In class tonight we discussed what to do when other family members don’t cooperate with the training plan. The problem: Mom brings the dog to class. She knows some of his naughty behaviors at home are just ways to get attention…like grabbing things and running around. The other family Read more…
Griffin and I finally made it to an agility trial. We went to a CPE trial on Saturday and entered 3 classes. I had some specific goals for the event: Try a start line stay. It can be hard for dogs to stay at the beginning of the course, but it’s Read more…
Fluency is an important aspect of learning a skill. The really casual way of defining fluency would be to say that you “know how to do [the skill]”. Consider a kid who just tied his shoe for the first time with a lot of guidance and prompting. And think about Read more…
An important part of the seminar for me was that I have to be happy with “good enough” and not be quite as concerned about perfect. Apparently ‘perfect’ is unreasonable. But “good enough” doesn’t mean accepting poor behaviors or having lower standards of performance. We need the best quality of Read more…
We had a 5 day obedience seminar with Fanny Gott. Griffin and I had done online classes with her and it was really exciting to work face-to-face with her. Other seminar attendees were here from all over the US and with different types of obedience goals. It was one of Read more…
One of my favorite notes I took from a seminar this year. As in the typical seminar (or training class) way, everyone loves to ask “What if…” When given a response, they typically say “But, what if THEN….” and it goes on for quite a while. Guy Read more…
It used to be there weren’t -that- many dog training books. But now with the magic of the internet and being able to better market dog training books to training enthusiasts, there are -so- many dog books and many of them are focused on very specific topics or activities. Read more…
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 Read more…
How 2 Train a __________ [Fill in the blank] From Aardvarks to Zebras, Applied Behavior Science has a Rational Prescription for Creating Behavior Change by Dr. Patricia Barlow-Irick, Ph.D A very interesting title and a very long subtitle. I saw this book mentioned online a few weeks ago and Read more…
This rally book is incredibly interesting. It’s written by someone who has been involved with rally since it’s early AKC days. The author was one of many people who attended rally trials on the very first night/day (very early morning!) that AKC was offering rally in 2005. I remember reading Read more…