Diseases Preventable by Vaccination

Great title, right?

Our 4-H'ers this year are -extremely- enthusiastic. But especially about diseases preventable by vaccination.

"PARVOVIRUS!"

We spend about half an hour on obedience training, half an hour working on knowledge/handling/skills without dogs, and half an hour on showmanship.

During the knowledge part, we do a quick review on things we've talked about before (breed groups, diseases preventable by vaccination, parts of a dog). And the favorite, by far, are the diseases!

"PARAINFLUENZA!"

It's interesting to see the responses we're getting this year compared to past years in regards to training skills, knowledge skills, and handling skills. Unsurprisingly, "breaking it down" is even benefiting our members who have been involved for much longer.

"RABIES!"

Our 'curriculum materials' have continued to be modified, based on what's happening. And I hope I get the opportunity to keep working on this for several more years. This year we had 7 new members. We've NEVER had seven new members at once before! And we have practices twice a week. Most are only coming to one... but the twice a week is making it so kids are coming to more practices than in the past, have higher participation, and higher skill levels. Unlike past years, most of our dogs do not have 'behavior issues severe enough to impact the 4-H project'.

"LEPTOSPIROSIS!"

Another change for this year is our homework policy. In the past, we'd pass out weekly handouts and email them too. This year, all the homework is sent by email, after class, so that we're sure to include what we worked on and even have specific comments to certain teams.

We also include links to videos by other people, from big websites (like Westminster...they were to watch "their" breeds and juniors), and videos we create specifically for our curriculum. Horray for the magic of the internet and the accessibility of youtube!

"DISTEMPER!"

We love our kids...and are starting the frantic work on our dog 4-H camp and 4-H workshops to give our kids cool opportunities to learn more, do more, and be further challenged.

There's nothing like the enthusiasm of kids shouting out diseases!

Now, off to train my own dog.