Petra Ford, Faculty

Most dogs are not innately confident. Especially when it comes to obedience. A sport that is not inherently self-reinforcing. A sport where dogs must learn to perform complex behaviors under a lot of pressure. In this course we will explore what we can do to improve our dog’s overall confidence and confidence in the ring. This starts with clear, consistent communication. We must learn how to read our dog’s most subtle cues in real time and adjust our response. We must understand our dog’s learning style and structure our teaching accordingly. We will look at how to create a training session where the dog has a high success rate while using a small ratio of errors to create resilience. We will play fun games with our dogs that empower them and teach them that they can overcome challenges. We will be working on YOUR confidence as well! We’ve all watched our dogs make mistakes and had no idea how to help them. Once you can read and understand your dog and their learning style, you will develop the skills to support them.

There are lots of fronts and finishes in obedience! Fronts and finishes are incredibly complicated. They consist of many pieces that all need to come together. Because they are so difficult, the error ratio tends to be high. Which leads to frustration for both dog and handler. It’s not uncommon for the dog’s return to the trainer to become slower and slower in anticipation of the dreaded front or finish. In this class we are going to break fronts and finishes down into small components. We will teach each piece thoroughly before moving on to the next step. Breaking them down this way gives the dogs a solid understanding of the behaviors. The dog’s success ratio is high which builds success. We will start by teaching the basics of front and finish. Then I will teach fun games to keep the dog animated and build a love for fronts and finishes. We will look at how to add them to the exercises in a way that maintains enthusiasm and accuracy. We will look at how to teach our dogs to work through distractions and pressure in a fun way. We will develop a communication system that will clearly explain to the dog how to fix errors. I will talk about the role of props and how to wean off them. This is a comprehensive course that covers fronts and finishes from basics through advanced skills. Whether you are just starting out, looking to fill some holes, refine the behaviors or work on advanced skills, this course will have material for you. Most importantly, my goal is to teach you how to make fronts & finishes fun behaviors that become inherently self-reinforcing for the dog.

Engagement is the most challenging skill to achieve in dog training. It’s also easily the most important. An engaged dog is actively involved in the learning process and pushing you for more. When a dog is offering engagement, the environment fades away and all their focus is on you. No more begging or bribing our dogs for attention. Establishing a strong foundation for engagement sets you up for future success both when training and trialing. In this class we will cover acclimation, how to teach your dog to offer engagement, what to do when we lose engagement, and how to best utilize our reinforcers. We will look at how to maintain engagement when the dog is in front of us, next to us and away from us.