Canemo

New tutorial now posted in the Trained To Trialed course 🥳 but it’s a freebee for you guys here 🎁��Are you going on your 1st, 2nd or even 3rd year of protection without ALSO showing gunfire in the obedience context? ��Classically conditioning your dog to the whip sound only in protection may create a big project in the future.�I know I did when first starting this sport, waiting three years to really introduce gunfire to Ricky 😬🤦‍♀️ ��Don’t be like me. Here’s your very own guide, starting from introduction, all the way to 👉 trial picture. ��✅ Using Social Learning �✅ Reconditioning the association �✅ Intro and progression with the heeling �✅ Intro and progression with the long down �✅ Corrections ���**Extra note for fearful dogs: While some dogs are not suitable for the sport and are not suitable when severe noise sensitivity is observed, other dogs have initial fear, but improve greatly. Negative reinforcement to a target remains one of my favorite tools to use with fearful dogs, ALWAYS combined with extremely high levels of motivation (laziness on the part of developing motivation when using negative reinforcement has a higher chance of resulting in a poor emotion and demonstrates a lack of ability on the part of the handler) �Fear issues with the gun should be resolved prior to showing in trial picture! This allows you to hyper focus on the issue and avoids poisoning the trial picture exercise exercises with a fearful emotion.

New tutorial now posted in the Trained To Trialed course 🥳 but it's a freebee for you guys here 🎁

Are you going on your 1st, 2nd or even 3rd year of protection without ALSO showing gunfire in the obedience context?

Classically conditioning your dog to the whip sound only in protection may create a big project in the future.
I know I did when first starting this sport, waiting three years to really introduce gunfire to Ricky 😬🤦‍♀️

Don’t be like me. Here’s your very own guide, starting from introduction, all the way to 👉 trial picture.

✅ Using Social Learning
✅ Reconditioning the association
✅ Intro and progression with the heeling
✅ Intro and progression with the long down
✅ Corrections

**Extra note for fearful dogs: While some dogs are not suitable for the sport and are not suitable when severe noise sensitivity is observed, other dogs have initial fear, but improve greatly. Negative reinforcement to a target remains one of my favorite tools to use with fearful dogs, ALWAYS combined with extremely high levels of motivation (laziness on the part of developing motivation when using negative reinforcement has a higher chance of resulting in a poor emotion and demonstrates a lack of ability on the part of the handler)
Fear issues with the gun should be resolved prior to showing in trial picture! This allows you to hyper focus on the issue and avoids poisoning the trial picture exercise exercises with a fearful emotion.

OK guys here’s the tea. You know I have to be real with you on my failures as much as my successes and last weekend was a pretty big failure. My perfect boy is a little bit older (4) and because of that, I wanted to get these early trials out of the way, and try to qualify for something in the fall. Though one regionals was just rescheduled for September (yay!😂) the previous dates were too early and the only way I could qualify for anything other than a club trial in fall was to try for WDC. Otherwise we wouldn't be competing for another full year, making him 5 years old at the start of our career together.

It was a big ask to be ready (he's only had 14 months of training) for all 3 of the trials plotted and I wasn’t sure it was possible, but that was truly part of the fun. The biggest push would be in protection, really starting to put together the routine at the beginning of January. We put everything into it and I really believe we would’ve passed. These early performances wouldn’t be our best, but at least might allow us to compete this year.

We weren’t ready now, but we thought we could be ready then.

The thing when you’re cramming, little things fall through the cracks. You're probably gonna miss something. While Trigger likely would have gone over the jumps if I had set him up closer, a last-minute decision to place him a few more paces away than we had been practicing, resulted in a hole being shown.

One element, many points.

There are not many dogs going for their IGP 1 that have no training holes, the key is to not expose them during the trial, which is what I did. Proofing the direction around the jump isn’t rocket science and it’s a standard foundational skill that I teach with puppies. It’s just not something I’ve done thoroughly with him. Well... now I have because it’s a few days later and obviously that’s the first thing we did when we got home 🫠 (very very low jump but tough competing reinforcers)

The judge failed us with 68 points, all 30 jump points gone. Because of a recent collision on an escape and two weeks off protection only 4 weeks ago, it was not optional to continue in the trial if there was even a slight chance that he avoided the jumps due to physical discomfort. We pulled from the trial. Failing is never fun, but almost anyone who’s done this long enough has had it happen. Luckily, with enough time to lick your wounds and cry to friends, humans have a great way of finding the rays of sunshine among the clouds and turning most negatives into a positive. This has reminded me to put more emphasis in the Trained to Trialed course with regards to the IGP 1 jumps and will make the content of the course even more meaningful to those learning.

Last weekend was tough, but this amazing dog showed me that despite his mom’s crappy attitude, lack of preparation, and clearly things to work on, he showed some really beautiful pieces and I’m proud of us both. Love this dog so so much 🥰🥰🥰

A few years ago, I took a course from two of the top agility trainers in the world, a sport that, at the HIGHEST levels, has some of the most advanced word association out there.
Today, I religiously incorporate a few of the things I learned with all of my IGP students.

Piggybacking off of Denise Fenzi’s topic the other day, it’s so natural for trainers to point out the worst examples of certain methods when the reality is every single method will be done incorrectly by students/handlers/trainers. We don’t progress or move forward by looking at the worst application, we progress by looking at the best application.

If one is to truly eventually become the best trainer they can be, you can’t possibly tell yourself you’re going find everything within your own echo chamber of trainers. While I am absolutely a “balanced” trainer, I have been in this world for over two decades (I started training when I was 11 years old and I’m 41 🫣), and it can be hard to find opinions or techniques I haven’t seen or practiced yet.

I do not believe we have reached the ceiling, not even remotely close. Some days I look at the trainers who are coming up and know when they hit my age, they will be far ahead of where I’m at now. There is so much room for progress.

Dipping into the more motivational world has lit a massive fire under me not because I would ever go R plus exclusive, but because when combining them with techniques already familiar and proficient to me, the result is a tool bag that’s exponentially larger than what I had before. So grateful to all of the trainers, especially the highly successful ones, who have been willing to share their techniques. It can be hard to find time to deep dive learn and most people are not able to do that full-time, but when you have a light month, consider taking a course completely foreign to what you’re used to and applying it to a retired or non competition dog.

Sale starts in 12 hours but here's a sneak preview of our Trial Prep course, one of two new course releases this year.

This is what education looks like. It’s a rare day when a student shows up whose dog is able to hit their positions with no body help and it’s a common starting point when there are issues with the motion exercises.

This word association is non-optional for my training and must be done prior to expecting perfection from the heeling. Adding two additional possibilities, the spin and the twirl, make it harder, ensuring the dog learns all of the words more thoroughly. After all, choosing the right one out of 2 or 3 options is much easier than choosing the right one out of 5 options.

There is never a downside to education. There is no mentally stable dog unable to be educated, none too mean or too strong. Corrections or pressure of course can be used in areas, especially real life situations. This is not a pro R+ exclusive post 🙃

HOWEVER, in the same way a convicted murderer will be taught the same curriculum in prison as you or I, a strong dog learns no differently. Whether it’s Spanish, math or philosophy, the need for education or knowledge doesn’t disappear just because you have an as***le on your hands, it increases.

Educate. Proof. Trial Prep.

So yeah, it’s that time of year guys and we’ve got two brand new course releases, a limited Lifetime Membership sale, and 50% off all courses starting Thangiving Day at Midnight (EST). Lifetime Membership sale will end noon on Black Friday or when 20 have been purchased, whatever comes first.

Sooooo excited for this one, our largest course ever plus a course many of you have needed for a very long time.

The plan was to show him the picture of both visible and fresh “other” tracks intermixed with mine. I was not planning on filming the actual track but wanted to get some footage of the area and what had just been on it (cows). However, once Big Red started following, I had to pull my phone out. This, in part, was because it is funny, but also it marked a tangible, concrete milestone in our tracking journey. Repetitions really go a long way.

A lot of you are like me when I first started the sport. I really had no idea how much tracking needed to happen to get the dog to their highest level. I didn’t truly track Ricky with intention until the end of his career. Once I stepped up my tracking reps, there were huge improvements.

The people getting the highest scores consistently are tracking constantly, some of them have tracking fields in their backyard.

You have to track as much as you possibly can.

There is no substitute for the dog’s experience.
When the dog is genuinely educated and experienced, polishing and proofing can be easily accomplished.

Without that experience and foundation, your proofing will come out pressured, your polish, unreliable.

Why aren’t you tracking? Because there’s 1 million reasons not to track. Long drive, loose dogs, farmer chasing you with gun, fire ants…the list goes on.

👉 Find a solution for every problem and open the door to consistent, long term tracking.