Clean Run - December 2014 - 59

Jessica is careful about working her dogs
prior to a competition and won't do any course work
or jumping the day before a trial, opting instead to work
on skills maintenance or prooﬁng a less common piece of
equipment such as the long jump or wall jump.
© BARRY ROSEN, WWW.BARRYROSEN.COM

A Teaching Career
At Princeton, Jessica studied Psychology, but her real passion remained the
dogs. She interned with Bauman in the
summers, watching her teach and training with her. "I credit Diane for my dog
training skills. She also taught me how
to teach people."
Jessica teaches private lessons and classes
at Bauman's Dogdome during the week,
from 9 am to 9:30 pm, with a late afternoon break to return home and let out any
dogs she hasn't taken to work with her.
She often has her dogs out during private
lessons, using them as a distraction for
her students. "They are very good and
never get in the way. I use different dogs
for different levels of distraction. My
red dog, Psyche, is hysterical and will
run from corner to corner of the arena
growling at her toy and barking in answer to handlers' various commands to
their dogs. It's hilarious."
Her success as a teacher, believes Jessica,
is due, in part, to the fact that she has no
preference in working with one breed of
dog or type of handler. "We all love agility
and no one's goals, efforts, or motivations
are more important than anyone else's.
We all want to be the best we can be, and I
truly strive to teach everyone who comes
to train with me as if they are going to
be the next champion. We all started
somewhere, and, if given the opportunity, knowledge, and confidence, we can
all maximize and surpass our potential."

Training Her Own
Any small breaks that Jessica has during
the teaching day are dedicated to training
her own dogs. At least once a week, she
tries to fit in coursework for each dog
that is actively competing. The rest of her
training consists of small skills sessions.
December 14 | Clean Run

Those skills often involve proofing weave
poles and contacts. Jessica will run through
a progression of proofing including calling
the dog to her and sending the dog. A table
close to the down ramp of the dogwalk allows the dog to hop up and only use the
ramp end. She shakes a toy as the dog is
going down as a distraction for proofing.
Sometimes, as a reminder, she will go back
to how she taught the behavior. The entire
process may take 3 minutes or so.

Jessica admits that she is not very good
at systematic record keeping. "I do see
how beneficial it is as you can spot
trends and correlations." Video taping
sessions documents work with the jump
grids and running contact training. She
says she doesn't keep written records of
her own training sessions unless she is
working on something very specific. "I
can feel what my dogs or I need by seeing, watching, and listening to them."

She will also toss a toy as the dog is going through the weave poles. "If the dog
nails it, I leave him or her alone. If the
dog even looks at the toy, I do it again.
Things naturally get sloppy in competition, especially when you are pushing
things. I want strong skills before I test
them in the ring, but I also want to polish
up and reinforce the correct performances before I have a problem."

Training the Trainer

With Fame, Jessica also maintains a
strict jump training schedule, developed
by Chris Ott. The four-year-old Border
Collie is jumping 26" and Jessica has
found the jump grid program beneficial
for keeping bars up.

Time Management
Jessica makes the most of her training
time by knowing what she wants to do before she starts. "If it's a maintenance day,
I run through the drills I need each dog to
review, like proofing or jumping grids. If
I am focusing on a sequence, I have probably already planned my handling options
and maneuvers." She trims training time
by "mass training." All the dogs that are
going to be worked are in the arena at
the same time. They wait in a stay when
it's not their turn. She saves time by doing group warm-ups and cool-downs,
and fewer dog swaps. "It's great time
management, " she says. "It is also very
good for their stay and impulse training."

Ott and Bauman are the two people with
whom Jessica trains regularly. "Diane is
my go-to person when I have a problem
I can't fix." Jessica has also had the opportunity to work with OneMind Dogs
Janita Leinonen and Jaakko Suoknuuti
a few times. "What OneMind Dogs
is doing resonates with me. Focusing
on the dogs' path, how they are using
their body, their view and understanding of agility is quite similar to what I
have been doing. They are simply doing
it more effectively." They have been an
inspiration for Jessica. "I feel like I had
been getting a little flat, looking for the
next thing, and here they came."
Jessica believes that it is important to be
systematic in training, but her own system is a compilation of the good things
that she finds in each system, tweaked to
work for her. "Now if you watched me
run, you would see that I am using the
OneMind system, not specifically in the
handling maneuvers, but in how I am
communicating with the dogs. It may be
the OneMind style, but you will still see
me do a post turn."
Jessica likes to get together with training partners to have another pair of eyes
on her when training. She also likes to
bounce ideas off of Kate Moreaux, a
very good friend since childhood.
59
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