Clean Run Magazine - October 2008 - 34

Does your second (or third or fourth) agility dog have the same problems as your ﬁrst dog? This is another clear symptom of stagnation. Something needs to change. Guess what? Each dog is diﬀerent and the common denominator is? Yep, that’s right—you, the trainer. do all your dogs have problems with weave entries? Are they slow in the poles? do they go oﬀ course? drop bars? Break their starts? These are indicators that you, the trainer, need to change, update, and seek out assistance. There are answers out there—you need to actively seek them out. If you encounter a training or trialing problem, where do you go for assistance? We are exceptionally fortunate today with the plethora of resources available—camps, seminars, books, dVds, chat lists, and the many competitors spread throughout the continent who are of World Team caliber. Are you using all these resources to your best advantage? Even if you don’t think you have a speciﬁc problem, you can never know too much. I am not aware of anyone who attended a camp and was perfect; everyone has something to learn or enhance. Your dogs receive the ultimate beneﬁt. For example, the inaugural Clean Run Instructor Camp was held in 2007. What a great experience! people often ask me if they should go because they are not instructing agility classes. I point out that they are always the instructors of their own dogs. Agility friends often get together to train and end up instructing one another. So my answer is, “Yes, you should go!” © ANNE SM ITH Can you deﬁne your agility handling system? do you have a handling system that can be written down and deﬁned? Can you list each body-language, motion, and position cue? Each verbal command and voice modulation and its expected, trained response from the dog? deﬁning your handling system is a relatively new concept. I usually ask students who come for private lessons to write down all the commands and cues they use both in training and trialing. Often students ﬁnd redundancies and gaps. Where does this leave the dog’s training status? do you ever say or do something while training or trialing that is not within your handling system? What do you expect from the dog then? An actual system can prompt greater consistency and clarity within our training and trialing, and consequently, give the dog more predictable, clear, concise direction and leadership. Are your course analysis skills better than they were two, ﬁve, or ten years ago? Can you “read” a course better? Can you see it from your dog’s point of view? Can you see what information your dog needs and when? It is the dog’s path that needs to be managed. If the frequency of refusals or wrong courses has decreased and your YpS (yards per second) has also decreased, these factors indicate that your dog has slowed down and is waiting for information so he can be correct. Is your current handling system identical to the one you used two, ﬁve, or even ten years ago? If so, then that may well be the ﬁrst indicator that your agility is stagnant. There are so many new and helpful techniques available to handlers. progress in the sport is helping us better understand how our dogs read our body motion and signals. Some truly insightful information is still coming to light and is helping us to better work with the dogs’ innate understanding of motion, rather than to train them against their natural instincts. Have your obstacle training methods changed in the last two, ﬁve, or ten years? I remember many years ago when I took my ﬁrst dog to agility class, the 12 weave poles were straight up and we had our dogs on leash and just yanked them through. That method didn’t make for fast and consistent weave poles. Since then, many new methods have come along—2 x 2s, Weave-A-Matics, channel weaves with weave wires or cages—all of which allow the dog greater obstacle focus and understanding. If you still struggle with the weaves, consider incorporating these aids into your training. Which method do you use for training contacts: two-on/ two-oﬀ, one-rear-toe-on, four-on-the-ﬂoor, running, handler movement and position dependent, or the prayer to the agility gods for any part of the dog’s foot to hit the yellow? have you actively evaluated which method is best for your team? do you then know how to train each performance so it is consistent and fast? Clean Run | October 08 Have you incorporated verbal directional cues, obstacle- versus handler-focus cues, an automatic table position, collection and extension skills and cues, a ﬂip or turn-away cue, call to side, elevator pass, and so on into your agility handling system? New methods, techniques, and skills are being invented all the time. Are you up to date on them? I have heard handlers say they could never learn to teach or use Right and Left cues. until a few years ago, I felt the same, but I realized I was hampering my agility system by not making the attempt; so I forced myself to step up and do it! Now I love teaching and using my Right and Left commands, and I wonder how I ran agility without them. 34

Clean Run Magazine - October 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - October 2008