Whoop Whoop!

Hey there everyone!!! Checking in with any of you who actually read this blog. Monster and I had an agility trial last weekend and we have a few brags and a few interesting tidbits. 

The weekend began fast and connected. The weather was cool (this trial is outdoors on grass) and we were in our zone. We remained in our zone virtually the whole weekend. I forgot where we were going on course 3 times! My poor pup. I was really disappointed in myself for forgetting since we were flowing so well together. We had a real shot and kicking some butt!

Saturday we earned our Advanced Snooker title on a long and arduous snooker course by Dave Bozak. No one made time in his Masters snooker course but there were still SuperQ's to be had. Monster and I were 1 of 2 dogs in the entire advanced snooker class to Q! 

Snooker!

Saturday Gamblers

Sunday we earned our Advanced Gamblers title on a gamble that I didn't expect to be difficult for my guy. We nailed it! The opening was a bit wobbly though. My plan was to start with the start jump and then move to the teeter and then dogwalk-tunnel-dogwalk which would have given the minimum opening points and then we could grab and go for the rest. Monster didn't hit the yellow on the dogwalk and I was shocked and starting calculating in my head FAST! Contacts were 5pts in the class so I quickly sent him to the teeter and managed to squeeze in 2 jumps before the buzzer. The gamble was a very diagonal jump to a tunnel that was wrapped through the aframe (obstacle discrimination!) and then coming in to a final jump. I wish I had the course map available but the last jump was angled so that a dog needed to be cued before coming out of the tunnel OR you needed to "push" them a little bit back on their path. I will post video of the runs that were video"worthy" at the bottom of this post and gamblers from Sunday will be in there. 

Sunday's Gamble!

Holding our teeter after the naughty stay break in Standard

The disappointing part of Sunday was when Monster BROKE HIS START-LINE STAY and took an off course on the tire versus turning to the weaves. I know exactly why the off course occurred but I have a theory about the stay issue. The off course occurred because the lead out was going to be my tool to cue Monster that a turn was coming up. I just couldn't get where I needed to go once he broke. The theory about his stay breaking was that I noticed Monster's excitment levels increasing over the weekend. More barking prior to a run (I allowed the barking because he was running focused and in sync with me) and he even nipped at my clothes to hurry up a few times. Also, he did that squealing thing in the weave poles in pairs. LOTS of off courses in pairs lol- just during our run. That was my fault as I was acting a bit rushed to make a decent time. Had we gotten a Q in pairs and Standard on Sunday then we would have gotten his Advanced Agility title to move up to Masters in EVERYTHING. No video fo pairs or that standard run available.

I used my new Excel spreadsheet for our runs to track and confirm titles and Q's. I didn't look ahead to see if it would be a title run but I checked in afterward to find out after each qualifying run. The spreadsheet was made by an agility competitor and it's smart so it fills in applicable Q's under LAA and such. Check it out in the link below!

Link to Excel Spreadsheet for USDAA as well as some other helpful info!

















Video is below!

Product Review: Variocage Double (Medium)

Wow! It hasn't been as long as I thought since my last post! Don't get me wrong, it's been a while... but not TOO long. Anyway... I have some exciting news!:

I recently purchased a MIM Variocage Double in Medium! The Variocage is the first crash tested dog crate on the market. There are others that have come into the market now but the Variocage was the first of it's kind and I believe it is still the best choice for many reasons. I will list pros and cons and then talk a little bit about other options on the market. 

Pros:

• Crash tested by the company itself and in many crash scenarios. Video links here: SPCT Crash Test
• This crate's function makes the most sense for vehicle travel with dogs. Most of us have traditionally crated our dogs out of the "cargo" area of our vehicles. The Variocage is designed to "crumple" but remain structurally intact in the event of a rear end collision. Enough space is left for your dog to remain safe in the crate after it has crumpled. 
• The Variocage design is made to fit most vehicles with cargo space. The VC is angled at the front and back to allow an almost perfect fit. The tubes on either side are quite adjustable in length (I prefer to call it depth). A divider allows you to crate more than one dog. 
• The supplier, 4x4 North America, has outstanding customer service as well as most of the merchants who sell these crates.
• While I don't necessarily consider this a huge perk, many people do: both doors can be locked separately and 4 keys come with the VC (keys cannot be recreated by the company so hang on to them!)
• Good ventilation. There is a lot of ventilation especially for a crate designed for vehicle travel.
• It's SUPER quiet especially for a metal crate!

Cons:

• COST is probably the biggest con to the Variocage. Cost is approximately $1,000-$2,000! I feel like it's worth it given the engineering and design behind this crate but many people go for other kinds of car crates for this reason.
• Because it's made of steel, it can be heavy (approximately 80 lbs) and this can also turn off potential buyers. It cannot be easily installed and removed from the vehicle. (you wouldn't want to do it on a weekly basis but you would have to undo the 4 tie down straps and have a helper to lift the crate out of the vehicle)
• You might have trouble fitting large or giant breed dogs in the VC even with the divider removed. Large breeds might have an easier time with no divider but giants are gonna have tight quarters.
• If you aren't going to keep your second or third row seats up, you may want to find a different crate. I will go over this in more detail but the company notes that the last row of seats should always be up and that the VC is behind them.
• Recent crash tests suggest that the Variocage is not be the safest car crate on the market (more on that further down on this post) 
• It's not as easy as the instructions claim to put together. I'll admit it, this was a pain in the ass to assemble. The beginning was easy as it was just connecting panels to each other BUT I ran into a few stubborn screw holes that needed rethreading and had to wait for the company to send a free tap kit to rethread. They were great and overnighted the kit but I still found the tap a bit challenging to rethread. Ultimately it worked and the crate looks great but it was harder to assemble than Ikea furniture!

Almost completely assembled (a couple of screws needed rethreading and the divider and rubber mat weren't installed yet)

So, I think I threw some surprises in there with the pros and cons and I'd like to discuss them. Let's talk about cost first. This is a LOT of money for most of us to spend at once but I think we dog sport competitors need to stop and think about what it is we spend monthly or even annually on our sport before we complain about the price of a crate we transport them in. A lot of agility competitors spend around $10,000-$20,000 annually on dog shows! Skip a month and make sure your dog is in one of the safest crates available for transport! Whether you choose the VC, RTK, or GK you should have something to protect your dogs. I know we all consider our canine teammates family and we must protect them first so that we can continue to run with them. That is my belief. 

Now, let's discuss what I consider to be the other major con of the Variocage: crash testing. We all want to be up on the latest and greatest dog stuff and a recent crash test sponsored by Subaru has stirred things up a bit. I will let you read the result details for yourself but basically a crate called the Gunner Kennel rated #1. My problem with GK is that it is a fairly new crate and is only available in two sizes that are relatively large and would limit how many crates could fit in my vehicle. I'd like to see them refine this crate a little bit more before I buy in. 

 

The other crate that is popular and well built, in my opinion, is the Ruff Tough Kennel. The RTK rated "poor" in this crash test because the door did not stay on in the collision which means the dog is not contained in an accident. Now, the RTK company has already designed a metal rod which should allow the door to stay on during a crash but it was not used in the test. Also, the testers observed the tie down brackets and straps breaking in the test. The crate itself stayed intact. I am planning on purchasing an RTK in a small to strap my smallest dog in when I travel with 3 dogs. My plan is to place the crate sideways in the backseat and secure the crate with either bungees or cargo straps using cargo anchors in my vehicle. My blog is not cooperating so I will caption the photo below right here. Below, are the many sizes that RTKs come in as well as a couple of accessories.

Finally, the Variocage "failed" because the straps broke and the crate compressed (as advertised). Because the test was done on a sled without using the back of the last passenger bench, the Variocage moved toward the "front" of the vehicle. The Center for Pet Safety feels that no crate should rely on the back of a seat to work. My personal argument as that the seat isn't "required" for the VC to work. The seat being up protects passengers from the moving crate and allows the VC to compress appropriately as it was designed to do. The straps are expected to break as well. They prevent any movement of the VC during travel. That being said, read the details and decide which crate you would try out. There were two other crates tested by I do not consider them to be on the same quality level as these three. Well, one was a standard wire crate which is commonly seen in sport dog vehicles and the other was what I would consider to be a "Variocage wannabe".

Other news to share!:

While I am "dogifying" my vehicle I decided to get some custom vinyl stickers. I will post a link to the Etsy shop I chose. The name of the shop is Blakdogs Designs and Lori was an awesome shopowner to work with! She provided a very cute sample sticker to practice with and gave me a few options for each dog that I sent a photo of. She also helped me decide which photo would provide the best silhouette to make the best vinyl sticker. Below are pictures of my sticker deigns and the stickers themselves (the paw print is the sample sticker).

Last but not least:

I have started a Facebook group for dog sport handlers to improve their speed and footwork and be better teammates for the canine partners. I have a physical trainer as a fellow admin to help give and screen for sound advice and stay on topic. I am looking forward to improving myself so I can be better for my dog. I am really hoping to trial again in October but have a lot of work to do to get myself and my dog back in shape!

That's all for now! I'll be back soon once I have had the VC for a longer period and once I've done some work towards competing in agility once again! In the meantime, enjoy the few pictures I did not share above:

 

Bad Habits, Run Thrus, and Enrichment

Well, it's quite clear that there is a pattern here! As much as I try, I just can't seem to break the habit of starting to blog again and then disappearing. I'm not convinced I have that many people reading this blog so I doubt it matters much. However, if you happen to be a "regular" reader, I apologize for being so flaky. My intentions have always been good but life starts getting busy and I run out of time to blog. Maybe I should pick simpler topics but, then again, I started this blog as a sort of journal for my agility and dog related activities. 

Here's what I've been up to in case you are interested:

Conditioning took a backseat and we haven't really pick it back up. It's embarrassing to say that especially since I am a canine rehab assistant. Things have gotten a lot busier at the rehab practice these days and I haven't been able to cart Monster back and forth from home to work to my other work, etc. Also, I want to eat better, exercise more, walk my dogs more, enrich my dogs, relax, clean, train tricks, train agility, etc. Geez! that's quite the list. No wonder I haven't gotten much done!

I have purchased some food stuffable dog toys and am trying to leave all 3 dogs out during the day more often. It was scary the first couple of times I did it but so far the couch is just more hairy when I get home every day. Nothing is damaged, no urine or feces on the floor. No signs of chewing. I was pretty sure they would be good boys but it's scary knowing that you'll be gone for HOURS and won't know what they're up to. I contemplated some kind of camera to spy on them but that was scary too. What if I see that they're getting into trouble and I am stuck at work unable to do anything about it?! 

My goal with the food stuffed toys was to provide a positive reward for my leaving the house. In the past, my guys have made quite the protest as I leave the house to run down the road to the store or something. I was worried I'd create anxiety ridden mutts that hated the thought of my absence. I really don't have the knowledge or time to deal with that type of issue so I figured I'd be proactive after watching a few episodes of "It's Me or the Dog" LOL. The toys seem to be working so far but I found that pumpkin was a better "wet" ingredient than peanut butter. One of my guys got loose stool and had a blowout in the hallway shortly after the first food toy! NOT FUN! 

The food stuffed toys I chose to use were regular Kong toys (a mix of classic, puppy, and jumbo), Kong Genius (specifically the "Mike"), Goughnuts K9 cup, hollow marrow bones, and the Busy Buddy Squirrel Dude.

I strongly suggest supervising your dog with marrow bones until you know it's a safe option for your dog. I have seen dogs get their lower jaws stuck in them and tooth fracture becomes a greater risk with any bone chewing. I suggest buying an already hollow marrow bone because marrow tends to be high in fat and is more likely to cause diarrhea. A bottle brush works great and cleaning the inside of any of these toys.

Goughnut K9 cup: this toy is super durable and I love this company's thought process but my dogs had ZERO interest in this toy by itself. So, when I was searching for food stuffable toys around my house, I knew this toy would work perfectly. It's difficulty level isn't high but it serves its purpose. 

Kong Genius Mike: I ordered these in small because I don't feed my dogs a lot and these are perfect size for about half of Shawty's meal with canned pumpkin mixed in. They are made out of an easy to clean rubber but are a little more difficult to stuff (this stuffing difficulty also reflects that this toy is difficult to get the food out of which I do like!). I ordered 3 of these and all 3 belong to my old man Shawty.

LOVE this toy! It's pretty much like the classic Kong but the prongs make it more difficult (a LOT more difficult for my guys) to get food out of. This rubber is also easier to clean then the Kong (maybe it's just the design) which makes my life easier! I am hoping to get more of these and more of the Genius Mike models.

PSA: for multiple dogs (especially ones with different diets and spouses!) it may be worthwhile to have one type of toy for each dog. That wasn't my goal when I started this but I have ended up delegating Kong classic and K9 cup to Monster, Squirrel Dude to Punch, and Kong Genius Mike to Shawty. The marrow bones are for all 3 on Wednesdays on which I work only half days. Their sizes are different enough that I know whose bone is whose and I can monitor the amount of time each dog has to chew on the bones.

The other enrichment game we've been playing is foraging for kibble. I got the idea from a fellow dog Facebook friend. You just literally take the kibble and spread it out around the yard, let the dogs out, and they provide the clean up! The only tricky part was how I should deal with Shanty being on a special skin diet. Initially I just told myself that a meal or two of another food wouldn't hurt but his skin is definitely more "yeasty" than it's been in a couple of months. So... I have two options: partition an area for "Shawty only" foraging OR switch all 3 dogs to the same skin diet. I tried partitioning and it seemed successful but I don't think there'd be any negative effects to switching all 3 dogs. I have a few bags of food that were given to me because they were returns (dogs didn't like the taste) and I'd like to get through those first before switching the dogs.

Let's see, what am I missing? Ah, yes! Walks! After my "It's Me or the Dog" marathon I realized I was totally taking advantage of my fenced backyard and that my dogs aren't getting enough mental stimulation daily. My goal is to start with at least 3 walks per week. I know I should do more but with Punch's challenging reactivity, I have to walk him separately. It's a lot of walking if I walk them an appropriate amount of time/distance. We'll get there. I have NO idea how I'll make all of this work during the winter when the sun goes down early!

Run thrus! We made a last minute decision to go to agility run thru's in Ridgeland Saturday and it was totally worth it! I was thinking of excuses not to go because my head hurt and I'd spent the last few hours at work fixing/cleaning out the underwater treadmill. Well, I took some Tylenol and closed my eyes for 30 minutes. My head still hurt a little but I made myself go anyway. Man, do I miss agility! I wasn't expecting much since Monster hasn't seen anything other than jumps and tunnels for the last 9-10 months and Punch has minimal foundation work. 

Punch gave me some interesting information regarding his reward preferences on and off the agility course. He wasn't very focused with his favorite tug toy outside of the ring but once we got in there, he wouldn't work for food and went crazy for his tug! This might be telling of my training habits though... Regardless, he was halfway listening and then... he did the teeter, TWICE! with confidence! And then... the dog walk ONCE! with confidence! Ok, maybe there was a bit of surprise/confusion on his face once he got on the middle plank, BUT he quickly shrugged it off and ran to the bottom like a good boy and we tugged and tugged and tugged! Our mini dog walk in the back yard was shorted in height and length. 

Monster started out running fast but not focused. Took some extra obstacles, went around some obstacles, skipped every other weave pole, but NAILED EVERY CONTACT! The second time through the first course Monster weaved like a pro and took the indicated obstacles. His mama was a bit disconnected. I have been slowing him down at trials by sending him back around an obstacle to complete it if he doesn't perform it. My goal was to be fast, fast, fast at run thrus. I went for too much speed and not enough handler or obstacle focus but I think that was good for a dog that had taken such a long break from agility. I was late to a few obstacles because he was flying but his distance skills (we trained this a lot in the backyard) really showed! We lost some of our tight turns and I read his obstacle commitment poorly. The moral of that story is that I am the one that needs the refresher. It was like I'd completely forgotten how to handle on course. Windi pointed out some obvious handling options to me and I realized I needed to work on my own course analysis.

Last but not least, I have gained a considerable amount of weight in the last few years and am feeling pretty bad about my body. I am depressed about my body but not quite ready to really commit to fixing it. It took me a bit to get back into agility so, I am hoping that if I make myself walk/exercise, I will get excited about fitness too!


Well, that's all for now. Who knows when I'll be back or what I'll be posting about, haha. I hope to be back soon though!

Bend Work

Today's conditioning work consisted of a bend work grid. We only got through the basics of it before I was freezing my southern ass off and before I ran out of dog food. There isn't too much to say about this grid training session tonight. We have had mistakes on this particular grid before but it was when Monster was a puppy. I rushed through it a little bit because it's 30 degrees here which is pretty cold for our area. I am sure there are things I could have done better which is why I left this grid set up for us to repeat tomorrow or this weekend. 

General set up of bend work grid

In Susan's puppy bend work grid (at least the DVD) she used started with only one half of the grid set up. She used jump wings on all 3 jumps and I believe they were spaced closer together than the one we did tonight. When beginning this particular grid, Susan suggested starting with the middle triangle first. We skipped past that part because daylight was going and it was getting cold! I don't think I saw any negative effects that could have been prevented by working the triangle first. I THINK. I may change my feelings tomorrow ;)

Here is a real life view of the puppy version with wings.

We didn't get a chance to move on to the tougher progression but I am hoping we can get there next time. That's really all I've got to say on this post for now!

Progression of bend work grid that I found online (it's in the book too)

First Jump Grids

Monster did his first jump grids today. Monster has previously been 100% successful when I had him do Susan Salo's jump grids until today. Today, he added strides in between jumps that should have only had a bounce. 

Our Session:
We started with the set point grid. The set point grid is the beginning of jump grid training. It teaches/shows/reminds the dog where the ideal takeoff point is. It is a staple. We started there with a few reps as a reminder. I am sharing a few photos with no additional information on how to train these grids. I want to share the importance of jump grids but I also want to respect Susan and her hard work. This book is awesome! No offense to Susan but her DVD's can be pretty dry and boring to watch. They are definitely informative but not the most exciting to watch. This book has EVERYTHING you could want to know about jump grids and dogs! I am only sharing grids that I have seen in multiple areas of the internet.

Set Point Grid (there are several variations- please don't try this without reading or watching)

The next grid we worked on was the ladder grid. The general idea with this grid is to have 5 jumps spaced equally (spacing is according to size of the dog) apart and to start the dog fairly close to the first jump so not to allow a running start. The dog is to bounce each jump, not putting any strides in between jumps. You can increase and decrease the jump spacing to compress and extend the dog's stride. I like this grid for that reason and also because it's good for teaching young or inexperienced dogs to start reading lines. I only had the spacing in my yard for 4 jumps. I used a food target and started with sending Monster to the target. I only released him from his stay when I saw that he was looking ahead at the jumps and the target and NOT at me. He executed this grid flawlessly as usual even when I increased the spacing to the max distance. 

Then, I increased the challenge by turning this grid into a slice. Still, I only could use 4 jumps. THIS is where I saw the problem. I started with the slice going from left to right. We had no issues. BUT, when we did the slice from right to left, he started adding in a stride towards the last 2 jumps. I wondered if it might be the flood lights that I had turned on when the sun started disappearing but he wasn't consistently doing it. I'll try again at a different time of day to see for sure but it was validation for me that grids are important. Some people don't like Susan's grids, or just don't train them. I think they feel like it's boring and easy but I've seen enough dogs knocking bars to know that grids are of importance when it comes to foundation. 

That's all I've got for now! Stay tuned for more updates!

Update on Consistency

Unfortunately, Monster and I haven't had much time to start our re-conditioning program yet. It makes me sad but my schedule at work is beginning to stabilize which will make it easier for me to plan conditioning days. Also, Monster and Punch broke into my dog food supply Friday evening and there was vomiting, IV catheters, SQ fluids, moping, and lots of water drinking. Then came the poop. SO MUCH POOP. I must have had a week's worth of dog poop in the 12 hours following the dog food break in. My boyfriend was, of course, clueless as to what had occurred and he only knew that Punch wasn't feeling well when he was crying at the door and just standing outside whining. I digress...

I HAVE had time, though, to discover a few more tools to help me up my agility game. I don't need fancy handling at the moment. What I need is consistency as I stated before. I need to know and understand my dog so that I can anticipate where I can go and where I need to be on course as well as where I need to train more skills for myself and my dog. 

 And that brings me to a course that I've signed up for. It's called a course but really I'd say it's more like a handbook to better timing on course. There isn't much feedback but general tips on how to approach these sequences to understand your dog better. There is a forum to discuss the course with other students and you have access to it for up to a year. Estimated time of completion is 4 months. Though, knowing myself, it will likely take longer. There are options for both small and large spaces. Small spaces typically have approximately 4 jumps and a tunnel and large spaces 7 jumps and a tunnel. The course is with Kathy Keats' online instruction service The Agility Coach. The course is discounted at the moment for $69 CAD (approximately $56 US dollars). I am not sure when or if the price will go back to what it was.

Normal pricing for this course is $129 CAD. This photo was taken from the course page.

Here is the description of the course directly from the website:

SECRETS OF PERFECT TIMING!

Great timing is one of the key ingredients to being a great handler and a great teammate for your dog. Yet no one has fully explained the elements of timing until now. It’s not as simple as ‘run faster’ or ‘turn sooner’ or you would have fixed your timing already!

Join the hundreds of handlers that have!

This course will help you…
…build trust between you and your dog
…know when your dog is going to perform an obstacle
…react quicker
…be more clear with your cues
…get to handling positions more quickly
…anticipate what your dog is going to do
…and much more!

I'll see what I can do to post some video of our conditioning program when it starts! I'll try to check in later!

WOW! Long Hiatus...

Where do I even begin? We have taken a long hiatus from agility, training, sports, etc. I got a little depressed that we couldn't compete or go to any classes, seminars, or run thru because of money. I wish money didn't dictate what I can and cannot do with my dogs but it just so happens that I enjoy a sport that requires money to compete and I do enjoy the competition :) The last trial we went to was Carolina Piedmont Agility in September. I loved being at a long, bigger trial than LCDA. We did some international style classes just to see how we could handle it and we had some brilliant moments but we also had some fails. Overall, I was really happy with how we did as a team. 

This break from agility has helped me reflect on where I really need to work on MY agility game. We don't get a lot of opportunities to trial so, if I want to qualify with Monster and feel good about our performance as a team, I need to really get more consistent with my handling and performance in practice and trials. I have been listening a lot lately to the Bad Dog Agility podcast (Bad Dog Agility podcast page) and it's helped me sort through my thoughts about my agility training and handling. 

The big trend right now is OMD (One Mind Dog) Handling system and training international style courses. Well, that's helpful if you have National or World Team Dreams but the courses we run on currently in the U.S. are not difficult enough, in my opinion, to apply a lot of these handling maneuvers. I doubt I will find many backsides in our Advanced Standard courses ;) There is certainly use for these "fancy" moves but, on average, we don't see much of them in U.S. courses at the moment. 

I was able to attend a Stuart Mah seminar right before our hiatus and he made a valid point. He discussed OMD and other international style handling trends and made the argument that while these systems are good handling systems they are not new nor are they going to work every time. It's important to have other tools in your toolbox in case you get behind your dog. This is where strong verbals come in handy. People used to say that verbals were not really acknowledged by the dog and were only for lazy or inured handlers. What about when you're in gamblers? Verbals can really help you out in a jam and it's important to keep your verbal tools sharp as well. 

While I think OMD style handling is cool and fun to watch on applicable courses it's not a tool I need at the moment. Hopefully, we will get to a point where it becomes a valuable but we need to go back to basics first. 

I need to start practicing some basic sequences and perform front crosses, rear crosses, pivots, serpentines, threadles, etc. and watch video to see if I am even consistent with my cues for my own dog. We don't get much feedback training by ourselves so I have to get used to giving myself feedback. That's number 3 on our list to come back. 

Number 1 on my list for our comeback is to get Monster conditioned physically again. I have formed a loose plan and hopefully I follow it better than the last one. Monster got in good shape the last time but I wasn't very consistent about tracking his progression and as a rehab tech I really should be better about that. My plan is to start with a series of exercises on a simple level and progress their difficulty as needed. We will do some planks for core, squats for rear end, land treadmill for endurance and for isolating rear and front limbs, and balance using FitPaws peanuts. We will also use Susan Salo's jump grids to remember how to jump, work on jumping skills, and strengthen him. Her new jump grid workbook is awesome! I love being able to reference her grids from her DVD's and I have seen grids that I never saw before in this book.

Susan Salo Jumping Grid Workbook

Step 2 on my comeback list is to try to get myself back in shape as well. To learn to manage my time better too. I have cancelled our cable in an effort to save money and I hope that will help me financially and from a time management standpoint. We will see how this new plan works! 

Last bit of news to share is that business finally seems to be picking up at the rehab practice and I am glad about that. I know there are more animals that need us and I am glad they are finding us at last! I will also be teaching a foundation agility class for my trainer in the next couple of weeks. She is opening a new training business and has asked me to teach a once weekly class. I am also hoping that helps me financially! I will have to come up with a course syllabus for my students and I'm sure I will post about that too!

Apologies if this post has been slightly rambling but it's hard to share MONTHS of updates into one blog post :)