Shauna Oliver Seminar

Last weekend ( Jan 6 & 7th) Nike and I did a couple seminars with Shauna Oliver. I cannot say enough good things about Shauna or what we were working on, I just wish she was closer!

Saturday we had a working spot in Master Gamble in the afternoon and I audited the Starter Gamblers session in the morning to get some more ideas on how to teach things and how Shauna specifically teaches things.

Nike was the youngest dog in our Master Gamble class, but I'm glad I signed up at that level. We have the beginnings of a lot of the Starter skills - I just need to proof and build distance on some things like switch out of a tunnel and back chaining on LONG sends. Also commitment on the verbal out, go, switch etc without needing to name the obstacle after.

We worked 6 different drills ranging from simple 3 jump or 2 tunnel drills to more complex gamble sequences. By the time we were done the dogs were fried. I'm glad I didn't have 1 dog signed up for 8 hours of seminar! For being a fairly novice dog, I like to think that Nike held her own. We have some decent skills and a fairly decent independent backside. Just need some polishing and then proofing!

On Sunday we were signed up for Masters Handling since my training partner and I talked about where our dogs skills where vs what we had covered in a foundation handling seminar earlier in the year with Shauna. However, when we got there I was horribly intimidated. Nike was the youngest dog in the group and she was the only dog not running Masters level AAC.

THEN we walked the course, which was a international level/handling course. Something along the lines of the SUSO courses I've practiced with the boys but never have run a full course with Nike - it's always been broken down into pieces for her.

It was lovely, but technical and there I am with my baby dog and no back up plan. All things considered, we didn't do half bad. Nike was significantly more focused for this session than the one the day before. She held a start line and it is apparent that I have trained the skills - they're just not proofed enough for a course of this level.

She understands the threadle however my forward motion is an issue and commitment on ugly angles without me flicking is also an issue. So proofing. But hey, at least I have a trained threadle - that's about 1/2 the battle. She does have a pretty good switch and clearly understands it, I just need more distance and more obstacles instead of just off a contact into a tunnel.

I need to trust my training and my dog and commit to handling instead of chickening out at the last minute. Just do it, and if she doesn't get it right, go back and work it!

Also consequences. If she leaves work, walk her down until she connects, then pressure off. If she leaves twice, work someone else. This did seem to be making a difference in this seminar, so fingers crossed.

Justine Davenport & Jessica Patterson Seminar

This past weekend was the Justine & Jessica Agility Seminar put on by Kim/HyperHounds. 

When it was first announced I dithered, to do or not to do. I just wasn't sure. First I was like, No, thanks. Then maybe. Then I registered but had a few misgivings initially. Lots of thoughts ran through my head "It's all about "international" handling. I don't know that my dogs will work with that kind of handling/that hard of a course, what do I need all of that for?! I don't think it is right for my dogs"

Shake off those preconceived notions and lets get to work!

Let me just say that never have I ever been so glad and grateful  that I did something before! I had a working spot in the morning session and then on Saturday I audited the afternoon advanced session. Having the foundation building blocks and then seeing them put into practice in the afternoon session was a absolute light bulb moment. I think it helped that the afternoon advanced session was a little less advanced than the morning advanced session. But it was absolutely perfect for me.

The explanations from both Jessica and Justine made a whole lot of things in agility make sense, bits and pieces I've picked up from here and there and heard/tried to follow without knowing the whys. It's like a puzzle missing half the pieces and all of a sudden now I can see the final picture. OH, that's what you meant about turn my shoulders!! This handling WILL work with my dogs. It will actually HELP my dogs. I can teach the skills with nearly no equipment in my living room!

I'm so excited for the possibilities and I ended up bouncing out of there after Sunday super excited for the things I need to train instead of plodding out of the seminar with a list of things I need to work on. So awesome!

I worked Spencer (mostly) with Baxter there for backup in the Foundations/Beginner seminar. I've done work with the dogs on some of the skills they teach. We know backsides, we do multiwraps, we're working on tighter turns etc. Other things like how they train threadles and handle threadles are new.

Spencer worked for me. A little hesitant and stressed (the demo dog, Jessica's BC was eyeing him up pretty good from about 10 ft away from where we worked our little drills) but he worked through it. He was awesome! Baxter was awesome as well. I pulled him out for blind cross drills on Sunday and he did amazing. People commented that I must do a lot with him - HAHA - I don't blind cross anything but a tunnel with Baxter! Or rather, I didn't. Makes me rethink some things now, he does actually read them really nicely in the drills. Probably past time to actually put the foundation training in and see how well they might work somewhere else.

Some of the things we were shown, like how to use a blind cross correctly was just amazing. There were 2 jumps set in a 180 about 2 feet apart, we had to pull our dogs through that gap in the middle and every single dog, even the most novice dog who'd never seen agility equipment in his life understood the handling and came through the gap, not even looking at that second jump.

Both Justine and Jessica were SUPER nice and handled/tailored advice to people/dog teams individually and equally. Toy or food, doesn't matter. BC or a slower less motivated dog, doesn't matter. Everyone got advice to help them and no one got brushed off. 

I also loved how a lot of the stuff we were shown in the foundations class has a "Susan Garret/Say Yes Dog Training" feel to it. I've done a bunch of her stuff as well and really like it. Since the group of them worked together and trained together to come up with this handling system, there are parallels to other things I've worked on, which makes me feel a whole lot more comfortable with the whole thing.

It's also super awesome that these talented ladies live about a 3 hour drive from here and not across the country. Now to practice and teach these skills so that when they come back we can play on the hard stuff!