Pat’s Blog

Academies!!! And – Fires in California

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CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES It is with a very heavy heart that I watch the news reports of multiple out-of-control wildfires in California. You can see all the fires here: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/california-fire-map/ I worked at the Marin Humane Society for 20 years (Marin County is just north of San Francisco, on the other end of the Golden Gate Bridge), lived in Sonoma County (where several of the fires are), moved to Monterey/Santa Cruz in 1996 (another wildfire hotspot) where I was on the Board of the Santa Cruz SPCA, and Paul and I purchased 160 wilderness acres outside of Red Bluff in Tehama County (yet […]

Academy Time, Pig Pumpkins and Imitation

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ACADEMY TIME! We are just one week away from our first Trainer Academy of the year – and I’m so looking forward to it! We had to postpone 3 months worth of academies due to coronavirus, and now we’ve crammed them all into the rest of the year, so it’s going to be a busy next-five months!! It’s a bit humbling to realize we are now in our 18th Academy year and I have had the incredible good fortune to personally meet, interact, teach, become friends with and hopefully influence some 500 academy student trainers over these 18 years. Thank […]

Hidden Talents – Tracking Turtles with Josie

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It’s been an interesting week at Peaceable Paws… but then, aren’t they all? We continue to work through the challenges of starting up our classes outdoors – electrician is coming on Tuesday to give us some quotes on providing lighting – to see if we can do classes after dark – and we’ve ordered an Amish 8×10 wooden storage shed for some of our equipment, so we don’t have to keep lugging everything back inside after class. Wonderful husband Paul is leveling a spot for it near the training yard with the tractor, and with cream-colored siding and green roof […]

Diversity on the Farm, Classes are ON – and Commando Crawl

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CLASSES ARE ON!!!!!! Not only are they ON… the response has been terrific!!! Our Basic Good Manners and Puppy Classes are all full, and Beyond Good Manners is just one shy of full. We do still have room in the Brain Candy Workshop in August, (8/15-16) if you are looking for a fun getaway weekend with your dog. We are experimenting with the new outdoor format – where to put chairs and canopies, how many barriers we need, and how to weight them properly with sandbags so they don’t blow over. We normally have access to tethers indoors (with eye […]

Almost Summer – Teaching “Wait a Minute” and Peaceable Paws is Almost Open!

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TRAINING NEWS I’m happy to report that our classes are filling up nicely! I was concerned that COVID-19 might keep people away, but we only have a few openings left, including a couple of spots in my Fidos on Farm class… You can sign up for classes on our website: www.peaceablepaws.com. We officially open tomorrow (Monday, June 15). Come hike and train with us! We continue to put finishing touches on our coronavirus protection plans – getting cement blocks for outdoor tethering, sandbags to keep barriers from blowing over, chairs and canopies are all purchased, and we have hand sanitizers […]

Coyote Capers and Re-Opening at Peaceable Paws

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WILDLIFE ADVENTURES Well, it’s certainly been an interesting week here on the Peaceable Paws farm. We had previously seen a coyote at the far edge of one of our fields, at least a quarter mile from the house, and Paul had found the remains of a raccoon in that same field. This week we saw her out our back bedroom window frisking along a fence in the horse pasture at 7:30 one morning (about 200 feet from the house) and she has left the remains  of  two more raccoons and parts of 4 very young fawns in the driveway down […]

Of Protests, Riots… Peonies and Peace

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Incredulous, aghast, heartbroken, dumbfounded… first coronavirus, now this. Watching the protests and riots on television takes me back to the 60’s when, as a child, I watched our cities burning. Have we truly come this far… only to have gone nowhere? Maybe not quite. My heart warmed to the photo of the row of white women standing shoulder-to-shoulder, shielding black protesters from the police. And the photo of police officers taking a knee in solidarity with peaceful protesters. We will get through this, too, and hopefully come out better and stronger on the other side. I know that as a […]

A Careful Re-Opening – and… SPRING!!

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First – and most important – all of us at Peaceable Paws hope all of you and all of yours are staying safe, sane and well. I feel like we are living in a bad science fiction movie, just waiting for the credits to roll so we can get up and leave. Every day I am struck by how much this has changed – and will continue to change – life as we know it. I am cautiously excited though… with Maryland’s Governor Hogan starting the reopening process last week in our state we are in the in the midst […]

GREAT Day For a Hike!!! and Doggie Nail Files

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HIKE!!! It finally got out of the 50’s here in Western Maryland… yesterday and today in the 80’s, YAY, that’s more like it!!!!! Today was a GREAT day for a hike – sunny, nice breeze, so, of course, I had to take the dogs out for a run, and we all had a great time.                   They ran and ran and ran and ran, (Kai gets to go off leash, Sunny stays on a long line), waded in the creek, stopped to smell the flowers and are now both appropriately crashed on […]

Country Living – and Teaching Walk Away!

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We’re in the second week of May and wind chill was in the 20’s last night. Seriously??? I might as well be back in Wisconsin!!! But back in the 60’s today, phew! I just got done brushing Mikey (our driving pony), combing out his mane and tail and trimming bridle path – so nice to be standing out in the warm sun!! I hope you are well and staying sane during the shut-in. We are hoping to be able to start up our group classes in June, beginning with outdoor classes… but we’ll see. One day at a time… I must […]

Equine Ponderings, Some Pretty Flowers – and More Training Fun – Back the Truck Up!

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Hope you are all continuing to stay safe and well as this coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on our world… I’ve decided that as soon as we are okay to re-open, we need to start with a Fidos on the Farm class so everyone can take their dogs for a good long hike outdoors!!! I have adored horses ever since I was a little girl. I started riding lessons at Red Raider Farms, outside of Cleveland, Ohio (sung on the bus that picked us up to take us to lessons: “I’m Red Raider born and Red Raider bred and when […]

C-mon Spring!

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It’s a wet and chilly spring here at PPaws, and it’s putting a damper on getting those farm projects done! I did manage to attack the overgrown boxwoods by our front door yesterday. The Hosta is grateful… And in doing so, found my long-lost turtle statue that I have been looking for! Please note – we have two front doors and two back doors – this is the one on the older part of our pre-Civil War era farm house, and we never use it except to bring our Christmas tree in an out of the house. And when for […]