This past weekend I did a Contacts and Weave workshop and we had an awesome group. It didn’t hurt that 12 of the 14 handlers had been to multiple camps here at Say Yes at one time or another. Teaching people that already have a good understanding of the system makes my job a lot easier. The really cool thing was that ALL of the teams showed a MASSIVE improvement over the course of the two days of training. The weaving was totally impressive –there was some pretty novice-level people that were able to accomplish some really mind-blowing work on four poles. In this clip I am including work from three people that have never trailed in agility before! Of course there are some mistakes, but I don’t want to scare you all off, this method works even with your mistakes! The only difference is it may take you a bit longer. Check this out, it is filmed over the two days and you can see some real progressions in all of the dogs.
Another really inspiring thing that happened over the weekend was the way the nose touches improved in leaps and bounds in just two days. Nose targeting is something our students traditionally have laboured over. Often trying to “perfect it” for months, some times a year or more!! This used to drain the students, the dog and I will admit sometimes the instructor too:). I think we lost students over their inability to get the nose touch “of their dreams” while working so hard towards it. Now that I have proven that weave poles can be trained a lot faster than people expected, I am out to move my students along on their nose targeting. I have been fine tuning the way I teach contacts for the last 15 years. But the method hasn’t really hasn’t changed much in all that time, I have just come up with ways to teach it more effectively. I started using a nose target to train my contact with Stoni (who was a re-train). Buzzy was the first dog I started as a puppy, that was 12 years ago. I wrote all about the method in Shaping Success. My focus with the method in the last three years has been to really make it simple for anyone to have success, and I am thrilled at the most recent results. Here is a clip from camp, remember for some of these folks, this is pretty new stuff!
I am truly inspired with the progress everyone showed over this mini 2-day camp. I am grateful for all of the students that continue to invest their time with their dogs at our school.
I am very honored to be able to call Greg Louganis a very good friend. The honor has nothing to do with the fact that he is an Olympic hero, or the fact he is likely the best diver the world has ever seen. I am honored because he is one of the nicest people I have ever known. He phones out of the blue to chat and always makes my day brighter. He is so insightful about sport, life, happiness and yet is so modest he doesn’t even realize how much he actually knows. When we were at the USDAA Nationals last month Greg would stop by our trailer, in the early morning, with at least one little yellow post-it note that we would stick on the wall with a “Random thought from Greggie.” The entire group of us enjoyed each of them, but we all found a different one that was particularly pertinent to us. I loved the one that stated “Peak performance is meditation in motion” it was particularly fitting as it was the US Nationals. But the one that has stuck with me the most is the one I based today’s blog after “The most powerful feeling is the knowing you belong, and you are right were you should be.” I think that is sometimes hard for any one of us to believe, especially if we are going through a down-turn in our life. The truth is, there are tough times for everyone: throughout a day, or a year, or a lifetime. The cliche that these challenges makes us stronger is little comfort at the time we are going though one. However I myself, often look back and realize that these struggles were important. For example, in September of 1991 I had a cool little Jack Russell Terrier named “Speki,” I just loved her. At the time, she was the fastest height dog in the sport of flyball at only 22 months old. It was the fall of that year, a Sunday afternoon that she was killed in a freak accident. I was devastated. I couldn’t stop crying. At that point in my life, I had never experienced the loss of any person or animal with whom I had shared a really close relationship. It hit me very hard. My mother (who was my best friend) came to my rescue. She came up and moved in with me for a few days. She shared things with me that were truly comforting. One thing inparticular she did, was to re-arranged all of my furniture. She said “that way when you walk into the living room you won’t have memories of Speki sitting up on the back of the couch a certain way, as there will be no furniture in the same place.” It was a huge help. My mom could only stay until that Wednesday as she had a doctors appointment. That was the day we found out that she had cancer and we lost her 7 months later. As terrible an event it was to lose Speki, it was a blessing, as it not only taught me how to grieve but also how to start to recover. Had my mothers death been the first one I had ever known, I don’t know if I would be the same person that I am today. It was the lessons my mom taught me during those 3 days after Speki died that enabled me to help my father during the time after my mom’s death. The night of my mother’s funeral, my sisters and I re-arranged my parent’s bedroom to make it look completely different. I had a painting of a Loon swimming alone with 3 young ones on his back (Loons mate for life and are always in pairs, but this one was not).
Loon print
We hung the picture in the bedroom, we torn out the carpet, changed the furniture, did a complete make-over. My father told me repeatedly over the following few years how pivotal it was to his recovery.
Sometimes silver linings are difficult to find in all situations. I just love Greg’s thoughts of knowing you are were you should be and to be happy knowing you are right were you belong. I think it goes hand-in-hand with the thoughts I wrote about in “the Journey.” If you haven’t seen it , give it look. If I had to pick only one accomplishment to be remembered for in my lifetime, I would want it to be this video.
I am very grateful to have a friend as wonderful as Greg Louganis he is a very special man.
Educational, entertaining or inspiring. That has been a goal of my blog writing. I want visiting here to be a positive experience, where you go away feeling good about yourself, your dogs or life in general. I am not a big “blog” reader myself, but of the few that I have read I have found some of the entries to be either long, drawn accounts of what the blogger did that day, or a bitter tale of how unfair things are and how life should be different. I am definitely a “the-glass-is-half-full” or even “three-quarter-full” and possibly “over-flowing” kind of girl. I am a person that thinks in terms of abundancy rather than scarcity.
I am grateful to all of the people who are willing to bare their humility in the name of allowing others to be educated, entertained or inspired while watching their training on my blog. There is an old saying that goes “if you can’t be a glowing example, be a tragic warning”. So we get a bit of both today with Marilynn sacrificing herself in the name of education. Now Maryilyn has done some great training with her dog “Debit”. He is drivey, has a good retrieve and has great focus for his job. However, Marilyn has a few mechanical details she needs to iron out. In the name of your best education, I would advise you all to watch this clip first with the sound turned off so you can play the role of coach. I have already told you some of what she is doing well, now without the volume, you try to pick out the areas of 2×2 training that need improvement. Then watch it again and see if you were able to come to the same conclusions I do.
I love Marilynn’s enthusiasm. Note how much fun she is having with her dog. That should be a goal for everyone. Training should make you laugh and be a source of joy. . . yes, even when we struggle. With each struggle there is an opportunity to improve and what an awesome rush that is when the dog & you finally “get it!”
Today I am grateful to Marilynn and people like her that have graciously supplied their training clips to me. Check out Cat at http://strata2×2.blogspot.com/ who is blogging about her 2×2 training. Maybe I will get a chance in the future to show a clip of what she is doing.
Hi all, I trust you are all enjoying a great holiday season with your friends and family. John and I went to one of my brother for Christmas dinner last night. We had a blast. My sister-in-law Pat, made about a zillion vegetable dishes for me, and lucky John was in his glory, as Pat prepared roast beef & yorkies (she knows the way to the Brit’s heart). I really don’t get to see my family as often as I should, so it was great to be able to spend the evening with some of them.
Okay back to business. Again I have to thank everyone for the glowing reviews of the new DVD. I am so thrilled you are all enjoying it AND that the dogs are progressing fast, just like I predicted they would! I will re-state, as I mention in the DVD, not all dogs will be weaving in 12 days. Some have done it in only 4, others will take longer. What I do know is that your dog will learn ALOT faster with this method then with the other weave pole training methods out there. I hate to pick on you, but once again it is believing in your dog that is going to be the big difference. Allow the dog to choose! Here are the latest weave pole questions that have come in to me.
Now take a look at these two as they work through the early stages of 2×2 training with their dogs (both non-border collies for all of you that have been writing telling me it wouldn’t work as fast or the same way:)). In this first clip you will see a young woman named Lene train her dog Sisi. At one point she integrates Crate Games with her weave training. That is super! Crate Games, which are the foundation of my training program, are trained the same way as 2×2’s. It is all about creating VALUE for something and then allowing the dog CHOOSE correctly. Value and Choice, over and over! Rather than waiting for your dog to choose to go into his crate (stage 3 of crate games) you are waiting for your dog to choose to leave you to drive towards the 2 poles (stage 2 of 2×2 weave training). So if you have trained Crate Games already, by starting your 2×2 with a couple rounds of Crate Games first, reminds your dog that you are not going to help him, but that he must CHOOSE on his own!
You can see the full clip of Lene training Sisi at her youtube account by clicking on this link. Don’t forget to leave her a comment and tell her what a great job she is doing, everyone loves that reinforcement!
Next lets watch Barb train her awesome little Terrier “Blast”. Again some super dog training as Barb hits the reward line with her throws and spends tons of time tugging in between repetitions. Barb posted this video on Facebook and I got her permission to post it here (through Youtube, which is why you may think it is a Youtube video but it is not). You can contact Barb by becoming a Friend of mine on Facebook and from there you can find Barb & Blast. I will try to get to all of the video’s I have been sent, but I am sorry I can not promise to post them or get back to all of you, however I will do what I can. Good work everyone!
I am gratefully for brother Steve, his wife Pat and (now, fully grown kids) Mike, Jeff & Kate. It was a great evening and John and I really enjoyed our Christmas dinner with the five and them plus Mike’s girlfriend Celeste and one of my other six brothers, Brent.
Well my seminar in Omaha, Nebraska had to be canceled this weekend. That is a first for me. I stared doing seminars in 1995, I don’t know how many I have done, I stopped counting at 300. In all those years, and all those workshops, I have never had to cancel before, it is an awful feeling. I woke John up at 3:15 am Friday morning as he had “volunteered” to drive me to Toronto airport in order to catch my 6:15 AM flight. This first leg of my flight was leaving on time however I was informed I would then have to wait in Chicago until Sunday afternoon before I could get to Omaha. Hmmm, that didn’t sound like fun, so by 9:30 AM Friday morning, I had hired a shuttle and was on my way home again. My dogs were r-e-a-l-l-y happy that I decided to cut my weekend away short (of course John was too. . . although I think he enjoys those weekends alone). We already have that seminar re-booked for Jan 31- Feb 1st, so those of you that hadn’t signed up before, can get a chance to join us now.
I braved the storm on Friday to take the dogs for their walk around the field and they loved it! DeCaff, who was born in Dallas, Texas, loves the cold weather more than any dog I have ever owned. Very strange for a small dog, but as you will notice in these pictures, I don’t even put her coat on for these walks!
Buzz & Encore out for a wind blown, snow filled walk.
Here are a couple of pics from Friday.
Snow-faced Encore.
Then Saturday hit, the wind and snow stopped, but the snow has drifted making it tough walking for Buzz (and me too!)
Buzzy trudging through the snow.
The girls enjoying the snow.
Encore ripping it up.
Heading home after a long walk.
Now here it is Sunday and it seems to have started all over again. More snow overnight and it was so deep I almost got stuck on my way to church this morning! The wind has picked up this afternoon and has the snow driving & drifting so much that I don’t think I will brave it for our walk.
It has been great having the weekend off. What have I done you ask? Well I wrote on a few Facebook walls (link me as your friend and you never know, yours may be next) other than that, I did absolutely nothing!
None of my dogs are rescue dogs. Even DeCaff, my Jack Russell Terrier mix, whose grandmother is a border collie, is not a rescue dog, but rather the result of a planned breeding. However, I do think there are tons of great dogs out in rescue. There was a time when John and I used to bring one into our home every now and again. We would house them, train them and keep them long enough to turn them into dogs people were tripping over to own. Mostly, it was when I was in the Veterinary Pharmaceutical trade. I would be doing calls in a Vet clinic and see a dog that was in for euthanasia and talk the owners into letting the dog come home with me. Over the years we took in and re-homed several very nice dogs. All of them lived well into their teens in their new homes, some may still be kicking! I remember one Jack Russell terrier we had (lets call him Shadow) that came to us at 13 months old. He was, on paper, a highly desired flyball prospect, as he had a pedigree that flyballers drooled over (at the time Jack Russells were the preferred height dog in the sport). Shadow had 3 other homes before us, two of them were potential flyball homes. I was told, by the people that pasted him on, that he would “never be a flyball dog” as he had no ball drive and would not tug. Oh, and he wasn’t house trained and preferred to pee on furniture to bushes. So few wanted to ‘waste their time’ on a dog that showed no ‘sporting potential’ and was a crappy house pet to boot! He came to me in January and by June there were only two height dogs in the entire sport of flyball that could post faster times. Why was that? Was it because I have witch-like-dog-training-qualities and can accomplish what others can not? Ah no. The truth is, that I ignore baggage in a dog. I look for what is great, not what is lacking. The more people I meet through dog-training, the more I realize that this, very important quality, is also a very rare one. I made the statement many years ago, that “your dog is a reflection of your ability as a dog trainer.” What I meant is, that regardless of where your dog started out, what he becomes is a reflection of your ability to train. People would lament to me ‘but my rescue-dog is different, he had baggage!’ Wow, do I detest that word “baggage.” To me, using that word is giving yourself an excuse to fail (I say that with only kindness in my heart.) Am I saying that one dog is as straight forward to train as the next? Nope, my own Buzzy and DeCaff left little doubt of that fact for me. Nor am I suggesting that all rescue dogs have had the same rosy upbringing. What I am saying is that your “rescue dog,” is a reflection of your ability to train a “rescue dog.” Are you able to keep your eyes looking forward to the future or do you keep glancing back at your dog’s past life (either real or what you imagine it to be?) Don’t allow yourself to be the kind of person that is constantly looking for what may or may not be there. Stop trying to find a reason why this dog isn’t “normal” but rather look beyond what may seem to be a limitation now, to the great potential within the dog. I am talking about those qualities that ARE there but they may need some loving polish from you in order to help make them shine. Does this mean a one-eye-rescue-border-collie can go on to be amongst the best in the USA in agility, making it to the podium at a national event? Ah…..yeah, that is exactly what I mean. Alicia Nicholas and her great BC Pickle did just that. Clearly Alicia has the ability to look for the good and not the baggage in a dog.
My friend and training guru Bob Bailey says, “look at what you have, now evaluate what you want- the difference is just training.” Maybe you are unsure how to connect point A to point B, in what Bob is saying, that my friend, is your dog training journey.
My current educators out on our morning walk: DeCaff, Buzzy (looking handsome as ever), Feature & Encore.
I am not directing this exclusively towards people that have rescue dogs either. So often the limitations put on any dog are put there by their owners that are constantly saying things like “he is too stubborn,” or “he has no drive.” I remember when Encore was not quite two years old, a friend of mine would say to me (more than once) “oh, it is obvious, she is going to be a bar-knocker.” I finally told her who Encore becomes is my responsibility and I refuse to label a two year dog as anything other than brilliant. I made her a promise right there (both to my friend and Encore) that there will come a day when Encore is considered amongst the most talented jumping dogs in the sport of agility. Does this mean that everyone that owns a dog is responsible for turning it into a world champion? Of course not, but you do owe it to your dog to stop making excuses, labeling faults or looking at your dog like he is less than the dog on the end of someone else’s leash. Regardless of how talent he is or he isn’t, he is only a product of what you have known about dog training up to this point in your life and that is okay! They don’t all have to be the best. However, if you want more, then seek out the trainer that can guide your path in a new direction. Don’t listen to anyone that tells you it is not possible, doing so is allowing someone else’s limited vision to become yours. There are answers out there for all of us. Finding these answers may be the reason why this dog is in your life in the first place. I don’t mean to sound all-knowing or prophet-like, I only mean to share some of what my amazing dogs have shared with me over the years of them giving me an education in dog training.
I am so grateful that I get it. This doesn’t require any special skill, nor any special training. All it takes from you is the patience to see what your dog is trying to teach you.
Okay, before I settle into answering the weave questions that have come in, I thought today I would write about the new DVD and what brought me around to the 2×2 method. It is a long entry, I hope it doesn’t come off as being propagandacious to any of you.
I guess, at the center of it all, is my admission, that I am a pretty impatient person. I, like many of you I’m sure, do not like wasting my time. I think that is what pushes me to to try to improve upon technique when I observe a slow learning process for my dogs. In my opinion the 2×2 method of weave pole training is one of my best ideas to date. If there ever was an opportunity to use the phrase paradigm shift in dog agility, this would be it.
If you are about to train a new dog to weave, are in the midst of training with another method, or are unhappy with your dog’s current weave pole performance in the ring, it just makes sense for you to invest in the new DVD immediately.
For those of you that are thinking you are satisfied with how your dog weaves now, you will be blown away with the improvement you’ll see once you work through all of the exercises on 2 disc-set. The name “12 Poles in 12 Days” isn’t just the title of the DVD, it is a fact. Disc one is a daily video journal that shows you how I taught two dogs to weave from start to finish, all in a matter of few days, totaling less than 55 minutes of training time. After 12 days the dogs had such a great understanding of how to weave it was almost impossible to distract either dog from their job of weaving.
For those of you that think this is all a marketing ploy, and really don’t believe it is possible to get that level of efficacy in just 55 minutes of training, believe it! I am sure people’s skepticism comes from that fact that when training their own dog to weave, (using traditional methods), they likely spent those first 55 minutes trying to teach the dog not to jump wires, steal a toy or go around angled poles! I’m sure it is hard to imagine teaching a dog to weave in less than one week would be possible? But 2×2 weave training really is just that easy. I liken this to myth of the 4 minute mile. For years people believed the 4 minute mark would never be broken by runners at the mile distance. In 1954 Roger Banister finally did it. Once people realized it could be done it has plummeted ever since and now stands almost 20 seconds below that once elusive barrier. I think in the same way dog agility people have gotten used to the idea that weave pole training just takes 6 – 9 months or more to get right. The 2×2 method will be dog agility’s Roger Banister. Now you can take a few short weeks, train your dog to weave, and then we can all think of something far more productive to do with all of that extra time!
You may be thinking “yeah right, but Susan you are a professional, I could never train that way”. I can understand your doubts and let me just say, you and I are a lot more alike then you may think. I, too, have struggled with other methods of weave pole training over my 19 year career in the sport. My first dog I trained to weave with the-hand-in-the-collar-lure-with-a-cookie-method. My next one I used angled weave poles. For the following dog, I invested in one of those expensive channels & guide wires set ups (that dinosaur rusted under our porch for the next 10 years until we got rid of it last summer!). In 1997 I switched to teaching weaves using 3 poles and pure shaping. It worked pretty well, but I will admit, it did take more dog training savvy then the average person may have. Over then next 5 years I saw how my own students struggled with the process, and I confess, I did something a good instructor should never do. I was so troubled to see the frustration of both dog and handler trying to shape weave poles, I often would just step in and trained the dogs for them.
All of that inspired me to come up with a better way to teach dogs to weave and for the last 6 years, hundreds of people have had really spectacular results training their dogs using my 2×2 method. I mentioned yesterday that I almost released a DVD 5 years ago with this process, I am so glad I didn’t. What I have learned over the past five years, both training my own dogs and observing others, has all been poured into this new project. You are truly the benefactor of the 5 year wait.
The DVD, gives you easy to follow, step-by-step instruction that I promise ,will make it unbelievably simple to follow along with at home, even if you are not a professional like me! It is something you can do at home. You no longer have to wait to practice your dog’s weaving only when you go to your training club or school. It doesn’t matter if don’t have a huge agility field of your own, heck, some of my students have stared the 2×2 training in their living room! For those of you that have Excellence in Weave Pole Training: Phase One you have a perfect complement to the program. For the rest of you that don’t have it, don’t worry as I have included on Disc Two the 15 page workbook that was part of that ebook. Print out this summary report, take it with you to your training yard and it will guide you through the process you saw on the DVD. Think of it as my insurance policy to make sure you do get it right, I am going to do what I can to make sure you all have success with the 2×2 method.
If you are reading this and thinking, great, I will get this when I get my next dog, here is my advise to you, don’t wait. Take your currently trained dog and first of all, work through the advanced weave drills found on disc 2. If these challenges overwhelm your dog go back and work through the 2×2 process from the start with him. Not only will you be impressed with the improvements, even an accomplished agility dog will show, you will quickly become a 2×2 pro yourself, making the process that much easier you when you do get your next new puppy.
Disc 2 was a ton of fun to make and if you approach the challenges in the light-hearted way I present them, you will see the same amazing results. Basically, because of how the 2×2 process builds upon the dog’s own understanding, there is no weave pole entry presented that properly trained 2×2 dog cannot nail within 3-5 attempts. Since you never use gates or wires, so there is nothing to fade. Quite often the dog’s understanding of finding entries is faded once you remove these props. With 2×2 trained dogs, the dog’s trigger for success is the sight of the poles themselves. Any time you come across a weave entry that overwhelms your dog, you just set it up at home, rotate the first 2 poles to remind the dog of his job, and over then next 3-5 reps rotate the poles back and then, voila, the dog has the entry! It only takes a matter of minutes.
One of the really beneficial side effects of the method is the dog’s low head position. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the introductory video clip I have on my YouTube site. . One of the things that makes 2×2 dogs stand out in the crowd (beside their awesome weave skill) is their low head positions as they drive through the poles. Low head position means the dog is not ‘floating’ through the poles he is actually driving through. This translates into more speed in the poles. The next thing this method affords you is independence. Throughout the entire training process, you are training the dog to be thoughtful on his own, allowing him to choose what he wants to do. This makes it easy for you at a trial, to take off on your dog, leaving him in the poles, so you can get to your next handling position. You no longer have to run beside your dog cajoling him as he weaves. I tell my students, you are a dog trainer for a few weeks outside of the ring, so that you can concentrate on being a handler once you get into the ring!
I could go on and on but I will leave that for another time:). Don’t think I have forgotten about my promise of a gift. For those of you that haven’t read my promise here is what happened. I was genuinely, really floored when I saw how much tax my fellow Ontarians have to pay when they buy this DVD from me so I decided to give everyone something at least of equal value in return (in my opinion this is triple the value). Here is what I have come up with; anyone that buys the new DVD from my website will get a free ebook from me in return. The ebook is a complete transcript of the entire 2-Disc DVD set. This gives you 3 awesome resources to ensure your success with this method; 1) the DVD itself, 2) the 15 page work book 3) the ebook of transcripts from the DVD (complete with helpful pictures). So if you have already bought the DVD (not a problem you will still be getting your free gift) and for those of you that haven’t, get on it! Okay so it is hard to give away anything free without coming off as slightly propagandacious. Again, that is not my intension, believe me, this free gift is complete spontaneous on my part but will be completely worth while to anyone that buys the DVD from our website. Your free gift will be ready for you by next week and everyone that has bought DVD from me will be eligible for it. Stay tuned, I be posting information in a few days. In the mean time, click this link to get your copy of Susan Garrett’s 2×2 Weave Pole Training, 12 Poles in 12 Days.
So if this blog entry has sparked any other weave questions, send them in, I am planning on answering weave questions tomorrow.
Today I am grateful for Brenda, a very talented student of mine who always pitches in to help at a moments notice, even when I ask “hey Brenda can I get a transcript of the DVDs really quickly?”. Brenda R-O-C-K-S-!-!
Okay guys, I got such a positive response the last time I presented this format here on the blog and since I couldn’t get the hologram to work 🙂 I decided to go back to this format once again. Since this session would have gone on for ever, and I found out that YouTube doesn’t like anything longer than 10 minutes, I have eliminated half the questions that have been sent and I will answer those separately, likely tomorrow. For now I just cut and past these questions and ripped through them in less than 15 minutes Fastest blog entry for me to date! Now, as one of my instructors pointed out, you can can multi-task, doing things like the dishes, as you catch up on my blog!
As I said in this clip if you would like to get on our newsletter please just sign up at our website. For those of you that are needing it, here is a direct link to my Success with One Jump DVD that I mentioned in today’s blog.
Today I am very grateful to UPS, as they finally got our Canadian shipment of the new 2×2 Weave Training DVDto us!
Well there are some very clever people out there. I notice this morning there are still orders coming in for the ebook “Phase One of Excellence in Weave Pole Training”, even though I said it would no longer be available after the new DVD was released. So I went to our website and I can not see it there anywhere but somehow people are finding it and ordering it. My guess is that I overworked my web-dude with the ebook and now the new dvd (and another project I just loaded on him) and rather than taking off the ebook he has just hid it on the site. I would try the old link and see if it still works. However I imagine it is going to go soon enough.
The exciting thing is that you CAN order the new DVD, however it will not be shipped out until Friday so please don’t email me wondering where it is for at least a week after that:). Looking at the orders coming in today, I notice how much tax the poor people of Ontario have to pay on this DVD and I really think it is crappy. So I was thinking it would be nice if I gave everyone from Ontario that ordered the new DVD a free gift of some sort. And then I realized all of you people overseas are also paying a wack of money for shipping, so I thought, wow, I should include all of you in on the free gift as well. Then I thought, hey those Americans have been loyal supporters of Say Yes for a really long time so I can’t leave them out or the rest of Canada. So here is my plan, I am going to make sure everyone that orders the new DVD Susan Garrett’s 2×2 Weave Pole Training, 12 Poles in 12 Days from our website, is going to get a free gift from me. I don’t know exactly what I am going to do, but I will do something. I will keep you posted in blogs to come when I iron out the details with my overworked web dude:).
So I thought I would elaborate a bit on one of the points I made about how the skills that make a great family pet lay down the foundation for a phenomenal agility dog. Take walking on a loose leash for example. Today there is an increasing popularity for agility dogs to be lead around by a harness, rather than a collar. Why, because it makes it easier on the dog that wants to pull on leash (pulling on a flat collar can be damaging to a dog trachea so a harness is healthier). It makes me wonder though, why not just train the dog not to pull on leash? Take a look at what a puppy or young dog learns when he pulls you on a leash? He is learning that your body is something to be ignored. When you stop he should dig in harder to keep moving away from you. Not only does this create frustration for both dog and handler, as far as being a good family pet, but it also teaches the dog your body motion is meaningless. Does this mean all top agility dogs do not pull on leash when walking? Aaaaah no, not at all. It does mean that once you have allowed a puppy to learn the lesson of ignoring your body in his every day life with you, you are going to have to have him un-learn it for the purpose of agility (wow that last sentence was really something special wasn’t it?) I avoid all of that unnecessary extra work for myself by teaching my puppies, as soon as I get them home, to not pull on leash! I appreciate a family pet that is responsive to my body as she walks on leash and coincidently, I also appreciate my agility dog that responds to my body language as something important (for tight turns amoung other things) on the agility field. So think about other ‘family pet’ traits that will pay dividends for you in the agility arena, there actually are a lot of them when you stop to think about it!
Today I am grateful for my web dude Bill. He is getting gun shy when he sees the word “idea” on my subject line but yet he still responds to all of my wacky requests.
Susan Garrett's Dog Training Blog 