Under Construction…

I am currently in the process of switching to a self-hosting site with blue post. I am transitioning the domain name however I can’t transfer it for another 13 days. So you will soon see a new look to blog and hopefully more activity.

We will be auditing a seminar I I Rockford, IL this weekend with Finland trainer Tommi Vanhala for IPO work. We will also be handing Tia over to her breeder who will be training and watching her for the next 6-8 weeks while I recover from surgery.

I will be having my second knee replacement on Monday. I will have a lot of down time but plan to use this time to focus on blogging and taking more online courses in training methods. The learning continues!

Don’t worry I have the whole second half of the year planned with trials and shows. So when I heal up I will be ready to tackle some titles with Tia and Capone.

$$$

Money Money Money!

Dog training and trialing  isnt a cheap sport by any means and its definitely something you want to consider if thinking about training and trialing your dogs in any venue wither its AKC or IPO….its EXPENSIVE. And we have two dogs going through it. Below I will bust out our costs for our training and trials.

IPO Training Club Membership- $600 per year

United Schutzhund Club of America Membership- $150 per year

United States Boxer Association Membership- $65 per year

Greater Louisville Training Club Membership(AKC) – $30 per year

Bluegrass Boxer Club Membership (local AKC Breed Club)- $15 per year

 

AKC Obedience Classes- $65 per every 4 weeks per dog

AKC Rally Classes- $85 per every 6 weeks per dog

 

AKC Entry Fee for Obedience or Rally- anywhere from $25-$29 per entry

IPO Trial Entry Fee- Anywhere from $70-80 per entry depending on which title you are trialing for.

Now let that sink in. This doesn’t cover seminars, hotel and travel expenses because of course there are never any local trials to go to. Greater Louisville Training Club puts on a lot of AKC Obedience and AKC Rally trials so its always a blessing to not have to travel for them.

Equipment costs. You will definitely need certain equipment. Training Collars, Crates, crate pads, Leashes, Harnesses, Treats, Supplements, and lastly unexpected vet bills for injuries or sickness. Plus the regular heartworm and flea protection, food, and regular annual vet visits. This is so crazy isn’t it? who would spend so much on their dog?

Well we dont see it that way, Tia and Capone are our little athletes and this cost is pretty much the equivalent of having kids that are in sports activities. We don’t have kids. So technically they are our kids, except we can’t claim them on our taxes..although we should be able to, lol. I write this post just to remind people that the cost of dog sports is high. Not only does this sport take dedication but it also takes sacrifice. I may be eating off the $1 menu for a few days in order to save and go to trial or take a seminar. We try to save as much as possible and its been helpful having friends who’ve done this sport for years and have found ways to save money. Like rooming with someone at an out of town show that way you split you hotel costs and there’s other things as well.

So happy training and trialing if you choose to go down that route. I wouldn’t change a thing, I love the bond and relationship I have with my dogs. We have a lot of fun!

 

Working out your schedule!

“If training is important to you, you will make time. If its not you’ll make excuses”

One of my favorite quotes. Most of me and Dan’s life scheduling revolves around our four boxers schedules. To us, its just like having children. LOL. We had that schedule interrupted in November when I had to go through knee replacement surgery. I am still doing physical therapy for my knee but I am also putting the pieces of my schedule back together for short term. Because April 23, 2018 I have to get my left knee replaced so business will be on hiatus again for a few weeks. I could look at this is as a major set back because it’s causing me to miss some events that I normally attend like American Boxer Club Nationals, Working Dog Championships (was going to observe and cheer on my Breeder Minna as she is the only Boxer entered to compete, so proud of her!), and I will miss a USA Box Conformation show that will be in Chicago in May. However I am trying to be positive about the situation, my knee will be better in the long run and we can hit up all the Fall shows. USA Box Sieger Show will be in September and there will be other AKC trials that I can get both Tia and Capone in. By Fall I should be good to go.

So from now until April 23rd, I am doing as much as I can training wise with both Tia and Capone. We are going to try to make every week for club training. Tia is doing an AKC Beginner Novice class for the next four weeks and will be taking an AKC Canine Good Citizen Class so she can hopefully get that title before I have surgery. Next week is my last week of doing Physical Therapy for my right knee and I will be doing some PreHab on my left knee to get it ready for surgery.

I am not taking new clients for training purposes and probably wont until the beginning or mid summer. It really depends on the healing process of my left knee. If it goes as smoothly as my right knee did then maybe about 10 weeks I’ll be ready to open back up for business.

Fitting training in a normal work schedule is tough. But like the quote at the beginning of this post states, “If it is important you will find time”. I’m not complaining about my time off the field. No one wants to hear that. During my first surgery in the beginning I was taking Denise Fenzi online classes, reading blogs, and still learning about dog training, and IPO and now with the new AKC Rules I will have something to read and catch up on during this second surgery.

I guess the purpose of this post is motivation. If you want the titles then you have to put the work in it. Its not just going to come overnight. You HAVE to be self motivated in this game. Set goals, and WORK towards them! No one is going to hand you a title…you have to EARN it! If life throws a roadblock in your “plans” step back. readjust. and plan accordingly. You will have setbacks but dont let that be the end of the world. I’m not. I realize that these two surgeries will put us a little behind in getting titles on Tia and Capone but I’m not letting it stop the process of me learning. There is so much to learn about IPO by just reading. So get up and get training!

Boxer Weekend Training- February 23-25, 2018- Clarksville, TN

So I am continuing to get better from my knee replacement surgery. So much so I was up for a boxer training get together with some great friends and trainers in Clarksville, TN which is only 3 hours away. So we loaded up all the doggies and headed south for the weekend. Little did we know we’d endure a Tornado that landed 4 miles from us while eating. But some major training things with both Tia and Capone happened.

Tia was barking consistently in Protection training. She also was introduced to an e-collar which we used to deter her from running away from me when off leash. She caught on very quickly with little stimulus from the collar.

Capone actually during protection work. We hadnt been able to get him to bark. He also bit an intermediate sleeve for first time! He tracked like a champion and we were so proud of him. We had totally given up on him for IPO work but he definitely proved us wrong this weekend. Below are some pics from the weekend of training and a couple of videos. Helper was Chris Becher. Dan held both Tia and Capone during Protection, dont think my knee is quite ready for that yet. Minna Nousianen Becher is also in the pictures as well helping with Obedience and Tracking.

 

 

Videos of both doing bitey things.

Tia Consistently barking during Protection work!

Capone using his big boy voice! So proud of him and biting intermediate sleeve for first time!

Christmas Puppies!!!

Well it’s that time of year again. And I’m going to do my obligatory plea about buying puppies as Christmas presents. Yes its great to surprise the family with a brand new 6-8 week old puppy and how could you resist that little puppy face? However you need to think about a few things before you purchased said puppy.

The first thing is you need to ask yourself do you have time for a dog. If you plan on sticking it in a crate all the time because you are never home its probably best that you don’t get a puppy. They need constant attention and exercise especially in this phase of their lives. Potty training can be a bear. Waking up every 4 hours to let the dog out to potty is exhausting, especially if you already work a full time job.

Next, are you financially stable to take care of a puppy? Puppies require a lot financially; vet bills, food, toys, training, crate, collars, leashes, etc. Are you prepared if their is an accident? wither it be an accident or illness can you afford the vet care?

Do research on your breed before getting it. If you are getting German Shepherd just because they are a popular breed, you may need to re think it. Look at the characteristics of the breed. Will this breed be suitable for my family? For example If you want to get a lap dog, its probably not best to get a high energy Belgian Malinois.

Longevity of life. This can be a 10-15 year commitment. You should be aware of that in the beginning. Most breeds live to be 10-15 years, and as they get older they may need special care vitamins, medication, supplements, etc.

So when you go puppy hunting for Christmas, please make sure you take what I have said in this post into consideration. Because it definitely isn’t fair to a puppy to take it home and a couple weeks later discard it because you weren’t ready for the commitment.

2018 Goals….

So since I’m basically bedridden I have had time to think about my goals for 2018. I fear I most likely will have surgery on my left knee next year sometime so I’m trying not to make too many unrealistic goals for 2018. We finally got the date and it will be April 23, 2018 for my left knee replacement surgery. I will be focusing on the last half of the year training and show wise. USA Box Sieger Show is September 28th in Illinois we plan to go to that and hopefully will be able to obtain Tia and Capone’s ZTP Title. Hopefully will be able to hit up some AKC Obedience and Rally shows as well. Also I have decided that Tia’s theme song for 2018 is gonna be Imagine Dragon’s “Thunder”

With Tia I would like her to obtain the following titles: CGC, CD, BH, AD, ZTP, RA.

With Capone I would like for Dan to be able to get his BH. I fear that he might not do so well trying to get IPO titles. But we will see. If not we can just show in AKC Obedience and Rally…we can work on getting his CD, RE, AD, ZTP.

Haus Von D’anellie Boxers…

So eventually I want to get into breeding boxers. So I will use this blog for both Haus of Boxers Kennel and Haus Von D’anellie news. Tia and Capone are my foundation for my breeding program. I’ve already named my kennel, “Haus Von D’anellie Boxers”. Since I am more for the quality of the boxer rather then focusing on one thing (IPO or Conformation). What I mean by this is I want my boxers to be well rounded. For them to be able to do the working IPO stuff and to abide by FCI Conformation standards. Love my logo guys, they came up with logo for the business.

 

I dont plan on breeding Tia until she obtains her IPO1 title. I might not wait that long. 2018 I plan on getting her 6 new titles so maybe just sometime in 2019 is when I will breed her. Don’t know who I want to sire her. Capone is as flashy as she is and I fear I would get some white puppies in the mix. But overall I am very excited about my new business venture and the opportunity to better the boxer breed.

I Made it through Surgery!

Yay! I had my knee replacement last Monday. OMG this has been the most painful surgery I have every gone through. And trying to sleep at night is crazy.

Before Surgery, right after surgery, chillin at the In Laws house and at my house.

 

They got me up like 3 hours after my surgery to walk. Craziness. After the epidural and anesthesia wore off I was hurting like crazy. They pretty much filet my knee. Physical therapy came both days I was in the hospital. I went home when I was released which wasnt too much of a good idea. With Dan being gone to work all day it quickly became a mess. So I got transferred to my in laws house where my mother in law is taking care of me. She is so awesome. Still dont know a time table for when I will be back training but I’m giving myself until March, so maybe this is will work.But the healing is coming a long great so far. I also signed up for a Denise Fenzi Engagement, online class. I’m really excited about. So I’m still doing dog things just not physically lol.

2017 USA Box Working Boxer Nationals

So, we are back from 2017 USA Boxer Working Nationals. I took Tia down with me in hopes of getting her BH title in IPO. I rode with her breeder Minna down. We took turns driving. Geez it was a long drive, about 12-13 hours. Well I’m getting ahead of myself lets start with two weeks prior to us driving down. I had a pre-surgery surgery the week before we were to travel to Florida but all went well with that. I did end up getting sick two weeks before travel and it definitely effected our training schedule.

So with that being said we wasnt our strongest going down to Nationals. But from the few days I had before we left with Tia I was a little confident that we could possibly pull it off. Either way I was determined to learn from everything down in Florida. Here are some photos taken by friend and photographer Lloyd Fulcer.

Trial 1- the 2017 Boxer Working Nationals was on Saturday evening. In the pics I am wearing a gray t-shirt. She decided she did not want to down during the long down. She also decided to run away from me during off leash exercises. We had the field two days before the trial to train on and she did good on Friday but horribly distracted on Thursday. Something we definitely need to work on in the future. We ended up being out of control and not getting the title.

Trial 2- the All breed IPO trial was on Sunday. We decided to stay and try it again after working the field on Saturday night after the USA Box trial. I am wearing a green t-shirt in those pics. Again she decided to run around like it was a game. I think a lot of this had to do with my nerves. She read my nerves and was unsure of everything. I tried to be less nervous during the second trial than I was during the 1st. But outcome was the same. So back to the training field at home.

Everyone was so supportive. That wasnt something I was ready for. Now I know what to work on and cant wait to get back to training….errr after surgery. I’m hoping to be back on the training field by end of January and Mid-February. I also made 2018 goals.

Since 2017 is over, dog show wise because of my surgery. Goals for 2018 are as follows….BH, AD, ZTP and AKC-wise would like to get her RA and CD titles. So thats 5 titles to concentrate on.

Overall in Florida I met great people and had a really good time. Although it wouldve been better if we would’ve gotten that BH but we learned a whole lot from everything. Plus I got my first taste of the IPO field. I am ready to get back to training!

Q & A Time

So this is the first time I’ve done a Q & A….just some questions I’ve been emailed about myself or the business in case anyone else is wondering too…

1. How often do you train your boxers? 

       Right now we are purely focused on Capone and Tia but we do several training sessions a day with both of them. Short training sessions maybe 15-20 mins long. We actually have dry erase boards that we write down our training goals for the week. Also with that said we both work full time jobs outside of Haus of Boxers as well. We also train with schutzhund Club at least twice a week. 

2. What do you train your dog’s in? 

        We started out with AKC Obedience & Rally and now we have added Schutzund  (IPO). We also do European Style conformation. 

3. What organizations do you belong to? 

       We are members of Bluegrass Boxer Club, Greater Louisville Training Club, United States Boxer Association…we currently train with and hope to become members of Greater Cincinnati Schutzund Club soon. 

4. Why do you go to trainers, when you are trainers? 

     Because there is always something to be learned. Just because we are trainers at basic level obedience doesn’t make us experts with our own dogs. We train to gain more knowledge about the sport and our dogs. If you come across a trainer that says they know it all run the other way because they are full of s***. 

5. Who do you look up to? 

     Without a doubt Chris and Minna Becher of Boxnen Boxers. They have helped us so much of  our journey so far in the world of dog sport. They have the knowledge and patience to work with us considering our distance. I will always go to Minna with any question I have first. They are an awesome team. 

6. Where would you suggest getting a boxer from? 

    Again, I refer to Minna and Chris at Boxnen Boxers. Www.boxnen.com. They breed for the betterment of the breed and not for profit. They also are very knowledgeable of the breed and they will pair you up with the best boxer for you. 

7. I want to do obedience. Where do I start? 

    Find your local AKC training club. Do your research. Make sure you find a trainer that is well rounded in their approach and theories. Dog training isn’t cookie cutter, each dog is different and requires different tools. 
I will do another one of these soon. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to emails us…hausofboxers@gmail.com.