What's your "thing?"

[Emily]

Originally Posted by SpringerLover

I've got some pretty silly video that shows me "guiding" my dog in trials a couple years ago. I've since worked incredibly hard to clean up my handling and training... haha!

Yeah I'm by no means perfect, but I do try to be very careful about my body and not helping the dog!

[Sit Stay]

As far as training or anything like that - the only thing I can think of is manners around horses is a must for me and starts ASAP. I've known too many dogs killed or hurt by horses, and have too many horses that will charge a dog - I'm anal about teaching them about horses. I can not stand a dog that has no problems walking under a horse, or a dog that goes into paddocks, or a dog that chases horses. Puppies learn very early on to mind hooves and to never cross a fence. Diet, training, etc I'm pretty well rounded in as far as interest and knowledge. I read as much as I can but I'm not crazy about one thing in particular. I absolutely love reading about my breed and the historical side of the ES though if that counts.

[Laurelin]

Feet. I cannot STAND messy/grinchy dog feet. If I had a cavalier, their feet would be getting trimmed up like a papillon's.

I will finally fess up that I see picture threads on chaz and I secretly want to chop off the messy foot hair.

[Whisper]

Hmm, well dogs in general are my thing (same as most of us here), and that includes nutrition/diet, fitness, training, responsible breeding, etc. etc. But I think training and behavior is my biggest "thing." I'm pretty passionate about that, especially since I'm the one a lot of neighbors and family members come to when they've been trying to "discipline" their out of control dog and they've royally screwed the poor thing's mind up.
I'm constantly trying to better understand a dog's mind, to find a better way to teach something.
Another thing I really want to get into is rescue. For now I donate to local shelters what I can, volunteer my time when I can, but I want to move onto fostering and eventually run my own rescue. That of course will require a lot more than I have/am capable of now.

[SaraB]

We can only have one thing?! I have so many it's horrible.

-Agility, that's obvious
-Training of any kind, gets me all angry like if people have a misunderstanding of training and blame things on their dog.
-Nails.
-Grooming, had to have short hair dogs because I couldn't stand having a long hair dog.

[Whisper]

Oh, I have a thing about nails too. Millie has the most ridiculous, fastest growing quicks I've ever known a dog to have and I can't stand it.
Fable has had at least a quick pseudo or real nail trimming/dremelling session every day since the third day she was home. Her nails are great and I am so obsessive about her getting used to nail attention and growing up having nice, tight feet with short nails.

[JacksonsMom]

Ummm... my "thing"... it's so hard, I am just into dogs in general. But I'm pretty into canine nutrition and probably know way too much than I need to about it (companies, manufacturers, ingredients, and everything in between).

Second, I think would be training. Even though I'm not really involved in classes or sports (except one agility class), trick training is my thing, and Jackson knows a TON and I really enjoy doing it. But to be honest? I don't really enjoy training other peoples' dogs, I've realized. I just like having really good communication and a great connection with my dog and don't have a desire to work with many other peoples dogs (even though I've tried often, while being a pet sitter, and families dogs).

Oh, and as far as "thing things" - duh, collars! I'm obsessed. It's definitely a "thing" for me LOL.

[lizzybeth727]

Originally Posted by SaraB

-Grooming, had to have short hair dogs because I couldn't stand having a long hair dog.

Oh yeah! Brushing's my other thing! All of our dogs at work are blowing their coats, but we have this one long-haired border collie mix whose undercoat is coming out in CLUMPS. I kept asking our kennel techs to give him a GOOD brushing out, and they'd give him a few strokes with a slicker brush and call it done. I finally got tired of begging and went after him the other day with a pin brush, and by the end of it he was VISIBLY less fluffy. Then the kennel techs got mad at me because he's not as cute without all the fluff.

[Freehold]

I guess for me it's manners. House manners in particular. Not begging, stealing food/toys, jumping on people or furniture, being respectful of people (both who live here and visitors). I can't live with a dog who can't abide by the house rules.

[Linds]

Training for me too. Though I'm not really competitive against other people, I more just like challenging myself, my dog and having fun. But yeah, training I think is my thing.

My other thing is dogs being in shape, nothing makes me cringe faster than a really out of shape dog.