Last week at the 4-H Judge’s Seminar, I talked with a few parents and advisors who were struggling to get their teams to be comfortable and confident in the ring. I mentioned that I had a set of activities/curriculum that I use for my 4-H’ers and competition class students. When Read more…
On Saturday we were at a 4-H Dog Judge’s training day. I was there to be learning and I was there to help. I spent part of the day frantically taking notes about how to be even better at judging. And for part of the day I was a dog Read more…
I’m never sure how to feel when I find books like this at the used book store. I’m happy that I now have the book! But how did the book get there? Did the previous owner resolve his or her challenges with a reactive dog? Or did that person seek Read more…
Both events were ultimately not that exciting. The obedience trial was especially disappointing. Before our turn, I had to leave for another commitment! At the trial site, Griffin was very excited and his arousal level was much higher than at an agility trial. We’re looking for another obedience trial Read more…
Recently I read through a list of games where many trainers had contributed ideas. I read through and I was amazed at what was listed. Some had more rules than game and some had elaborate set ups. Others seemed like something students would love but I couldn’t understand what they Read more…
One more week until classes start to get back to normal. What we’ve done: We had a really warm day. I set up my agility equipment for the first time in 2012. The dogs got really muddy and had baths. Two days later it was cold, there was deep snow, Read more…
This is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, it was completely different than I expected! The topic is relevant to all dog professionals and should be important to all dog owners, but especially owners of anxious and/or reactive dogs. It’s incredibly important to know about stress! The book Read more…
Take a look at yesterday’s post about the training steps I use for teaching this exercise. When working on a lesson plan/training plan, my goal was to have it be as much positive reinforcement as possible and minimize the use of negative punishment. The natural tendency for most people is Read more…
We’ve been teaching 8 week classes based off of the “Canine Life and Social Skills” (CLASS) program. One of the exercises is “Wait for the food bowl.” Training Plan: Stage 1: Holding Still: Dog is able to sit or lie down and hold the position for a few seconds. Stage Read more…
In 2012 I intended to be doing a lot of trials and events with all the dogs. It didn’t happen. Blaze did one day of rally and Griffin did one day of agility. But we did a lot of seminars and my notes say we did at least 26 days Read more…