Need encouragement, so I knew to come here - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Well, it was interesting and I learned a LOT! It's a loooong story.
We got there at 7:20 AM and it was rainy and drizzly all day. My friend that I've made via our local Labrador club provided the land that the test was taking place on. She introduced me to the judge and we chatted for a while. He was very kind and as I got introduced to everybody they were extremely welcoming. They've all been doing this together for more than 30 years and most of them were field trial judges too. They were entertained that Isaac is our second dog and first Labrador.
We did the handlers meeting and the judge, knowing I was brand new, gave a lot of detail. I got a TON of support and encouragement as I knew it was unlikely Isaac would recall once he got the duck. The group talked me through what my options were during the test for various scenarios of Isaac running so I felt pretty ready when we got up to the line.
We were the sixth pair to go and we ended up being the primary entertainment for the day. The shooter shot, quacked and threw the duck. Isaac was about to explode but he stayed in his sit and I barely had to hold his collar, so I could tell he was listening to me and waiting. I sent him out and he took a straight line to the duck. Found the duck and then.....decided he needed to go visit Shannon and Darlene behind the blind. So he pranced around the field for a while just playing. He even ran about halfway back to look at me before running back to the duck. He finally picked up the duck and I could finally start yelling at him "Here! Here! Here!". That started the second phase of the game. He ran all over that field carrying the duck. He wasn't shaking it (Thank God) just carrying it. As he would come towards us, I would run the other direction (never run towards a dog if you want them to come to you. They take that as a signal that you want them to go the other direction and they will.)
To pass, Isaac had to get the duck to a certain zone on the field. Me running the other way finally got him into the zone and everyone cheered, even the judge! But we still couldn't get him to come close enough for us to catch him. Everybody was giving me directionw at that point. I tried sitting down, Karen had me whistling and we all tried so many things. Finally Don, one of the old man judges that has been doing it forever, came up behind me and said, stand here and he picked up another duck and waved the other duck at Isaac. That did it! Isaac decided that might be a better duck and we were able to catch him.
Yep, we were the entertainment. But after that fun, they were all so amazing and encouraging that it wasn't as bad as I thought. Brenda said, "Now nothing will feel embarrassing. You know it's all fun now." The judge was laughing himself silly too and told me after, no worries, he has great instinct and we'll narrow in on things to work on.
After the experienced dogs did the land retrievals , we went down to the water for those retrieves. Isaac was really worked up by then. Jake, his dogs are like watching a symphony when they run, talked me through getting Isaac to the blind with more control since he was getting pretty wild wanting to get all the ducks. He helped calm me a bit when Isaac starting being very pully and let me get my focus back so Isaac would focus. We got to the pond and the judge had me stand as close to the edge as I could. He said that would help with discouraging bank running (you want the dog to swim in the water to the duck and not run along the bank to find the shortest water route). The first duck, Isaac took the straightest line of all the dogs that day. It was beautiful!! He even brought that duck back to me. It went better than any other thing that day.
But then the second water duck was our total failure. I got him positioned right and the duck was thrown and he started with a beautiful line again and hit a log! He got tangled up on top of a log that was floating and that was it. It completely blew his buffer and he forgot about the duck. After he got off the log, he started swimming around for fun, got on the bank and sniffed than jumped back into the water and just started playing. We waited but it was obvious he completely forgot about the duck. I asked them to throw a rock and they quacked and then threw a rock and that got his attention and he went straight to the duck and got it. Then he goofed around for a while before bringing it back again but at least it wasn't quite as bad as the land retrieve.
The judge said again, "No worries, you'll get there." I put up Isaac and we watched the rest of the dogs. We spent some time talking with everyone after. We talked about what I need to narrow my training focus to. I've been so broad in what we've been working on to try to at least be able to do this that I've missed the finer bits of his obedience. Talking with the group, I've got a more focused plan now. Right now, it's all about recall and heeling and nothing else. I've got some articles on inducement fetching that I'm reading now.
In the end, for all the crazy antics, it was a fantastic day with fantastic people.
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I knew it would end up being a great experience for you. You Isaac is such a cutie and I just know that with some growing up and some training, he'll be a great retriever.
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