Hi Backyard Dog Trainers! Today is the last day of the May BINGO Challenge. Thank you to all who participated! Congratulations to Emily and Dunkin, Lori and Drover, and Lori and Doby for completing Bingo! And EXTRA congratulations to Charlotte and Bluebell, Jen and Sommer, Emily and Tali, and Emily and Brady for earning Bingo Blackout! Now, for something more serious. I've invested a fair bit of time and effort in this Skool group, but probably not enough to grow it to the point of being worth the money I'm paying every month to keep it open. This is my fault, but between looking at my dwindling bank account and my limited time available, I think that I need to make a change. I imagined this would be a group where people would interact with each other and drive the group a bit, but it seems to have dwindled to only a few people who interact with me based on my prompts. Skool is designed to be a site for people who want to make money and sell classes in their communities. I've not monetized the community in that way. However, to keep it going, I need to figure out something so that I'm not spending hours of time each week AND paying Skool to keep it afloat. My credit card bills say I need to take a different route, ha! I'm also very scattered across platforms, and that's making it difficult for me to have a successful work/life balance. As I see it, the options are for me to 1. create short courses or offer lessons through this Skool (but there would have to be people who want to purchase these regularly), or 2. move the group to a free platform and change up how it works. I'm leaning toward #2 but could be convinced of #1 if there is interest. In regards to moving the group, I feel like my options, based on what I know right now, are to create a Facebook group, which most of you are familiar with, or to create a Substack. I already run Facebook groups, and I already have a non-dog-related Substack, so I'm comfortable using both platforms. A Facebook group would allow people to post easily and would allow and encourage a lot of general chatting, which is what I thought would happen in this Skool group, but it's not. The notifications on Facebook are better than those on Skool. No matter what I do here, I don't get notified that people have posted until much later (if at all). I feel like it's easier to spot a spammer/scammer on Facebook and keep them out. I don't like trying to decide who is a scammer here and who is not.

Did you do anything doggy this weekend? I didn't do anything official; on Saturday, I just worked on socializing my puppy by having some family drop by and watch him pretend to be a show dog :) On Sunday, I took the show on the road by taking him to my parents' house to check out their pool. I brought my Whippet, who used to do a lot of dock diving, and he did a bunch of jumping in. My Chihuahua, who is suffering from liver failure, wanted to come too, so he did as well. You can see a silly video I made from our visit at the link below. Tell us what you did this weekend! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RBh4o-J1IFA

My weekend isn't going to be super doggy, but I believe I have a conformation practice scheduled with a friend tomorrow. I think we are going to meet at a PetSmart and do some gaiting out front as well as inside. She owns his brother, and they will likely show against each other, so we want them to be ready to do their best and not distract each other. I'm also working on Fetch practice in my yard -- I'm trying to teach my dog Parker to go to the spot I'm directing him to in order to get the ball, even though there is another ball in another spot. At the same time, I'm working on forward focus in agility with him. I'm excited that he's finally getting the idea of running directly from tunnel to tunnel without checking in (I'm working at a distance and he'd like me to be closer). My goal is to be able to direct him at a distance in CPE Speedway. What are you up to? PS-I'm going to do a bingo game for the May challenge so get ready!