do think you should share you opinion with SG because she should know. Not everything new is great. I agree with you about having to wade thur a lot of people just talking about nothing. Irritating. I hope she puts as much into the class has she has done with advertising.

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

No I dont think we are behind, just working on the core games-but how exciting, I will have to find you Diana so I can be your follower!!! LOL

Morganne said...

Wow! I'm impressed. Where do you find the time! I would love to hear more about the delivery of the Sylvia course.

Sagira said...

So jealous of all the teachers at spring break and during the summer. That must be a very rewarding job. I agree with Ricky...give yourself a little break as well. Short and sweet is good. :)

Kiyi Kiyi said...

I know this is an old post, but I just started the Recallers 3.0 and I TOTALLY agree that the web site is a PAIN. I don't even want to log on, because the amount of info is SO overwhelming. :( But we are having great results, so I just skip quickly past all the comments to the games. :)