Loretta Mueller Seminar

I haven’t been to an agility seminar in many years!  A few months ago we got an email that a past student was hosting a seminar. This student had been taking classes here while in school and now was working in a veterinary practice – that also now does training! I was really happy to be able to go and support what she does – and we’d heard great things about the presenter, Loretta Mueller.

I was only able to go one day – and with a 3 hour drive each way, it was a very long day for us. We had registered to work in the morning session (Open/Novice) and then audit the afternoon (Drive and…something?).  The morning spots were full so we took an afternoon session.

My primary goal was to give Griffin a good training experience somewhere away from our usual place and to work around the distractions of other people – and to test his training in a new environment.

Loretta is an excellent presenter. Most of the teams attending were very new to agility (some of the dogs hadn’t even seen tunnels, barely seen jumps, and most weren’t fluent with tunnels/jumps yet) – it was great to see how Loretta approached the situation and helping the people and dogs have a good experience – and to be inspired to continue training. I took many, many notes that will help me hopefully let me be more inspiring to beginning teams. She was also able to adapt for the few more experienced teams – most them have worked with her previously. Loretta was very generous with her time and ended up going over time with both groups and staying late answering additional questions.

Griffin was great! His first run was not very pretty but his enthusiasm and focus were great. The room was fairly small, the jumps close together, and people were sitting along 2 sides of the room, dogs crated there, and a few dogs not in crates (new seminar attendees!). I did ask that someone stand to block the uncrated dogs – just in case Griffin wanted to visit but he didn’t think about it. Some of our usual challenges came up – signaling too early and me waiting too long to get to the next place on course – sometimes I don’t trust his commitment enough. I think it was a really good experience for him and I’m really excited for our next agility seminar working spot in 2 weeks!

I took a lot of notes – both about teaching and training. Loretta very much understands dog training, not just agility, and she seems to prioritize classical conditioning over skill training in many ways (which I completely agree with!). In brief examples she touched on the ways she’s worked to change her dog’s natural responses to get the emotions she wants in certain situations and I was very impressed with what she has done. Many people ‘in’ training/sports know how to do this in theory but aren’t always as good at applying – it’s obvious she has again and again for her dogs as well as student dogs.

I hope I get a chance to see her present again!