APDT Conference 2018

Last week I spent my time in Memphis, TN for the 2018 APDT educational conference. Our conversations and workshops included:

  • Aggressive dogs – safety to effective treatment
  • Enrichment of all dogs – puppies, puzzles, cognitive games, word discrimination (can your dog be Chaser?), and imitating humans (always something new)
  • Even IT security – who knew?
  • Shelter dog training – stress, testing, music to calm, games, and my favorite, ‘…it’s not about a walk, it’s about enrichment and training…’
  • ‘Where does your dog sleep?’ study – Answer – with their humans – maybe not in the bed, but the same room offers the most stable non destructive and lower stressed dog – I knew that 😉
  • And much more I didn’t see
    Lori, Lisa, and Linda – Beal Street, Memphis, TN

    With all that information spinning in our heads – we had to get out and have a little fun eating ribs and listening to the blues.

Pictures of your dog are a dime a dozen, but portraits are special.

Mary Schreiber, a local artist and Three Dogs Training student, does wonderful pet portraits. Here’s a sample of her work!

Diesel-BannerOvernight it seems as if everyone’s got a camera on them at all times.

I’ve got one in my iPhone, one in my iPad – and just about everyone else is in the same boat.

The ability to easily take photos has led – at least in our house – to having thousands and thousands of pictures or movies of our dogs, but it easy to mistake volume for quality. Good ones are taken mostly by chance or lost amidst the mediocre.

There are times when you want something truly special that by its nature speaks volumes on your feelings about your dog while it captures the pure essence of your dog. Maybe I’m just showing my artistic background here but to me that means a portrait.

For me, the human hand captures a quintessential element that pixels and Instagram just can’t hope to match.

Mary Schreiber, is a local artist offering pet portraiture. Here’s a sample of some of her work:

 

I have seen Mary’s work in person and it is quite lovely and soulful.  I suspect her love of animals is embedded in the work and if you enjoy the work here, please feel free to contact her:

Mary Schreiber
Email: mschreiber59@gmail.com
Phone: 914-548-5388

Here are her submission guidelines:

  • You supply the photographs, and the more photos, the better (within limits). Photos are best when taken in natural light without a flash.
  • Initial payment is 50% of the commission price when work begins. You pay the final 50% when the work is complete.
  • Guarantee: if you are not happy with the piece Mary will gladly keep the art and return your down payment.

Portraits are rendered with Prismacolor ® colored pencils on high quality acid-free paper.

Her pricing schedule is as follows:

$75.00 – 8” X 10” head and shoulders
$100.00 – 8” X 10” full animal
$125.00 – 11” X 14” full animal

Her prices do not include matting or framing. Please contact her for price quotes on other sizes.

 

Did you know Three Dogs is on Yelp?

Do you use Yelp and like to write reviews? How about giving your favorite positive reinforcement dog trainer some kind words?

If you’ve never seen or heard of Yelp, it’s a really nifty site that allows users to review everything from restaurants, stores, and even your favorite positive reinforcement dog trainer. In places – like Putnam County – where traditional review outlets like Zagat’s don’t pay close attention we’ve found it to be really useful.

In fact, we tried to get a listing in Zagat’s, but when they asked what we served they seemed turned off when we said “Zuke’s, Pupparoni’s, dried chicken bits, peanut butter, and dessicated salmon all mixed up in a leather bag.”

Here’s a link to the Three Dogs Training page on Yelp – or you can just use the nifty little Yelp icon that Lawrence put in the upper right-hand corner.

If you use Yelp, we certainly wouldn’t turn our noses up at your giving us some kind words!  Positive reinforcement works on trainers, too!

 

Happy Holidays from Three Dogs Training!

From our family to yours, we wish you and all your furry little friends a happy and safe holiday season!

From our family to yours, we wish you and all your furry little friends a happy and safe holiday season!

All our holiday thanks from Lisa, Lawrence, Boo, Porthos, Pinball, and Freya too– our honorary dog in cat’s clothing.

It’s hip to be Square

Three Dogs Training has moved to using Square card readers to accept credit card charges in the field.

While it’s understandable that you’d think I was tipping my hat to Huey Lewis and the News, I’m actually going to talk about something slightly cooler than 80s retro music: behind the scenes, Three Dogs has been busy migrating to Apple from Windows.

There have been some growing pains – mostly for Lawrence – but the upsides to moving over were just too numerous to ignore.

The iPad and iPhone, for instance, really are as amazing as advertised and don’t get me started on how great (and sometimes hilarious) Dragon Dictate is.

While many of the benefits are out of public view, one that we’re really excited about is that I’m now able to swipe credit cards thanks to the Square reader. By using the reader I’m now able to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover anywhere I go.

More and more it’s becoming clear that we’re sprinting toward a cashless society, and the level of convenience Square offers is just too great for my clients not to take advantage of it.