In Sue Sternberg’s new book, The Dog-Driven Search coauthored with Dana Zinn, Sue credits my teaching of “body English” and movement as an important influence on her approach to the handling of nose-work dogs.  To be perfectly honest, I know nothing about training or handling nose-work dogs. But in the context of dog agility I teach that dogs understand movement like a spoken word. So, the “pure for motion” handler takes a lead in “the dance”. A favorite YouTube video shows me running somebody else’s dog at a TDAA Judges clinic. I remember the young lady was struggling just to get this do ..read more

I’m happy to announce that a new Joker’s Notebook training series is set to begin on Clean Run Classrooms in the first week of February. The class has gone on sale now. Follow this link to see a good description of the class: https://www.cleanrun.com/product/the_jokers_notebook_a_year_long_foundation_course_for_independent_obstacle_performance/index.cfm The introduction, I’m tickled to note, refers to me as an “agility pioneer”. This means, of course, that I’m an old guy who’s been playing this game for many years. It also means, practically speaking, that I’ve tested my dog training methods m ..read more

Some people won’t bother to vote in the up-and-coming, I’ve heard, because the Dems have disappointed their expectations; or they’ll vote for a third party; or they won’t vote at all. I’ve heard this said of “young” voters, Hispanic Americans, black men, for example. Surely a broader fabric of interests are among the disappointed. The “independent”, third-party, or absentee voter silences his own voice and leaves the choice of law and governance to others. Political power in America is based on a two-party system. There’s the Republican party, and the Democrat party. Seizing Power The real ans ..read more

I have a couple of blogs I would like to write. But since I’ve been away from my blog for so long I owe a discussion of my health adventures. I assume that you’d like to know what condition my condition is in. It appears my cancer is in remission. I’ve likely bought a couple more years. Not to be a complete drama queen about this thing; I want to back up and talk about what a near thing this was. If you’d like to skip the gory details I understand and don’t care. Skip on down to the Big Lebowski video and happy holidays to ya. Gory Details I spent two months in the hospital, half of that in IC ..read more

I’ve been doing some straightening in the basement. And I’ve stumbled across a couple things worth sharing. These will be of interest to my dog agility friends. This was my boy Bogie’s MACH bar circa 2001. Now, back in the day they didn’t give out MACH bars. So the practice was, among some of us, to snatch away the actual very last bar your dog jumped as he earned the Championship title. This was at a club up in Pennsylvania. I remember that the equipment manager was pretty pissed at me for making off with his equipment. It’s fun looking at some of the names on the bar and knowing who was the ..read more

Funny how one thing gets you thinking about another thing. Sometimes it’s hard to trace back through how your thoughts trip over each other on a common thread that might not be easy to unravel. How did I get here from there? Take this as fair warning, don’t expect the writing below to summarize as some kind of cogent essay. It’s just rambling, following the connecting threads. Kerouac On rereading On the Road I’m provoked to consider the color and character that America has lost in the homogenization of our culture. I expect to write about that one day soon. But forgetting that provocation I’m ..read more

In my youth, circa 1972, I took a trip to Arkansas to visit my brother who lived in a little town name of Hunters Mill. I applied for a job as an assembler over in Forest City and was hired. But I never quite made it to my first day of work. My cousin Billie Joe and I took up a trip on a Friday night down to a dance club in Hazen with a mind to dance, drink a few beers, and maybe get lucky. On our way out of the club a police car followed us out, pulling us over before we could get on the Interstate. Having Arizona tags on the car was a red flag. I was arrested for intoxicated driving. I’d had ..read more

Recently the dog agility community lost two pioneers and true heroes of the sport, Christine Joy Danielly and Ileana Mejias Nadal. Both of these ladies were forces of nature, building vibrant agility communities while promoting and growing the sport with their vision, work ethic, and unfailing enthusiasm. Chris Danielly Chris built Canine Capers, the club that hosted the very first ever dog agility trial in Georgia (USDAA circa 1990). https://www.stewartfh.com/obituaries/Christine-Danielly/#!/Obituary Illeana Nadal Illeana, an accomplished artist and art teacher, started Cool Critters in Valri ..read more

My favorite game for killing time (and brain cells, I suppose) is World of Warcraft. I’ve been playing for about 20 years. I started playing after hearing a fun piece on NPR describing the game. Now I have written a guide (submitted for publication on WowHead) documenting my approach to collecting battle pets and earning heaps of in-game gold. I’m trying to publish something everyday on my blog. So I’m attending to a bunch of back-burner writing projects. I would have published this World of Warcraft Guide much earlier… but I wound up spending most of the day figuring out how to use the damned ..read more

This is an open letter to: Peter Breslin, PhD Arizona’s Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill based in Tucson, Arizona Dear Dr. Breslin, I listened with great interest to your discussion on NPR’s Science Friday about the decline of the Saguaro cactus in southern Arizona. Tracking The Saguaro Cacti Decline It is the Cholla cactus I’d like to talk about. If my anecdotal observations are of any use to scientists who research and care for the delicate riparian habitat, I would be gratified. Overview I grew up in San Manuel, Arizona in Pinal County a town built for mine workers in the southwest deser ..read more