Calling all Say Yes Puppy Camp Alumni

Yesterday  in the comments section, Jason was looking for some compelling reasons to come to puppy camp.  By now you all know how passionate I feel about focusing on the skills to turn your puppy into a great family pet and how that foundation helps to crate a phenomenal agility dog.  Personally I think if more people scaled back the money they put into trial entries, and made more of an investment their young puppy’s education, I think you would find the return on that investment impressive. By the time your were ready to enter this dog into his first agility trail, he would be better equipped to perform brilliantly, right from the start.  You would replace the need to constantly “retrain” your skills with the easier task of of only needing to “maintain” them as your dog progresses through his career.

At our upcoming puppy camp we have six people returning who have already worked at least one other puppy with us previously. One of them is one of my instructors (and she doesn’t get that much of a price break either:)). Do these people know our program? Yup. Tracy has been instructing with me for years, but like us all, she sees the value in spending 3 days focusing entirely on the relationship between her and her puppy. US World Team member and a about a zillion-time AKC and USDAA National Champion, Terry Smorch was at puppy camp last fall with “Sirrah” the third puppy he has trained in our program, plus he is returning next month to follow up that experience with a Skills Camp for his little spitfire! Clearly there is value in investing in your puppy’s early education. 

Hey remember, Jason brought this subject up, the truth is we only have  2 spots left in our April Puppy Camp (and it is rare that a PC doesn’t fill), so I am not writing this as a form of promotion.  My intent is to stress the need for early education in your performance dogs. Just as I wrote a couple of days ago, if you invest time in making the simple tasks great, the difficult ones you will want to teach later on will become a lot easier.   It goes back to the fundamentals we stress at puppy camp; Relationship Building Games, Control Games such as Crate Games & Body Awareness Games. Don’t sign up for Puppy Camp expecting to drag your puppy across a lowered A Frame, I just don’t see any value in that. Fundamentals means we focus on F-U-N, making learning a blast for the puppy.  On top of the great curriculum we have, and our great staff, you Americans also are in the enviable position of saving $0.27 on every dollar you spend up here on things like hotels, car rentals and meals.  But I don’t want Jason to take my word alone for it, so I am going to throw this out to all of you former puppy-campers out there.   Write in and let Jason know why you think he should come to puppy camp!

Today  I am grateful that my dogs don’t seem to mind trudging through the mud,’cause it is absolutely everywhere around here right now!

I Know That, But What Else You Got?

Okay, I will put a freeze on the cow stories for a bit:). I was at a trial today, I was there for less than an hour but I did speak to a student, Clare. Clare doesn’t live close by so we only see her for camps, but she does frequent a lot of camps so she knows our program very well. Clare always has the most profound and hysterical one-liners. She told me that she was enjoying my Training Tips that I have been sending out each day this month. She went on to say she hadn’t really learned any thing new in these tips, they just reminder her of all of the things she knew she ought to have been doing, but she had been sweeping under the carpet. Funny thing, I was speaking to one of my instructors, Tracy Sklenar, on the way to the trial and we were talking about a similar thing.  At every workshop there will be students that may struggle. They have been at a camp or seminar previously and are coming for follow up help. Lets say they are challenged to doing rear crosses because their dog will not drive ahead. The first thing I ask them is to show me their Crate Games. I want to see how much motivation there is for the dog to leave the handler and drive head towards something of value . . . “oh yeah, yeah, I know I should do more of that, but what else can you suggest?”  Now this just cracks me up. The success of my program is based on the a solid foundation of fundamentals. Yes, there are other ways to teach a rear cross but I really don’t think there are any easier ways!  Similarly I was talking to a someone that is getting a new puppy and I suggested he come to puppy camp. He would really like to he said, but he thinks he will save the dough and just bring the puppy to a handling camp when he is older.  There are lots of different ways up a hill, but personally I think you can be playing the games that create the focus and understanding that will carry you up that hill a lot easier.

I am so grateful that difficult tasks can be make easy by the rehearsal of the simple ones.

The Three Crucial Keys to Agility Greatness

So you want to know what I view as the three most things in creating a great agility dog? Foundation, foundation, foundation. So few people find the joy in the little stuff. Everyone wants to jump in and do the sexy stuff so they sequence their 5 month old puppies between uprights with a bar on the ground or they  get working their running contacts or sending their wee puppy through a open row of weave poles. That’s the sexy stuff.  Meanwhile my dogs do Crate Games, Recalls, Body Awareness Exercises, Puppy Grids and Shadow Handling Games.  They do not see agility obstacles until they are close to a year old (with the exception of the table which I teach very early on–a low one, 4″ high). My dogs  don’t start sequencing jumps until they are 15 months or older. I don’t think holding off on the so-called fun-stuff has hurt me at all. Feature is now now the third dog in a row that I have owned that has won a big class over seasoned agility dogs within their first couple months of trialling. I am sure to someone watching, it would appear that my young  dog has been running courses from the time she was just a puppy.  To quote John Pinette, “oh, nay nay.”  The reason for my dogs early success has little to do with agility, and  a great deal to do with  foundation training. As I say over and over, I focus on raising a great family pet and the attributes that make a great family pet also lay the foundation for a phenomenal agility dog. With a solid foundation the rest of agility training (handling sequences, training weave poles or contacts) comes quickly and relatively easily. Without this proper foundation you will be frustratedly training and re-training, as you seek a level excellence that may elude you throughout your dog’s entire career. Find the joy in the training the small stuff or what I consider the “important stuff.”  Plan for more time on Crate Games and One Jump Exercises and less time trying to run full courses. Anyone can do it, it is all about focusing on the ground floor as you work your way up to the top floor.

Today I am grateful I can still yak to John on the phone when I am so far away teaching (. . . yeah, I am sure John is really grateful for this too:))