Shade Whitesel (she/her) has been training and competing in dog sports since she was a kid. Always curious in how dogs learn, she has successfully competed in IGP/IPO/Schutzhund, AKC obedience and French Ring. Along the way, Shade has received a perfect score in the IPO tracking phase on two separate dogs, a perfect score in IPO obedience, placements at Nationals and Regionals in Schutzhund and numerous 1st in class in AKC. Shade currently competes with Talic, who just started his AKC obedience career with 3 High in Trials on his way to his CD.
Though Shade is owned by highly motivated working line German Shepherds and is known for her toy skills and marker cues classes, she especially enjoys teaching foundation skills to all manner of dogs and their people. Good training and learning starts at the beginning.
What started out as an experiment — competing at the National level in IPO without the use of an e-collar — has now turned into a firm commitment to the positive method, and the desire to teach other trainers and dogs how to be successful in all the things with as little aversives as possible.
Shade's personal website is http://www.shadesdogtraining.net/
Pronouns: Shade goes by she/her.
Want a strong, motivated retrieve of the dumbell and a good foundation for utility exercises? Join me as I teach you how to create a firm hold, the end skill in the complex retrieve chain. Our basic goal is a dog who thinks that holding skill is the best part of the whole thing, and hurries to get there when we ask for a retrieve. Importantly, we'll also be covering how to create a dog that starts the action and demands the opportunity to hold the dumbell, a crucial part of achieving total "buy in" from your learner dog. Teaching a hold is hard and sometimes we as handlers need that information from our dogs.
Are you finding yourself confused by all the new marker cues for everything? Toss, X, Yes, Sniff, Scatter, it’s hard to keep them all straight and your head is going to explode! What is the big deal anyway? A treat is a treat. Why do people have 20 zillion cues for a simple treat? And where does a clicker fit in all of this?
Do you have a dog that chases the ball, yet won’t bring it back? Plays keep away with toys? Tugs but won’t let go? Bites you instead of the tug? Obsesses over toys, yet won’t listen to a single thing you say? Is your dog so high in drive for toys that they can’t think? Or do you just want to channel that prey drive right from the beginning and add the attitude your dog has for tugging or chasing toys to the obedience or agility ring?
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