We worked rear crosses at my Masters handling workshop today near Vancouver, BC. Many people will fall back on rear crosses with their agility dog as they see front crosses as more complicated with more things to think about. The truth is, rear cross execution [...]
This past weekend I ran at our Ontario Provincial (Regional) Championships. My girls both did pretty well. Between Encore and Feature they won both Standard classes and both Gamblers classes. We got around Jumpers but sadly had bars in both rounds. In the end Feature [...]
At the recent IFCS World Championships in England Encore really struggled with her weave entries. Believe it or not I actually had people come up to me telling me they where concerned as they just bought my 2x2 Weave Training DVD and wondered if I [...]
Following up on last week's post on stressing. First let me explain a bit further about what I mean about "anchoring". Basically it is a classically conditioned response. Here is something I do to give myself a "good anchor". Anytime I have a massage or [...]
There are many skills that separate a great handler from those that are still learning. I think one of the biggest differences lies in something that is very simple for anyone to do. If you could adopt this one tinsie weensie habit, your handling abilities [...]
Well we have launched! Two weekends ago we unrolled the first "Flatwork Secrets" & "Blueprint for Handling Success." This past weekend it was "Advances in Dog Training" and "Critical Elements." I like the way things piece together and although it always seems I have more [...]
Following on from my blog post "Birds, Sheep, Rats and other Out of Control Rewards"... So why do I believe it is easier for me to get control of a dog when in the presence of their highest value rewards than it may be for [...]
Hey some excellent ideas rolling in to try and shape. I don't know about shaping the Shar Pei to snore doing her waking hours thought. There could be some physiological stasis that needs to be present before she is even able to snore. I don't [...]
Okay, it is mid winter (for some, okay hard to imagine it as winter here in Florida). Here is a challenge for you all. Sometime before the weekend (that is two days) shape your dog to do something new. Come up with something [...]
I was talking recent to some friends about a phenomena I have observed in the dog world I like to describe as "The Second Dog Syndrome." I thought I would offer a bit of advise on how to avoid it. First what is it. One [...]
I was eating my breakfast this morning thinking about what I want to accomplish at the three day workshop I have starting today. The workshop is primarily young, adolescent agility dogs, those either just embarking on an agility career or those that have yet to [...]
I entitled this post Start Line “Fun” because for many of you, that is what is lacking. It has become more like Start Line “Hell” than Start Line Fun. If you are trying to trick, intimidated or “force” your dog to wait for a release [...]
