New Years Resolutions and Dog Sports Goals 2016? And, 2017!

[Labradorks]

Happy holidays everyone! I was just going to write a post about New Years Resolutions, including dog-related, and remembered there were a couple threads from last year.

New Years Resolutions, 2016 - posted by me. How did everyone do (Abulafia, DoubleDip1, janedoe, PinkDragon14, MightyThor, PopTop and Macy all had fairly concrete goals).

Dog Sport Goals, 2016 - posted by IndyBindy. How did everyone do (Barry, Tanya - despite your tragic loss this year, TuMicks, Annette, SoCalLabLover, ScoutPout, Anna Scott, fidgetyknees and Jeff all had goals).

[Labradorks]

2016 was full for me!

Work was slower than in 2015 and I had help this year, which was awesome. I also had time to finish projects and flex some muscle rather than running around with my hair on fire. I decided to take the bull by the horns and created a new role for myself, which is resulting in a promotion and a large raise with details to TBD in a month or so. 2017 should be fantastic as well as challenging, professionally speaking. While I did not leave the office by 4pm every day, I did work from home a lot this year, which creates additional challenges. So, now I have to think about that work/life separation thing. I think I did a better job of getting out more, hiking and things like that, though it was no where near what I wanted to do.

I had a month-long vacation, which was amazing, and I'm taking additional time off now through the New Year. I didn't get everything done on my house or the landscaping, but I did try! During my time off this week, my contractor is coming to finish up the inside and I have a landscape architect coming out to look at my flower gardens and put a plan together for me so that I can get that done once and for all! I also did not eat healthier or exercise. I had a lot of false starts and I thought a lot about it...does that count? And I did not do a good job of going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. I not only got Netflix again, but also got Amazon Prime! I didn't do any charity work other than the cancer research match (which raised $500).

Dog related, I did train more at home, but not as consistently as I originally planned. What I did made a difference though! My obedience club lost our ring for rentals due to the rent pushing us out, so I was unable to rent the space past March. I did put together a training group that gets together once a week pretty consistently to train in various locations. I took Linus to every match I could, which was most of the ones available within a two-hour radius from my house. We started proofing this year and we are proofing every exercise except drop on recall and articles, both of which we are still perfecting. Our drop on recall is good as is the broad jump. I think I chose the broad jump because Linus got stuck on that a few times at matches, but that was the last time that happened (knock on wood). I did make it to four JH events and Linus went four for four to get his JH title this year! And, finally, I did find a breeder, but no puppies for awhile as the girl is going to be bred later than expected as the owner/breeder wants to trial her in agility this summer. That works well for me!

Other randomness included getting a new car and appropriate dog transport due to the dirty diesel VW scam. I also did an awful job of keeping in touch with friends (the non-dog ones, anyway), which will be a goal for 2017 (to be better). Financially, I did a pretty good job of saving money and paid off my credit cards (all from remodel stuff). I got the dogs to lose a lot of weight and maintain it. And, I'm spending some time this week purging "stuff" from my house.

Still working on 2017 resolutions and goals...

[Annette47]

So this was my goal as stated last year:

I want Chloe to get her UD (hopefully in the spring) and then maybe some UDX legs and even OTCH points.

The puppies start formal classes this week. I don’t plan on showing them in 2016, but I’d like to have them well on the path.

She got her UD in February, has 15 UDX legs, and 25 OTCH points, including 2 of the 3 first places she needs for the OTCH. I’d say she surpassed my hopes in a big way!

The puppies aren’t yet ready to show, but have started doing some matches and are coming along nicely. They won’t be to where I want them for a while, but I feel like I’m giving them a much better foundation than any previous dogs.

[barry581]

I can't say I hit any goals that I had a year ago. To many things happened to affect what I wanted to do. I was hoping to get Sophie a RN title, we got one leg. I had goals for Bruce, JH, RA, maybe some OB titles. All of that was derailed. Thankfully Sophie was there to help me through. Going to training with her taught me a great deal.

Being able to get Brooks from Windycanyon was a blessing. It came along so unexpectedly. I was searching and searching for a puppy close by, but every time I thought I was close, some obstacle was thrown up. Anne was helping me find someone, going through all the OFA clearances on the dogs I was looking at. In the end I think it was meant to be for me to have a Windycanyon pup. Brooks is everything I hoped he would be and more. He is coming along very well with both OB and field training.

My goal for 2017 is Sophie's RN, and an RN, BN, and JH for Brooks. At the rate he's going, I'm pretty confident we can achieve these goals.

[janedoe]

I think I did all right. I went off caffeine and high fructose corn syrup entirely (really tough) and only eat a couple of bites of cane sugared desserts twice a week. Expanded the garden so that I have access to more organic veg and fruit.

For 2017, I need to do more stationary biking. My husband bought an elliptical machine so I'll try that. And I will absolutely expand my organic, non-GMO garden for both us and the dogs.

[MightyThor]

My goal, in a nutshell, was to get out of our "analysis paralysis" and actually make a concrete plan for our future that involved leaving the San Francisco Bay Area.

Well, I'd say we succeeded! We sold our tiny house on a postage sized lot in San Jose and bought our 10 acre farm in Bend. All ten of us (me, the husband, Thor, and our seven chickens) are much happier! 2016 was a really really crappy year for a lot of reasons, but I'm still personally very grateful for the path my life has taken this year. I just hope that my friends and family experience the same happiness in 2017.


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[Berna]

I am happy how 2016 turned out (after a crappy 2015). Cookie has almost fully recovered, work is fine, my running is improving I have traveled a lot in 2016 (mostly for races) and made new (running) friends.

I resolve for 2017 to run a full marathon

[Labradorks]

Here's mine.

Work: More positive, less venting, no getting involved in others' venting/sh!t-talking.

Though I don't have an issue here, this year was a tough year at my company and listening to others vent often or talk about co-workers negatively was a turn-off for me and I found myself thinking, "Wow, I hope I don't sound like that!" I also really like my job and I like my co-workers and my boss and a bad year is just that, a bad year. Nothing to get worked up about! I tend to get sucked in too easily is my issue. Plus, venting, to me, is like eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. It feels really good at the time, but afterward, you feel awful!

Personal: I haven't been a great friend lately. I've been busy with work, dog sports and my house. So, I'm going to focus more on seeing my good friends on a regular basis by reaching out more.

This week, I've had a tree taken out that needed to go and I hired a landscape designer to finish my front yard gardens. My contractor came out to finish baseboard and other random things so other than paint I'm finally DONE and my mom, sister and niece are coming over next month to finish painting for my birthday. Fence is being replaced and driveway is being finished next month. So, this year, I don't have to focus on the house. I also felt guilty doing things other than finishing stuff around the house, so I was often paralyzed by that conflict! I actually didn't even want to go on vacation because I didn't want to spend the money or time doing that when I should have spent both on the house. Now, that is crazy!

Health: In addition to "not having time for friends" I also felt I haven't had time for self-care.

I'm dedicated to working out three times per week and recording what I eat, so I am more aware of what and how much I am putting into my body. Getting the house done will help as does having two mature adult dogs. I also want to start meditating once a week, just to help with the brain clutter and focus. I live within walking distance to Portland's best meditation center.

Dog Sports: CD.

This year Linus turns four (July) and since I decided that I would never trial a dog prematurely again, always waiting until the dog is at least four (recognizing there may be an exception to this rule someday), this is our year to trial. Last month my trainer told me it's time to pick a trial. So, that's probably what we'll do. There are many steps to this. Continue proofing, intervals, stuff like that, and I have a plan. If I can get him into a ring and he's happy to be there, it is entirely possible. I also need to figure out if I am going to go for our SH. I don't think I would trial at the SH level this year, but we'll see where we're at and go from there, and I need to figure out what is possible this year in regards to lessons.

[Scoutpout]

Well, lets see....dog goals for 2016 were:
Scout's JH: nope. didn't even enter any tests with him. His hold sucked. mid-season we started to see a bit more consistency, but we're not there quite yet. oh so close, but not yet...on the up side, doubles are now relatively simple for him, concept is solid, and we've been working on much longer marks, and set-ups where his nose isn't going to be able to save him, he's got to mark really accurately
Scout's Novice Intermediate: nope, see above with "hold" plus he still has absolutely no love for the dumb bells.
Scout's RAE 7: i;m not sure, but don't think so... I think we need 2 more legs. Its true, i have totally lost count.... at this point we do Rally Obedience purely for fun, because he loves going to shows and its the only thing we can do! We only entered i think 6 trials this year...
Pup: FINALLY, in 10 days, Pup comes home! (ok, so that makes it 2017 for Pup...) In the final stages of panic! and organizing, and trying to decide on name...oh my..

2017
Scout's JH, WCI, and hopefully Novice Intermediate..., and finally finish RAE7. I'm looking at 2016 as lots of work toward those goals.
Pup - basic obedience, competition puppy class, "baby" retriever training, lots of exposure to field and obedience trial venues, and if turns out the way pup is starting to look, a foray into the conformation world...
And I'm the co-chair for our club's Obedience and Rally this year, so there's a lot of things to do with that, and the goal is to have events ready to go on time, organized, fun and improve them from competitors' point of view so in turn we get even better entry numbers next year.

[indybindy]

I love these types of threads, so fun to see what everyone was thinking a year ago and what everyone got themselves into all year long.

This year was very challenging (personally) but it was also a good year with tons to be thankful for. I did manage to get my crazy 2 year old in the obedience ring for one weekend of beginner novice. I wasn't 100% sure he was ready (he wasn't) BUT he scored a 199.5 and a 200 (!!!!!!) on his only weekend out. So while we still have a ton to work on, he's coming along great and going to be a blast to show.

Obedience goal for next year is BN, CD and CDX for my little guy. None of that will be a stretch, its just polish polish polish until we get to the point where we can go out there and get great scores.

The real focus has been and will be field trials. I've trained a ton and he's coming along really nicely. We'll start entering qualifyings early in the season and see how things go