It’s the weekend. The corgi is bored. I am otherwise engaged. She is standing, staring at me, willing spontaneous adventure to begin. “Zora, go find William.” She turns tail and determinedly trots off through the house to find her other…
Don’t Take Good for Granted
With all of the millions of behavior choices available to our dogs in any given instance, it never ceases to amaze how frequently the behaviors they chose are ones that are pretty darn wonderful. That isn’t to discount the moments…
Falling in the Pond
Often when we look at or make plans for behavior modification with our dogs the focus is on management and gradual exposure to stressors that allow the dog to practice alternate coping skills below threshold working to change the dog’s…
Practice saying, “No.”
What phrase have I said more than any other phrase in the past week? “No, but thank you so much for asking!” Can anyone guess the question my response is answering? If you guessed, “Can I pet your dog?” You’re…
The Magic of Space & Time
Frequently, it feels, we are all so often rushing, rushing, rushing. And with that rushing, putting pressure on those around us, including our dogs, to hurry up and be who we need them to be. We give small credit to…
Agility Side Changes
In the beginner agility program I teach, the 2nd session of classes is devoted to directional skills and crosses. It’s the class I start hearing references to dancing and having two left feet from the students, and is is where…
Lead Outs
In dog agility most folks are familiar with the concept of a lead out. For those uninitiated, a lead out refers to the stay that you ask your dog to do at the beginning of the course, before the 1st…
Buy In
Last night I taught an agility workshop, kicking off the start of agility lessons here. It was a nice small group of competitors preparing for this weekend’s trial. I had a lovely time with them all and we had good…
More than One Way
In any activity humans are passionate or invested in you’re going to get strong opinions. Expressions of the way things have, or should, or must be done. Dog agility is no different. Yet many, likely majority, of those expressions are…
Snow Day Survival Strategies
This winter our weather patterns have been a tad unusual for sure. As a result the panic calls have been coming in March instead of the more typical January. The panic calls that occur often like clockwork about 2-3 days…