Confident Exams & Measuring

This course will focus on how to break down the exam skills needed for obedience trials and measuring before doing their first agility trials!

Is your practice for exams/measuring a mix of shoving a billion cookies in their face and repeating stay a bunch of times?  You're not alone! This is an exercise that is commonly done with crossed fingers and a bit of prayer!

If you do agility, the measuring process is the very first experience your dog will have in their 1st trial.  You want this to be a happy experience!  And if your dog is at all close to the jump height cuttoff, you also need your dog to be fully relaxed, and still!

I find that the approach is the hardest part for most dogs.  As the judge is coming over, the happy greeter dog is wiggling and thinking about getting to say hello!  And the shy or nervous dog is eying the judge suspiciously, wondering if they really need to stay put.

Break down this step and teach the dog how to use a start button to request the helper approach- knowing that it has nothing to do with actual interaction with the judge. The quick touches (and fiddling with the wicket!) are just another distraction they've prepared for.

This is a different approach than just teaching the dog to stay "no matter what!"  I want the dog to know that a person will be approaching, and also know it's not about being "pet."  The touch is formal and the dog who loves to greet learns quickly this is not a hello from another person!  This releases that conflict from both the hyper greeter and the dog who says "yuck" with stangers touching them. 

We will look at 

• Teaching a solid stand stay

• Teaching a "start button" behavior for being approached

• Confidently ignoring an approaching helper

• Confidently handling being touched by a helper

• Learning how to ignore the motion, sounds, and touch of a wicket

SAve this link to your calendar for Sept 22nd for registration!

https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/courses/47578