A New Path Over the years my training and my training business have been a work in progress. I always strive to make training enjoyable for the dog as well as the student, and over the years have adjusted my classes and my own training to reflect that. I also decided a long time ago, […]
Author Archive | Margaret
In All Fairness
You go to buy a vehicle and the seller says to you, “in all fairness, the car needs new brakes”. You are going to buy a house and “in all fairness”, the seller discloses that a big box store will be built next door. You decide to go on vacation to another country, and your […]
Reward Placement to Help Your Heeling
“Click for action, feed for position”- Bob Bailey Remembering to use your reward to your advantage can help you in a lot of training situations, including heeling. Happy training everyone!
Free Your Training From This Frequent Error
You see, but you do not observe”-Sherlock Holmes Free your training from this frequent error The above quote is something that really fits all dog sports training. You need to not just “see” behavior of your dog, but you need to observe it. Observation involves noting changes and perceiving what is really happening in […]
Positive Reinforcement – Friend or Foe?
There it is, that stupid lag on the fast again! Or maybe foot movement on the Stand For Exam? How about a dog that finds a nose work hide and runs to you for reinforcement instead of staying there? Any of this sound familiar? Many times our use of positive reinforcement in training can […]
“Normal” Dog Training
I wish I had some magic pill, the kind that fixes everything. No, I would rather have the pill that never lets anything break, especially in my training. Do you find yourself having a nice retrieve behavior and now you seem to have mouthing attached to it? Or did you have a killer Drop On […]
The Gift of Safety
I was thinking recently about the role feeling safe plays in good training. How I want my dog to feel that no matter what choice they make, the worst thing that will happen is loss of reward. But what really is safety? What does that mean? According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, safety is defined as: “freedom […]
Stating the obvious, or are you?
Did you ever have a conversation with someone, and you thought you were talking about the same thing, and at some point, you realize you may not be? I always think of the credit card commercial with “Frog Protection” or is it “Fraud Protection”? Frog/fraud/frog/fraud, then they both agree they are talking about the same […]
Strong Starts
Getting a strong start has been on my mind a lot recently, for many reasons. One is that it is so important, in any sport, to be able to start your performance with strong intent, from both you and your dog. In obedience this means walking into that ring and you and your dog are […]
Go Treat Yourself Like a Dog Today
It’s those little tiny moves toward what we want in a behavior that we reward when shaping our dogs. So, they may go from nose touching a dumbbell, to slightly opening their mouths, we see that change toward what we want and we make note of it, reward it, letting the dog know we want […]
