Clean Run - January 2011 - 3

Cover
The magazine for dog agiliTy enThusiasTs

PHOTOs © dOgsPOrTPHOTOs.cOm, © VicTOr sTeel PHOTOgraPHy, inc.

january 11

Volume 17

number 01

Agility Organization Leaders, Part 1 Many competitors don’t know anything about the people who help organize and orchestrate most aspects of this well-loved sport. This month you’ll meet Sharon Nelson (NADAC) and Ken Tatsch (USDAA). By Brenna Fender

Ready, Set, Trial! Whether your goal is to earn a few ribbons or a championship title, you owe it to yourself and your teammate to set yourself up for success before stepping into the ring for the first time. By Jamie McKay, CPDT KA

72
NADAC Chances Strategy and Tips Chances is a game where most, or all, of the course must be handled from within a restricted area and within a fixed amount of time. Here are some tips for training necessary skills and planning a handling strategy. By Andrea Dexter

58 The Secret to Focus, Drive, and Desire Does your dog hate repetition in training? Get easily distracted? Or shut down as soon as he thinks he’s wrong or as soon as you make a mistake? There is a way to achieve focus, drive, and desire in virtually all dogs without having the best reinforcers or the best handling skills. By Sassie Joiris

Features
5 Editorializing: Aspiration versus Expectation Can you tell the difference between aspiration and expectation? One is a harmful distraction and the other is about realizing your team’s full potential. By Lowell Schmorrow-Zuckerman 39 When Pigs Fly: Learning to Love the Teeter Despite all the great resources and advancements in agility training, many teams still find it difficult to put together a reliable teeter performance. To be successful with the teeter, you need to focus on training the dog’s entire performance, not just the obstacle. By Jane Killion 46 Can You Handle It? Regional tournament events draw top competitors, and the course designs for these events are generally quite challenging. Elements from these courses are frequently inspiration for judges and often set trends in course design at the local level. This month’s sequence is taken from the USDAA Team Standard course at the Rocky Mountain Regional held in Farmington, Utah in June 2010. By Ann Croft 50 It’s Your Turn! Combining Turn Cues Now that you’ve learned the seven turn cues, it’s time to put the turns together and have some fun creating turn-cue combinations. Combining the turn cues is the next step in perfecting your turn-cue communication with your dog. The combos can also help you perfect your footwork and make your timing more consistent. By Sandy Rogers

15 Work that Line! How to Plan the Perfect Gamble Once you and your dog have a good understanding of the various directional commands discussed in past articles in this series, the next step is working on gambles themselves. By Kristy Netzer 24 Challenges for Rising Stars You should be able to put your dog into a tunnel, either in obstacle focus or handler focus, and have the dog come out with the same focus. These exercises will help you work on that skill. By Stuart Mah 30 You Know Your Dog Is Aggressive If... Part 3 Once you have the dog’s foundation behaviors trained, it’s time to concentrate on your skills. You are going to work on reacting quickly and not freezing, being proactive rather than reactive, and practicing positive mental imagery. By Pamela S. Dennison 35 Power Paws Drills This month’s drills are inspired by the courses the AKC/USA team ran at the 2010 FCI Agility World Championships in Germany, and specifically, a sequence from judge Nalle Jansson’s Large Dog Individual Jumpers course. It was both an interesting and challenging course. By Nancy Gyes

63 What’s Your Point? Instructional Techniques for Working with Adult Learners Since most agility students are well into adulthood, it is important for instructors to understand how to best work with adult learners. Here are some techniques that will help you get your point across to your students. By Tracy Sklenar 68 Critical Thinking Skills: How Do You Decide What Information in Clean Run Is Relevant to You? There is a lot of information in the magazine. How do you evaluate each article (and all the other information that comes your way) so you can choose methods that are compatible with your mindset, your lifestyle, your training and handling, and your dog? By Daisy Peel 79 Early Spay and Neuter in Dogs: A Discussion of the Medical Issues Early spay and neuter has become a hot topic in the agility world. You hear horror stories about what can happen if you do spay your dog at six months and stories about what can happen if you wait too long. What to believe? By Julie A. Roos DVM

Columns
6 7 8 Tip of the Month By Lynn Baitinger Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Agility… By Brenna Fender Backyard Dogs By Sharon Freilich

Cover Dog
Snowlily’s Star Fox, a.k.a. Violet, a 5-year-old Samoyed owned by Allegra May of New Hampshire. Photo by Jeremy Kezer Photography.

Clean Run (ISSN 1089-8506) is published monthly by Clean Run Productions, LLC. Principal office: 17 Industrial Dr., South Hadley, MA 01075. Periodicals postage paid at South Hadley, Massachusetts 01075-9902 and additional offices. © Copyright 1995-2011 Bud Houston and Clean Run Productions, LLC. All world rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Clean Run, 17 Industrial Dr., South Hadley, MA 01075.

January 11 | Clean Run

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Clean Run - January 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - January 2011