Workshops

The end of an agility run is often the most unpredictable time at an agility trial. It’s also generally the least rehearsed. In practice, the focus is more on the startline and the game itself. Sometimes that leads to not even practicing a true end of run routine until you step to the like together at your first trial as a team. Let's change that!

At a trial there’s another dog coming into the ring, people might be moving in to set bars, the leash isn’t always in a clear spot, no reinforcement in the ring, there’s lots of people calling to one another or chatting and dogs walking by the ring—all things that don’t happen as often during a lesson, class, seminar, or at home. Dogs are also frequently very amped up after their run and seeking an outlet for those feelings. All of these factors make the end of run routine unpredictable and challenging for a lot of dogs, which is also why it’s such an important piece of the agility trial picture.

Inspired by a common pattern using dots from Control Unleashed, this workshop will give you a step by step procedure for facilitating a predictable and comfortable end of run for you and your dog. By the end of the week, you’ll have a rock-solid foundation for your end of run routine that’s ready to face all the distractions you’ll eventually need in a trial environment.

In this workshop, we will reveal all of the different reasons why your dog might use their feet to alert on containers rather than the nose. For the truly destructive dogs, we will use the workshop to work on a focused freeze response. We will cover the steps and demonstrate proofing and progression.

Teach your dog the powerful foundation skill of “around”! In this workshop, we’ll start with introducing the around behavior—sending your dog around an object—and then build it into circling the handler. From there, you’ll see how this simple yet versatile skill translates into so many useful applications.

So you have a Rocket Ship? They are fun to watch but can be really challenging to get the most of them. Sometimes it can feel like you are skating the line between brilliance and a train wreck. Trying to skate that line can be frustrating to both the handler and the dog. This workshop is about developing the skills you need to handle the high arousal and/or high drive dog in Nosework. We will get into way more than the standard staging advice. We will also get into handling skills that can help you to get the most out of your dog.

Are you looking to train a reliable and independent teeter performance, but don't have regular access to a teeter? No problem! In this workshop, we will be teaching a full teeter performance (with proofing and all!) without ever touching an actual teeter.

Every dog carries a unique spark, and when we learn to see what lights them up... we begin to understand who they truly are. Not just the obvious things like toys or treats, but the quiet, quirky, deeply personal joys that show up in daily life... rolling in snow, rooting in mud, snuggling into armpit scratches, running through the woods with a friend, or even melting under a favorite brush.