Clean Run - May 2013 - 64

Amanda is not, by her own admission, what she
would call a “heavy” trainer. “I work my dogs three times
a week, or maybe every other day, for about 10 minutes each.”
She’ll even set the timer in her phone to make sure that she
doesn’t get carried away and over do it.
© GABBY GRAVES OF MERLIE GIRLIE PHOTOS

touches it, the handler picks up the cup,
shows the dog the treat, and verbally
praises the dog. If the dog knocks the cup
over himself, the treat is available for the
taking. Another cup is soon added, then
another; only one cup, however, is hiding a treat. With three cups, the idea is
that the dog should select the cup with
the treat. Shufﬂing the cups can take the
game to the next level.
“I use that game for a lot of things,” explains Amanda. “How the dog approaches the game can tell you so much about
your dog and how he will work in agility.
If the dog approaches the cup cautiously,
gently touching it, he will probably be
controlled and serious in agility, like my
Try. On the other hand, if he goes at the
cups knocking them all over at 100 miles
per hour, like my Nargles, the dog will
be forward and perhaps careless.” She
uses this knowledge, and the knowledge
she gains from all of the exercises, to
help in the planning of her agility training. “I learned with my own dogs that
Try would need speed and motivation in
her training, while Nargles would beneﬁt from more control and collection. I
try to teach them to handle the cups in
a way that will carry over to agility.”
It’s something that she starts when they
are puppies, and continues to use, both
as mental exercise and entertainment.

Taking Care of Their Bodies
In addition to her training background,
Amanda has invested a great deal of
time, energy, and passion into studying
canine bodywork, including canine acupressure, massage therapy, canine nutrition and herbal therapy, and reﬂexology.
Understanding the canine body has been
valuable in her training program. “When
I was studying heavily I learned about
the muscle ﬁbers and what can happen if
a dog doesn’t have time off.” If a dog (or
64

handler for that matter) competes heavily, she explains, micro tears can occur in
the muscle ﬁber. With time and rest, the
tears will heal; but if the athlete is given
no time off, those micro tears can increase and cause injury to the dog. “The
dog also needs time off mentally, too,”
adds Amanda. “I have seen many dogs
who have a lack of motivation and the
handler has tried everything under the
sun to speed them up, but all they really
need is some time off to let their brains
reset and just be a dog.”
Amanda does bodywork on her own
dogs at least a couple of times a week: “I
learn so much when I work on my dogs.
I can feel the soreness in a shoulder, for
example, and adjust the training for the
following day accordingly.”
Fluid Motion bodywork is a program
that Amanda has developed. It combines
acupressure, massage, and traction to
release tension from joints so they can
move freely and are less prone to injury.
The combination of exercise, training
program, and natural health therapies
contribute to the fluid teamwork between dog and handler.

Training by the Season
Amanda’s training program swings with
the seasons. She values the beneﬁts of
mental and physical time off, and makes
sure that her dogs get plenty of both.
After the NADAC championships in
September, Amanda takes a few months
off to rest herself and her dogs. She does
a lot of online training with students, and
does massages for local clients. “I’m
lucky. My dogs are mellow to live with.
They like to hang around the house.”
She spends about 10 minutes per day per
dog doing clicker training and tricks in
the house. She doesn’t have access to an
indoor training facility, and the snowy

Idaho winters make outdoor training
almost impossible. “So we do targeting
games and tricks—things to keep them
mentally sharp, but nothing really related to agility.”
Once January comes around, it’s time to
start gearing up for trial season, which
begins in March. Amanda concentrates
on making sure that her dogs are ﬁt to
compete. “We do lots of work on FitPAWS® balls and peanuts. The dogs get
lots of massages and stretching, combined with a lot of strength training.”
Where the dogs have the opportunity to
run though nearby ﬁelds throughout the
year, Amanda will now work in more
hikes to increase their ﬁtness. “I am doing the same thing as they are, so it is
addressing my ﬁtness at the same time.”
She also uses a ﬁtness program with her
Xbox Kinect® three times a week.
Amanda is not, by her own admission,
what she would call a “heavy” trainer.
“I work my dogs three times a week, or
maybe every other day, for about 10 minutes each.” She’ll even set the timer in
her phone to make sure that she doesn’t
get carried away and over do it.
In her backyard, which is not very large,
Amanda will set up 10 to 15 obstacles,
a combination of hoops and jumps.
“I work on Super Stakes skills—distance, direction, and things like that. In
NADAC, hoops are ground-speed obstacles. Working with the hoops not only
helps the dog’s ground speed, it helps
me to tune up and improve my timing so
that my commands and body language
come out right. “With the more seasoned
Try, her goal is to keep the dog tuned up
and conﬁdent, and make sure that her
directional skills at a distance are sharp.
That means incorporating boxes and pinwheels and other frequently seen combinations of jumps.
Clean Run | May 13

Clean Run - May 2013

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