Rewarding Work

Positive reinforcement gains good results in dog training, and it does the same for my self-discipline. Rewards keep me working. Like Pugs, I am food-oriented and I do use food rewards to keep me on task all day. After a long, continuous workload of 12-18 hour days, a bigger reward is due. I am looking forward to a little day trip, just enough to shake off some of the clay dust. Being self-employed, the hours are what I set for myself, but unlike other employment, I also work every night shift and every weekend. To maximize duration of reward road trips, I find ways to make each one doubly functional (fun, yet business related). It is not often that I get to combine Pugs, visiting friends, delivering orders, and raising funds for something near and dear to my heart.

I have been looking forward to the Greater Atlanta Pug Specialty show for months. I plan to visit with friends, meet some in person for the first time, and sketch some gorgeous Pugs. I have a vending table reserved, and a mess of back orders to deliver. Right there, it's both business and pleasure.

On the fundraising side, it also a double. The Puggy bank-custom-to-planter that I donated to this show is being raffled for the Pug Dog Club of America's Health Fund. My original Puggy Bank limited edition sold out in two hours, so this is a rare variant of a very hard-to-get item. The planter will be displayed at my vendor table.


Independent of the show, I finished the Pawprint Ornaments that you've been reading about. I will be bringing the available ones to sell at my table, and all proceeds also go to the PDCA Health Fund. The Health Fund sponsors research in Pug diseases, including developing testing. Through this work, and when breeders apply the test results to their selection processes, these inherited diseases may be eradicated.

Tonight, the kiln is cooking, the Pugs are snoring, and I'm dreaming of my reward day out.