Last Updated on November 6, 2025 by Kim Crawmer, KPA CTP, LFDM
Hello Reader, How is your week going? Mine is busy but great! After a few months of anticipation, I finally started the Karen Pryor Academy Dog Trainer Professional program this week! If you aren’t familiar with KPA DTP, it’s a program through which people can become certified professional dog trainers. The program is science-based and highly respected throughout the world.
I have thought long and hard about doing this program for years and finally decided it was time to take the leap. At the end of the intensive 6-month program, I will be better equipped to train and support my Maremma puppies, their owners, and anyone needing help training their LGD. With the failure rate of LGDs being as high as 30% and very few credible resources out there, these dogs and their owners sorely need all the help they can get. And I aim to give it to them! So, if you own an LGD or are considering getting one, stay tuned to this email list because I will share some of what I am learning as I go through the program. I have only worked on the first lesson so far, but I am already learning so much and enjoying it. A commitment like this requires me to put a lot of my other priorities on hold for now (we will have very few if any, baby goats born in 2024), but I can tell it’s going to be well worth the sacrifice. I want to introduce you to my training partner, Luna. She is our sweet “miniature” Boxer. No, there’s not really any such a thing as Mini Boxers, but Luna is only about 35 lbs, so she looks like a Mini Boxer to me. And since I breed Mini Nubian goats, that’s pretty cool!
I chose Luna as a training partner because she’s sweet and intelligent and will be easier to train than a Maremma, and it will be less complicated to take her to the in-person workshop in April than a Maremma would be. (Though it would be very cool to take a Maremma!) But I will practice everything I learn with the Maremmas and make many videos to share with you. I am working on a blog post with tutorial videos on how to teach your LGD to stop jumping on you! This is one of the most frequent issues people request help with, and after having someone ask me again about it yesterday, I went outside and made a video of myself training two of my Maremmas. I hoped to get it ready in time to link it to this email, but I am very slow at writing, and my internet is even slower at uploading videos to iCloud. So, I decided to go ahead and send this email and finish the tutorial post for the next issue. Since I don’t have a Maremma training video to share with you, here is a cute video of my youngest (for now!) granddaughter, Everleigh, “training” her new Boxer puppy, Tucker, to sit. Aren’t they both adorable?! That’s another reason why the 2024 kidding season will be drastically reduced or delayed. Everleigh is going to be a big sister in March! And my oldest son and his wife are expecting their 4th baby in May! So, with the Professional workshop in April and trips to the East Coast in March and May, I haven’t figured out when I can fit baby goats into the schedule. Hopefully, I’ll figure out how to squeeze in at least a few litters between trips because I will miss baby goats. I have had them yearly since 2016, and I won’t know what to do without at least a few cute kids to play with! Ok, I usually like to give you a link to a blog post or something else of use, but since I didn’t finish my post, below are a few links for you. I love to listen to podcasts while feeding my animals and doing barn chores. Below are some of the ones on my list: The Bitey End of the Dog Podcast by Michael Shikashio For the Love of Goats Podcast by Deborah Nieman I want to start sharing valuable links in future emails, so if you have anything dog or goat-related you think people would benefit from, please reply and let me know. (Send a link if you can.) This can be anything: books, podcasts, websites, products, time-saving tips. You name it! Now I need to feed the dogs and goats and study for Professionals! But I love hearing from our subscribers. Let me know if you have any questions about Maremma Sheepdogs or dairy goats or if you have anything at all you’d like to share. Just hit reply to this e-mail and say hello! Kim PS If you would like to reserve a Maremma Sheepdog or dairy goat, you can do so by clicking the links below.
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20227 Fremont Ave, Lemoore, CA 93245 |
