Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

Everything cycles. I’ve gotten out of the habit of regular exercise. Every once in a while I think it’s good to take a break and go through a softening period. It allows me to fully recover and to start again fresh. Even during the most recent hiatus, I still maintained an active lifestyle. In large part, thanks to my dog. I walk River at least twice a day and often go on short runs with him. I also get down on the floor and wrestle around for about twenty minutes almost every day. Also, during the time I wasn’t ‘working out’ I still taught Nia classes now and then and practiced my routine in my home studio. So I was far from sedentary. But about a month ago I decided to get back into my old routine. I was inspired by seeing a picture of myself taken a few months ago and comparing that to what I saw in the mirror. It was clear that the time off I had given myself to soften up had done just that. I know from experience that it isn’t a good idea to jump right into full blown workou...

Although much of my communication with River is through body language and gestures and quite a bit of it is through my tone and intention, there are a number of words that it is clear that he recognizes and responds to, even out of context. 

RIVER - he recognizes his name, but his response is not prescribed SIT - he sits LIE DOWN - he lies down GO LIE DOWN - he walks over to his bed (usually used when I’m at the dinner table) HERE - he knows I have something in my hand

 COME - he immediately walks to me

 STAY - he stays where he is

 STOP - he stops walking and sits down

 WAIT - he stops walking but doesn’t have to sit

 HUNGRY - indicates food is imminent FOOD - same as above GET YOUR _________ - he’ll go and retrieve the item indicated. Items he can ‘get’ are:     KONG - feeding toy     TOY - rope used for tugging     ROPE - another word for ‘toy’
       BEAR - stuffed animal ...

UPDATED: JANUARY 2, 2014 Full Schedule: 1- Take the Class Sunday, January 5 4:00 - 5:00pm Century Ballroom West Hall 915 E Pine St. Second Floor Class is open to the public for $10 --FREE to those attending the full training. 2- Do the 8BCs Saturday, January 11 2:00 - 6:00 pm JAG Studio 1208 E Republican St, Capitol Hill, Seattle 3- Learn the Moves Saturday, January 18 2:30 - 6:30 pm Dance Space Studio, Greenwood, Seattle 4- Teach what you Know GOLDFINGER teacher Jam Saturday, February 1 11:00 am - Noon Century Ballroom West Hall 915 E Pine St. Second Floor Class is open to the public for $5 Cost for full training is $75. If you attended the BOND GIRLS training in October of 2010, you can attend the GOLDFINGER training at a discount. Scroll to the bottom of this page to preregister, or pay in cash on the day of the first class. None of the sessions are required to learn the routine. If you can't make a session and are still interested in learning it, contac...