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Maximize the Learning

If you could maximize the learning and minimize the frustration for your dog and you as a handler, what would that mean for your future agility prospect?

It means that every minute of your training session is focused, and your dog understands what you expect. It means that you can trust your dog and your dog can trust you – mutual trust builds a strong relationship. It means you know how to structure a session to make training more effective. It means that you understand how to effectively communicate steps in the training process and your dog can predict the outcome. It means that frustration and confusion are reduced from your dog.

It prepares you and your dog for the reduction and eventual elimination of rewards in the ring. It helps you and your dog develop a system of communication.

None of these things have anything to do with obstacle performance or running sequences. But they prepare you and your dog with skills that promote more efficient learning:

In a seminar,
In class,
Or in different training environments.

The Glue Skills

These skills are the glue that hold the pieces of your training together in any environment. They will help your dog learn how to learn. They will help you learn how to train and listen to your dog.

Join me in my new class, "AG190 – The Glue for Future Agility Stars" starting on June 1st. In that class, we will look at skills that both you and your dog need to maximize the learning process.

Some of the many things your dog will learn:

to relax,
stationing
focused wait
release
move away from reinforcement
transport techniques
ring entrance
ring exit

Some of the many things you will learn:

how to better understand your dog,
how to improve communication with your dog,
how and why and where to use event markers,
how to set up efficient training sessions,
to split training into smaller pieces,
how to enjoy training again

When your dog has mastered the skills laid out in this class, s/he will be much better able to handle the agility class or seminar environment. You and your dog will have skills that can move you forward to become future agility rock stars. Glue is magic!

Click here for more information on Nancy's upcoming class, The Glue for Future Agility Stars, starting June 1!

Nancy Gagliardi Little

Nancy Gagliardi Little has been training dogs since the early 1980's when she put an OTCH on her Novice A dog, a Labrador Retriever. Since then she has put many advanced obedience titles on her dogs, including 4 AKC OTCH titles, 6 UD titles, 3 UDX titles, and multiple championships in herding and agility.

Nancy is a retired obedience judge, having judged all obedience classes from 1986-2008. She enjoyed judging around the country and had the honor of judging 3 National obedience tournaments in Florida, Kentucky, and North Carolina. She retired from judging to spend more time training her own dogs and competing in obedience, herding, and agility.

Nancy draws from her experience training and competing in multiple sports, which has given her insight into innovative and creative ways of training and handling dogs. She finds that most trainers have no issues training the "big picture," but they tend to lose sight of some of the little details that are the building blocks to the communication and the relationship between them and their dogs. She loves working with very different challenges and trying to help people find a way to improve their communication with their partners.

Over the years, she has moved from a more traditional obedience training background towards reward based/positive methods in training dogs in all areas. As a result she understands the challenges faced by "crossover" trainers and dogs, and can help handlers find their way to newer and more positive training techniques.

Nancy's website is http://www.endzonedogsports.com.