I read this book earlier this week and I think it’s one of the better books in the small category of “books about conformation.” The author walks into his research without knowing much and he really doesn’t have a personal interest in the activity. Most of the similar books are by Read more…
Agility is a really great way to teach people to train their dogs, to improve the human-animal bond, and to teach dogs new skills. It used to be that agility was recommended as an outlet for active dogs and as a confidence builder for shy dogs. With a good class, Read more…
What is 4-H? 4-H is a youth program that while has a national presence, it’s run at state and county levels throughout the US. Each state and county can set their own rules, projects, and activities. 4-H groups youth in clubs of 3-50+ members with adult “advisors” helping to supervise, Read more…
This was a theme at the retriever seminar a few weeks ago. Carol Cassity especially reminded us to use our time well. It’s easy to fall into the pattern of working on the more exciting and challenging training aspects and there tend to be skills that we less prefer to Read more…
Note from the future: I’ve gone back through to add a note about the fans changing over time and to add in affiliate links to some of the products. I intend to do an update on this post in summer 2018. Check back! Last week at an agility seminar I Read more…
Griffin has a really large family. Every few years some of them get together for a big family reunion/retriever training seminar. This year it was at a time and location that worked well for us. We’ve spent the weekend near Lansing, MI at the -beautiful- Omega Farms. The unfortunate part Read more…
Yesterday we went to audit a half day sequencing seminar by Tori Self . She was wonderful with the people, great about working with where they were at and getting them to try more handling options to see if other things would work better. A few things she said that were Read more…
Background: Recently a dog owner came to class with the goal of getting the dog to walk without pulling. This adult dog had recently been retired as a conformation dog. He had spent several years being trained to put a significant amount of steady pressure on the leash, out ahead Read more…
When Griffin was a puppy we worked hard on a “two on two off” behavior for agility. He learned to put his back feet up on an object and his front feet on the floor. We trained it with a cement block but he was soon offering the behavior on Read more…
We’re both happy for a chance to catch up on sleep and very sad that so many of our training friends have headed home after the seminar. We had 8 great days with many experienced dog people and so much enthusiasm for training. The event has been good for me Read more…