TBT: Happy Birthday to Sydney!

Hello bloggies! <3

I apologize for my absence over the last few weeks, I was rehearsing for a new show and it pretty much consumed my life. I will be posting photos and a video soon so you can see what I've been up to. 

Now for today's exciting event: it's my puppy's birthday! Well she's not exactly a puppy any more, because she's turning 5 today! Happy birthday Sydney!

Five years ago I had just finished my first year of college, and over the summer I auditioned for season 8 of American Idol. It was before I had started my formal training, and I was nervous and inexperienced in auditioning and choosing appropriate repertoire. All the same, my 10 second audition didn't land me a spot on the show, and I was pretty devastated. Some backstory: after getting rejected by the ASU music school a couple times and now by AI, I was pretty shaken up and doubted my musical ability. I had changed my major from music to biology, and was pursuing a career working with animals. I had a dream of taking a semester off and going abroad to Australia to work with wildlife there.

After the brutal AI audition (it really is a twisted and excruciating "audition", I don't recommend it), I was pretty beat up over it, so my mom took me to the humane society to play with puppies. You know, just to cheer me up! Long story short, I came home with a little bundle of joy, locked up my dream to go to Australia, named her Sydney (since she became my new journey. Oh, and she's a dingo), got my dog training certification, and have loved every minute since! She really is the best dog ever, and I wouldn't trade her for the world. She is an American Dingo (also known as a carolina dog), which is a breed that isn't fully domesticated yet, so she has some "wild dog" tendencies, which makes training her a real challenge. She's extremely smart though, so its a fun challenge. She's sassy, talks a lot, and never lets a moment pass without telling me exactly how she feels about something. She's a great model too, when she's in the mood for it. Thanks for five GREAT years pup, here's to a bunch more. Happy birthday, Squid!

<3 Laurynn Elise

TBT: Snow Trip

Two winters ago, we decided to take the pups up north to see snow for the first time. They're complete desert dwelling dogs who won't go past the first step of the pool, so we had no idea how they would react to wet, freezing snow. As any good dog mamma would, my parents, Andy and I packed the pooches up in the back of the car and set off to explore. Apparently, my dog LOVES snow. She loves running through it, playing in it, eating it, and burrowing tunnels while pulling me at 20mph through it. Here are some pictures of our day!

<3 Laurynn Elise

Friday Fun Fact: Dog Training!

In September of 2008, I got certified to be a dog trainer, and have been training pooches around Arizona for the last five years. I got certified and worked for PetSmart for about a year, and have been free-lancing since then. It's a really fun side job, and it satisfies my desire to work with animals and educate people about proper pet ownership without having to be a full time zoo keeper. (Which would be awesome.) I'll probably post random pet-related tips through this blog, and have a goal to eventually put together a full length DVD set of my training curriculum. But in the meantime, what are you all curious about? Feel free to ask any pet related questions, I'm also trained and have experience with cats, small mammals, birds, reptiles, and freshwater fish. And dogs, of course. :) Here's a few training related photos, as well as my favorite student, my pup Sydney. I'm a little biased, but she's really smart.

Forgive the hair please. 

Such patience!

A student on graduation day :)

She's SO spoiled. Whatever.

Bring on the furry questions! 
<3 Laurynn Elise

A beautiful weekend.

Arizona in March is GORGEOUS. 

This weekend was certainly a fun one: spring training game, wine and cheese bar, new recipe experiments, gardening, laying out in the backyard grass, and of course lots of Starbucks! I'm spoiled.

Spring Training fun!

Yummy pizza!

Starbucks <3

Trying out our new green thumbs :)

 Playing with sun spots

And shutter speed :)

  And what's a weekend without a pet photo-shoot?!

 

No moar fotos plz.

 <3 Laurynn Elise