Clean Run - May 2013 - 40

How to Choose Your Best Agility Instructor
By Julia Kamysz Lane

Have you ever sat in a class full of people and dogs and felt like you didn’t fit in? Maybe you’re there
just to have some fun with your dog and everyone around you is talking about qualifying for nationals and how
to shave seconds oﬀ their times with the latest handling maneuvers from overseas.
Or maybe you have high aspirations, such as making a world
team, and you’re hanging on your instructor’s every word.
But your fellow students keep trying to engage you in
friendly conversation, or gossiping about what
happened at the last trial, and
it’s a struggle to focus
on your dog or your goals.
Perhaps you have a dog with
behavioral issues, such as reactivity, and your instructor is
unsure how to address them
appropriately. This leads to
you receiving either less or
much more attention than
your classmates, and this
imbalance in the group dynamic can promote resentment or frustration among
your peers.
An instructor sets the tone for
her classes. A good instructor
is a matchmaker, putting together
people who share similar goals, skill
sets, and complementary personalities.
A great instructor can foster lifelong friendships between students who likely have little else in common
outside seeing each other in class once a week.
Before committing your valuable time and money to a six- or
eight-week session, contact the prospective instructor and ask
if you can observe a class. Obviously, if she says no, that’s a
warning sign. What would the instructor not want you to see?
Most agility instructors use positive reinforcement for both
dog and student. Feel free to ask by email or over the phone
about the instructor’s training philosophy.
If the answer is yes, by all means, take advantage of it and go
watch. You’d be surprised at how much you’ll learn the moment you walk through the door. Does the instructor come
over and introduce herself? Are the students welcoming and
happy to answer your questions? Do they respectfully listen
when the instructor talks or does she have to interrupt them
regularly to get their attention?
How much time does each student receive while out on
course? You can tell the diﬀerence between an inexperienced
instructor and a veteran simply by watching how they handle
the two student extremes: the Perfect Team and the Discom40

bobulated Team. The green teacher will tell the Perfect
Team “great job” and move on, but spend 10 minutes helping the Discombobulated Team reconnect at the start line,
work through distraction, repeat a contact performance, etc. The experienced teacher
will give equal time, regardless of
a team’s ability.
If the Perfect Team performed
the skill as presented, there are
endless ways to make it more
challenging. The veteran instructor will have an almost
sick enthusiasm for upping
the ante. Can you hang
back while the dog races
across the teeter and sticks
the two-on/ two-off landing? Can you do a rear cross
at the weave entry and cross
behind the dog a second time
going through the weaves yourself ? Can you handle one part of the
course as a gamble, working lateral distance without losing accuracy or drive?
One of my favorite distractions is to sit in the middle of the
ring and deliberately make eye contact with the dog at key
points around the course. You’d be surprised at how many
handlers are distracted by that, more so than the dog. But
because the handler is distracted, the dog will often follow
suit. We’ve also used a bag of potato chips and slices of pizza
to add to the distraction challenge.
Is the instructor easily distracted by students on the sidelines, taking attention away from the team in the ring?
When teaching, I do my best to focus on the student in the
ring with me. And, yes, I do prefer to be in the ring so I can
better observe a student’s timing and give her that all important feedback when she turns her back to me and asks,
“Why did that happen?”
There is nothing worse than looking to your instructor for
help only to find her busy talking to someone else or checking her watch. Both of those things have happened to me
as a student, and it made me feel like my dog and I didn’t
matter. I vowed to give my students 110% of my attention
when they’re in the ring so they know I think they and
their dogs are important.
Clean Run | May 13

Clean Run - May 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - May 2013