The start of something new

Today marks the beginning. I'm not exactly sure exactly what is beginning - other than this blog. Maybe it will go no where, but for now, it's an opportunity to write. And there's no way to get better at writing than to write. Basically, there isn't supposed to be an audience for this blog. That way there's no need to worry about what people think, how someone might react, etc.

This past weekend, I traveled to Seattle for the first annual SPARCS conference - that stands for Society for the Promotion of Applied Research in Canine Science. The overall "SPARCS Initiative" is to get the ball rolling in terms of discussions on canine research and where it is, where it has been, and where it is going. I was lucky enough to attend in person, but the entire conference was also broadcasted FREE via live streaming for everyone and anyone to attend -- and even participate in the conversation via a twitter feed.

After coming back from Seattle, I've spent the past 24 hours either sleeping, eating, or visiting websites, blogs, Twitter feeds, Facebook pages -- anything I can find and subscribe to in order to stay inspired. I guess I also spent some time playing with the puppies. So much doggie withdrawal after no contact for 3 whole days!

A little bit of housekeeping for myself:

Goals for this blog

• Post DAILY updates on things I've learned at Mustang Camp (starting 7/10/13)
• Read and review a research article at least 1x per week

General goals for this summer

• Get a manuscript complete for the memory study
• Read books: Dog Sense (Bradshaw), Dogs (Coppinger), Inside of a Dog (Horowitz), How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves (Yin)
• Read and take notes: Dog Behavior, Evolution and Cognition (Miklosi)

We'll see how this goes! I have one more week before leaving for New Mexico. Going to help my sister move into her new house. We are going furniture shopping in the morning, and then I need to pack things to ship over to Mustang Camp so that my stuff is there when I arrive. Hopefully tomorrow I can get some work done for CattleDog Publishing too. I've been meaning to update the Behavior Assistant's Protocol for months now; really need to get that into working condition for Lauren.

Love this web-diary format. Hope it continues to go well. I really doubt that I will get very much writing practice from this if I continue with using such a relaxed writing style, but maybe my article reviews will be more serious. We'll see how it pans out.