Wow, has it been a month already? Time certainly flys when you're having fun! I finished up my Unleashed Book Tour in April and thank you to all that came out to see me at the Costco's and Chapters- what a blast that was!

News:

We have 4 new CET's who have joined the family and one of them being our first American CET. We will be starting a new course here in Kelowna at the end of May. We will also be bringing the course to Toronto this August and hopefully to Halifax in October. If you, or someone else may be interested in the Certified Educator Trainer course, find out more details here.

At the end of April, Hustle Up™ hosted it's second annual CET conference. This is a mandatory 4 day conference where we have continued education and guest speakers. It is also a fantastic opportunity for all the CET's to get to know each other and pull from each others experiences. We climbed some mountains, had great information shared to us by Dr. Tiffany Lennox out of Calgary, and our Dog Food Guy, Steve Gregory, from Sunshine Pets, here in the Okanagan. As well, 2 of my mentors, Steve and Peggy. I would like to extend my gratitude to all who attended, and we are already busy making plans for 2011.

I started my seminar tour back in March in Fort McMurray, and then resumed it in Vancouver last weekend. Thus far, I have been to Vancouver, Victoria, Hamilton, and heading off to Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Calgary and finishing up in good ol Edmonton.
If you are interested in further information, go to the Seminar Page.

Viewer Question of the Week:

Q: Hi Brad-
We have recently acquired a lovely male ( 5 months old-not neutered yet, but soon!) Australian Shepherd.  We are currently in Obedience training with him at the Beginner level.  We previously owned a Cane Corso who at 10 years of age developed Osteosarcoma.  We amputated her right front leg last April and had her pain free for another 6 months before it spread to her lungs.  We lost Lira in September.  We had 3 cats at the time , all 8 years of age,  Because Lira never lived inside and seemed very leary of the cats there was never a problem.  In her later years and after her illness she lived quietly in the house but avoided the cats like the plague.  She wouldn't look them in the eye!  "Tonic" is a member of the household and the cats are not impressed.  I am torn, because, as a veterinary technologist, I have witnessed the euthanasia of cats who start to " mess the house, etc in response to the stress of a new dog.  We have been so slow and cautious in our introduction of Tonic to the cats to avoid that very problem.  He has free reign of the kitchen and laundry room, and we take him down into the family room with a leash attached in case he goes after the cats.  We have had him for 10 weeks now.  The cats are behaving - no problems in the house with them, but I am reluctant and unsure of the next step in the introduction process.  Would having him on umbilical throughout the day and around the kitties help in the process or is there some other way to progress in our slow, but steady blending of the canine and felines in our home? He met a neighbors cat on the street and was very loving towards the cat, even licking it.  To make matters more interesting we are moving into a new home and it won't be quite as easy to seperate the cat / dog areas.
We love the cats and want to spare them any undue stress and fright - and would love it if Tonic could have a bit more freedom in the house.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

A: Dear Kitty cats and Puppy,

I am intregued by this email, It is cleary stated you have concerns that are manifested by the out come other peoples attitudes towards pets. Does that mean you shall not experience life yourself and test the waters to see how the cats and puppy may co exhist together happily? I see that you want to have wonderful relationship between puppy and cats but you will never get there if you don't truly try. You are experiencing beauty between your puppy and another cat but you have yet to open the door to see if your puppy will be accepted by your own cats. Lets turn this around with out so much caution and fear. Take a step forward not to the side.
Introduce them while the puppy is a puppy not a full grown dog, I would make sure the introductions are monitored but let the animals decide the structure of the friendship. My fear is that when you move to your new home, if the cats soil elsewhere and act out of sorts, will you be blaming the puppy and not pinning the issue on the new environment. Dogs and cats are ANIMALS first. They have different communication skills and they are two separate species. Appreciate this and create an equal environment, keeping your puppy confined is not helping teach your puppy the do's and don'ts to respect the cats and this is making life stressful. There are no guarantees here except that if you don't try then you will never know.

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