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Rebecca Dabney

@valkyrie_heyfarm

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Dog trainer at The Hey Farm
Protection, service and pet dog training in Robertsdale, AL
UglyChews discount code: valkyrie_heyfarm

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To be fair, I am not good at math either 🤷🏼‍♀️

#mathproblem #dogmath #malinois #belgianmalinois #funnydogsofinstagram taken in Robertsdale, Alabama by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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2 days ago

Sage and I earned our 3rd leg of PSA Level 1 at the Midwest Regionals this weekend. While we didn’t place high enough to qualify for worlds I’m super happy with our performance. We worked our butt off the last two weeks and not only did we NOT have a repeat of our last showing but we were one wonky step on an about-turn away from the highest scores in obedience. He gave me his all and he got to take a decoy down in return 😆

Thank you to Lori & my club for holding things down (quite literally through the hurricane!) while I was gone and supporting me every step of the way 🩷🖤

We may dabble in the 1s next year again but I am sooo ready to start training the 2s! Let’s gooo!

#psa1 #bitework #workingdog #protectiondog #belgianmalinois taken in Union, MO by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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6 days ago

Creepy!! 😳

#cryptid #cryptids #cryptidcore #spooky taken in Pacific, Missouri by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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8 days ago

When it rains, it fucking pours.

It seems like everyone around me is going through some crazy shit right now, myself included. Illnesses, injuries, disappointments, betrayals, one thing after another. And now? An actual fucking hurricane headed our way. Because apparently we needed a little extra spice. 🙃

I’m a resilient person. I’ve been through worse, pulled myself out of some dark places, started over, and rebuilt myself from scratch more times than I can count.

But resilience doesn’t mean you don’t struggle.

I’m writing this from a valley in my own life right now. I’m not here to tell anyone how to handle their shit, but I want to share two things that have helped me tremendously.

1. Radical acceptance.

Stop fighting reality. Whatever happened, is happening, or is coming your way—face it for exactly what it is.

Don’t rewrite the story to make it more comfortable. Don’t make excuses for people who hurt you. Don’t pretend the storm isn’t coming.

My personal mantra before dealing with something awful is, “Well! This is gonna suck!”

I say it to myself exactly one time. And then I do the thing.

2. Learn to sit with the feeling.

Your emotions are real, but they aren’t always logical. And they don’t have to be.

You don’t have to justify your sadness, explain your anger, or talk yourself out of your fear.

Just fucking feel it.

Without shame. Without guilt. Without needing to make sense of it.

I’ve experienced more trauma than I care to recount. But something I’ve noticed is that I can now look back on many of those experiences and remember exactly how I felt without actually feeling those emotions all over again.

The memories are still there. The lessons are still there. But the emotional weight no longer owns me.

And THAT is the goal.

Not to become someone who doesn’t feel. Not to forget what happened. Not to pretend everything is fine.

But to learn to experience your emotions without becoming a prisoner to them.

Accept what is. Feel what you feel. Learn what you can. And keep fucking going.

You can be resilient and still be having a really hard time. Both things can be true. ❤️

#resilience #motivation #thisisgoingtosuck #hurricaneisaias taken in Robertsdale, Alabama by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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10 days ago

Spooky Season is here and my shop Red Dirt K9 Apparel has some cool new shirt designs for the haunted handlers in your life!

My ideas brought to life by the talented @djartisticdesigns

Discount code SPOOKYSEASON10 for 10% off this collection through Halloween.

www.reddirtk9apparel.com

Stay Spooky. Stay Feral. 👻

#workingdogs #workingdoggear #reddirtk9 #mummy #grimreaper by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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14 days ago

🚨 It pains me to announce that Sage has officially been declared a dangerous dog.

I never wanted it to come to this, but he has now sent me to the hospital TWICE this year.

Has he bitten me? No.
Has he attacked me? No.
Is he aggressive toward me? Absolutely not.

He just plays tug like a fucking crocodile having a seizure.

Last time: badly sprained thumb.

This time: middle finger broken.

This is also why you rarely see me actively playing tug with him. My fingers get caught in handles and are no match for the thrashing of a 90lb Malinois. I heard the snap before I felt it.

On the bright side, I’ll be permanently flipping everyone off for the foreseeable future. 🖕🏻

The life of a working dog handler…..

#dangerousdog #dangerousdogs #protectiondog #belgianmalinois #workingdoglife taken in The Hey Farm by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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16 days ago

Commandment #7.

How someone handles losing (or sometimes just not reaching a goal on a given day) tells me an awful lot about them. I’ve seen some very poor examples. And… I’m happy to say that I’ve recently seen some very good examples. Yes, dogs will be dogs. Yes, sometimes dogs have an “off” day. And yes, sometimes more training and/or preparation is needed. Regardless of which is the case, how you handle it speaks volumes about your character. So, maybe…

https://youtu.be/CvmJPGDpaAE?is=o8Ves94JMs3C6LR6

#dogsportcommandments #bethechangeyouwanttosee #losewithgrace #winwithgrace by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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19 days ago

I have a saying about dogs at trials:

They will “never never” like they’ve never nevered before. 😂

And Sage embodied that today.

My dog decided to spend his obedience routine window shopping every toy on the field to the point that I eventually had to pull him. He was off even during the warm-up, and he just never managed to pull it together.

He has never done that before in training.
He has never done that before on a trial field.

But like I said…they’ll never never like they’ve never nevered before. 🙃

Of course I’m disappointed. We train hard, we travel, we put in the time, and we step onto that field hoping all that work shows up with us.

But I will never be mad at my dog for having a bad day.

Dogs aren’t machines. Sometimes they’re off. Sometimes the environment hits differently. Sometimes the dog you know inside and out suddenly does something completely out of character at the worst possible moment.

That’s dog training. And that’s trialing.

Sage doesn’t know what a qualifying score is. He doesn’t know what I spent to get here or what I hoped we’d accomplish today. He just knows that he and I went out on a field together—and today wasn’t his day.

So we’ll take the information, go back to training, and try again.

Love the dog more than the sport. Always. ❤️

#dogtraining #dogtrainer #dogsports taken in Snyder, Texas by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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20 days ago

Sometimes you’ve gotta loosen your grip.

I made a post recently about letting go of the outcome so you can actually get what you want. But what does that really mean?

We live in a universe of infinite possibilities. And most of the time, you’re not actually chasing the thing—you’re chasing the feeling you believe that thing will give you.

Love. Security. Freedom. Peace. Success. Belonging.

The problem is, we decide exactly what package that feeling is supposed to arrive in.

If you want love but insist it has to come from one particular person, you’ve closed yourself off to every other avenue through which love could find you.

If you want more money but decide exactly where it has to come from, you may completely overlook an opportunity sitting right in front of you.

Our brains love certainty. They want to know how, when, where and from whom. Familiarity feels safe.

But sometimes the tighter you grip the outcome, the narrower your vision becomes.

So get clear about what you want—and then loosen your grip on how it has to happen.

Pay attention. Stay open. Follow what lights up. Let yourself notice possibilities you couldn’t have planned for.

Abundance flows where your attention goes.

And here’s a little experiment:

Sometime in the next couple of days, find a blue duck. 🦆💙

Don’t Google it. Don’t go hunting for one. Don’t decide where you’re going to find it.

Just put “blue duck” into your awareness and go about your life.

Maybe it’ll be on a shirt. A sign. A toy. A random picture. Something someone says. Who knows?

That’s the point.

You don’t need to know how the blue duck is going to show up.

You just need to know what you’re looking for, stay open enough to notice it, and let life handle the delivery.

Maybe we could approach more of life that way.

When you find your blue duck, come back and tell me in the comments where it showed up. 💙🦆

#manifest #manifestation #loosenyourgrip #abundance #opportunity taken in The Hey Farm by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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a month ago

I’m so excited to introduce Red Dirt K9 Apparel! 🐾🔥

This has been such a fun and creative outlet for me, and we currently have three designs available in the shop. They’re made for working dog people, protection dog handlers, bite sport addicts, trainers, and anyone who appreciates a little chaos and a lot of dog.

We also have some Halloween designs dropping next month, and I can’t wait to share them with you! 🎃🐕

I’m already dreaming up more ideas and hope to bring out plenty of other cool designs soon. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this little project so far—it means more than you know.

Go check out the shop and let me know what you think! www.reddirtk9apparel.com

@reddirtk9_apparel by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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a month ago

DON’T GET GREEDY IN TRAINING. 👏

Even experienced dog trainers can fall into the “just one more rep…” trap.

In this video, I had already done a few reps with Delta when I remembered I wanted to record a demo for her owners. So I set up the camera, asked again, and she gave me one pretty meh rep.

Then immediately afterward?

She gave me the best rep I could have asked for considering her age and current level of training.

So I jackpotted her, celebrated the win, and ended the session.

And sometimes that’s harder than it sounds.

We get dopamine from successful training too. When the dog absolutely nails something, our instinct is often:

YES. Let’s do it again.

And again.

And maybe just one more…

Until suddenly the reps aren’t as good. The dog starts getting tired, frustrated, distracted, or checked out—and now we’re kicking ourselves because we should have stopped three reps ago.

Remember: the training session is for the dog, not for our dopamine.

Sometimes the best thing you can do after an incredible rep is put the leash away and go play.

Great trainers still get greedy sometimes. The skill is recognizing the moment when you’ve gotten exactly what you wanted and having the discipline to quit while you’re ahead.

Leave them wanting more.

Quality over quantity. Every single time.

#jackpot #dogtraining #dogtrainer #boardandtrain #dontbegreedy taken in Robertsdale, Alabama by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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a month ago

A lot of people care more about appearing to be smart, successful, kind, loyal, talented, or caring than they care about actually being those things.

They see that certain traits are valued, so they learn how to perform them. They want the respect, relationships, opportunities, money, admiration, or status that come with the label—without doing the work or making the sacrifices required to actually embody it.

The funny thing is, both options are hard. You just have to pick your hard.

Becoming a person of genuine character is hard. It requires discipline. Accountability. Sacrifice. Admitting when you’re wrong. Doing the right thing when nobody is watching and when doing the wrong thing would be easier.

But pretending is hard too.

In the short term, the performance might work. You make friends. Gain supporters. Build a reputation. Maybe you even make some money.

But eventually, the mask starts slipping.

Now you have to remember the lies. Defend the inconsistencies. Explain away the cracks in your character. Rewrite history when your actions don’t match the person you’ve convinced everyone you are.

And maintaining the illusion becomes harder and harder.

Worst of all, you never really get the thing you were pretending for in the first place: genuine connection.

The people who haven’t seen the real you can’t truly know you.

The people who have seen the real you either walk away—or they have to perform increasingly impressive mental gymnastics to reconcile the person you claim to be with the person your behavior keeps revealing.

You see this everywhere.

Marriage. Friendships. Business. Leadership. Dog training. Social media. You name it.

Words are easy. Labels are easy. Carefully curated appearances are easy—at least for a while.

Patterns are harder to fake.

Pay attention to what people repeatedly do, especially when there’s nothing to gain from doing the right thing.

And when someone’s behavior keeps showing you who they are, believe the pattern—not the performance.

#appearances #dogtraining #fakers #fakersgonnafake #socialmedia taken in Robertsdale, Alabama by @valkyrie_heyfarm

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a month ago