I’ve been reading a lot of books on exercise and nutrition. More on that as I continue to read and learn and think about how to apply the information (or not) for my three very, very different dogs. It’s a challenge.
Griffin and I have been learning lots of things in the Fanny Gott online obedience class. We’re currently in the last section, working on various exercises to prepare for the competition ring. We’re also preparing for a seminar with her next week, it’s perfect timing, the class ends and the seminar starts a few days later!
We’re learning about what things are working well and not so well in our current training classes. Most of those are finishing up in the next week and then we have a brand new schedule of classes. I will get to keep improving a few of the things I was teaching and we’ll have a few brand new classes.
We’re re-learning from older seminar notes. I’ve been doing some cleaning and found notes from events up to 7 years ago. Some of it is really relevant and some of it is so outdated. One of the first dog seminars I went to was a three day agility camp event taught by three very well respected presenters. Agility has come so, so far since then in terms of courses, skill level of dogs, and skill level of handlers. Some of my notes are about the evening sessions…. one day a presenter talked about how she was trying to train running contacts. Everyone was amazed by this fabled concept that didn’t even seem really possible at the time. And I think this was 2005! I’m finding lots of helpful things and many great memories. Like my notes from the time Carolyn Scott and Rookie both came to Ohio.
And we’re learning that there’s no substitute for experience. I’ve been helping some new training enthusiasts with training skills and a lot of it is just coming down to getting opportunities to practice and get experience. There are a few people that really “get” and understand training/behavior quickly and the concepts make sense. But even for those few people, it’s not a replacement for practice. Helping these people only motivates me to practice and get more experience too.