As most of you know, Cuba and I have been venturing into the world of conformation together. In this respect, we are both very much “puppies,” he has as much experience as I have, which is, well, err – none.

I’ve been blogging about our experiences at a local club, where we’ve “attended” two classes. (I say “attended” because we haven’t actually participated in the class as far as getting in the ring or working on handling skills – we are going solely to work on focus and often spend as much time outside of the classroom playing Look at That as we do practicing this exercise inside the classroom.

I decided to schedule private lessons with another local trainer so that I could get some much-needed coaching developing my own skills. We had our first session today and it was wonderful!

I’ve been suspecting for a while now that Cuba was encountering a stage of development known as the “second fear period.” This awkward (and often frustrating) period of adolescence is characterized by hyper vigilance and even, signs of nervousness around stimuli to which the dog was well-socialized as a puppy. For more information on this and other stages of development, visit friend and colleague Carol Bryant’s wonderful site Diamonds in the Ruff. There are many lessons to be learned here –