Happy New Year! I hope this new year finds you, your family, friends and pets happy and healthy. I want to thank all my clients and students for making 2006 a great year! I couldn’t have done it without you. You’ve all worked very hard and made great progress and reached personal milestones. You both humble and make me very proud.
The new year is bringing exciting things for Semper Fido. On February 1, 2007, I will be opening a new location. I am grateful to Dog Abby for their space but the need and requests for more classes are growing! In order to better serve you and the dog-owning community, I have decided to rent my own space. The new location is located at 796 Dean Street between Washington Avenue and Grand Avenue (on the corner of Washington) in Prospect Heights. The neighborhood is nice and safe and very convenient to many of you by car, foot, subway and bus. The space is walk-able from Prospect Heights, Ft. Greene and the North Slope. The Washington Avenue stop on the A/C is just three short blocks from the new building and the B65 bus stops in front of the building.
The space is a 1000 s/f garage with a 500 s/f back yard. It’s a wide open space and perfect for dog training. The great news is that the landlord has a dog walking/pet sitting business in Manhattan and is very excited about having a dog-related business in the space. I plan to get the floors matted in the first couple of days and we’ll be ready to start classes on February 7. In addition to Puppy: First Impressions, Training Fundamentals, Small Dog Fundamentals and Agility, I hope to offer Clicks for Tricks, Training Fundamentals 2, AKC Canine Good Citizen testing, Rally Obedience (I have an instructor lined up so please let me know if you have interest. Whispy and I will be taking the class for sure!) I will also be offering a class specifically for reactive/difficult dogs. There will be lectures about all sorts of dog-related topics, seminars, play dates for puppies and small dogs. I will be doing private lessons in the space, including private agility lessons. In addition, I will be conducting day care board and trains. There is also a possibility of building rental for Meetup.com groups, birthday parties and of course, class reunions. I have a few instructors- in-training who are wonderful so hopefully, Whisper and I will have time to gear up for the spring agility season!
I have posted a class schedule on my web site http://www.semperfidony.com/Classes.html . There is more good news! I now accept credit card payment through Paypal and electronic enrollment on my web site. The following classes are currently on the schedule:
1) Small Dog Fundamentals (this is now a 7-week class!): Starts Wednesday, February 7 at 7:00 PM
2) Puppy First Impressions: Starts Saturday, February 10 at 10:30 AM and Saturday, March 10 at 10:30 AM. There will be a weeknight puppy class added in the spring.
3) Training Fundamentals: Starts Saturday, February 10 at Noon and Wednesday, February 28 at 8:30 PM.
4) Agility FUNdamentals Level 1: Starts Sunday February 11 at 10:30 AM
5) Agility FUNdamentals Level 2: Starts Sunday, February 11 at Noon
After the space has been made ready, I will be having an open house. But please feel free to call me in February if you would like to come by and take a look at the space.
Once I install internet service in the new location, I will be using it as an office. Zoe and Whisper will be with me so hopefully they can now get lots of training, especially Zoe. She needs to be able to have some one-on-one training time with me which has been difficult in my current situation. Whisper is having surgery to fix her deformed female parts on Sunday. Please send her good thoughts for a speedy recovery.
And of course, if there are any handy people out there who would like to help me get the space together, please let me know. We can discuss a discount for upcoming classes if you enroll! I’m very open to decorating or design ideas!
On a different note, I’m very excited to say that my first real published article was released this month. It’s an article called “It’s Not Easy Being Green” and it’s published in the international agility magazine, Clean Run. Because of copyright laws, I can’t make copies but I’ll have copies of the magazine available for you to read. Or support Clean Run and purchase the January 2007 issue on their web site http://www.cleanrun.com Also one of my best friends, Leslie McDevitt is releasing her first book, also published by Clean Run. It’s a great book geared towards stressed or distracted dogs but a wonderful program for all dogs. I’ll let you know when it comes out. It will be on my recommended reading list!
Finally be sure to check the blog on the web site for more exciting updates. I will continue to make my web site fun for existing and new clients. If you would like to participate by sending me a testimonial and or your dog’s photo, please contact me. I hope to see you all in the coming months.
All the best,
Dawn
