Clean Run - May 2013 - 63

Base: Kingston, Idaho
Professional, full-time trainer since:
“I have been competing in agility since
I was five years old, in 1989, and have
been giving seminars since 2000.”
Venues of competition: NADAC
Number of national competition
finals: 17
Dogs: Border Collies Try, age 9, and
Nargles, age 3.
Favorite training treat: Zuke’s salmon
Do you have any superstitions or
good luck charms for competition? “I
don’t have one for Nargles yet, but with
Try I have to pet her from her nose to the
base of her tail at the start line. It calms
her and me. If I don’t do that, things
seem to go badly!”
What is your most unusual training
tool? Terracotta flowerpot for targeting
What’s in your training bag? Zuke’s
salmon treats, iPad, phone, harnesses,
Nargles’ special pig toy, some bone or
chew treat that they can enjoy while
hanging out.
Best agility advice she has received:
“That probably came from my friend
Susan. I never hear her be upset when
she comes out of the ring. She never talks
about the bad parts of her runs, only
what the dog did well in the ring. When
she watches a friend run, she also focuses
on the good parts of the run. It’s been a
few years now, but she really taught me
to be positive and it’s been very helpful.”
Why NADAC? “I am a speed and distance
addict. I really like the Super Stakes program and the open flowing courses that
NADAC has to offer.”
May 13

| Clean Run

Trainer: Amanda Nelson

Training
with the Stars
Amanda Nelson
By Sally Silverman

While everyone knows that it takes two to play agility, Amanda Nelson’s
concentration on understanding and honing the team relationship has
propelled her to the top of NADAC competition. Her career has been a
series of firsts: first Junior handler to earn a NATCH, V-NATCH, and JHNATCH, first Junior to earn Top Dog of the year, and first and only handler
to earn NATCHs in all three divisions.

A Team of Two
Amanda’s training philosophy and the
training itself begins with the team. Her
formalized TEAM Training Program focuses on building a strong relationship
between dog and handler through series
of relationship-building exercising using
clickers and targets.
“I see a lot of dog and handler teams that
know the agility equipment and are doing it, but they don’t seem to have that
valuable kind of working relationship
where they really understand each other.
They are both focused on the equipment,
and not working together.” One of her
main goals as a trainer and a handler

is to nurture that team relationship using a series of games and exercises that
involve dog and handler, but no agility
equipment. Some of the games are progressive, while others can be used on
their own. These games are important
even though they don’t relate to agility
because they teach you how to work as a
team. You learn how your dog reacts to
certain situations, and the dog also learns
about you.”
As an example, Amanda cites the Cup
Game, one of the most popular and certainly earliest of the series. The handler
hides a treat under a cup. When the dog
63

Clean Run - May 2013

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