Connie Swaim's Page

I have a new foster dog – Chippers. He is so much different than the last few fosters I’ve had that I am forced to examine myself and see myself for what I really am – a dog snob.

I’ve fostered a few dogs that were just, well, dogs. They were perfectly great dogs, don’t get me wrong, but for me, they just didn’t have that spark. I want my dogs to be fun, have tremendous play drive, be bold and intelligent. I want dogs that ask, “what are we going to do next?” rather than one happy to lay on the… Continue

The more I work with Condor, the sadder I become that I have discovered the joys of dog training so late in life. I wish I was in my 20s or 30s. It isn’t that 48 is ancient, but I figure I won’t really have too many dogs of my own left if they all live to a normal age (and if I live to a normal age).

Although, I probably agonize too much to ever be an effective dog trainer. Condor is like a blank canvas and I worry constantly that I will put a brush stroke on the canvas and step back and find o… Continue

Lexie, my foster dog, died this week.

While there could be much debate as to why she died, I think it was because she just didn’t fit into our world.

I went to a two-day seminar conducted by Jean Donaldson recently. She said that if you think about it, we humans ask dogs to fit into our world even though almost everything a dog does naturally is something humans in general don’t like: barking, urinating and defecating to mark, growling to show unhappiness, snapping, digging, jumping up, etc.… Continue

“I love this dog,” the woman said of the shelter dog who was standing up in order to better lick her hand and gaze at her with hopeful eyes.

“She’s a great little dog,” I replied, hopeful that an animal was about to find its forever home. “You can take her out and play with her.”

“I just can’t get her. It’s that pit bull thing,” the woman replied.

“What pit bull thing?” I asked flabbergasted as the woman obviously adored the little dog, which looked more like a Jack Russell or maybe some kind… Continue

Training can be so agonizing. I worked with Batman off the training field to try and get him less nervous. Ever since we started working with the gun fire, Batman has been very shy about heeling. So, I wanted to work on heeling in a place where there had never been gun fire. While everyone else was doing tracking this morning, I worked on heeling and the dumbbell retrieve. I also did some heeling through a group of people.

It didn't go too bad. I was encouraged. Batman seemed happy.

Hours late… Continue