Three-Day Workshop at LCCOC
November 22, 23, 24, 2024 :: Louisiana Capitol City Obedience Club, LCCOC Agility Fields, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
What a great weekend in Baton Rouge at the new (and very awesome) LCCOC agility field! We were blessed with good weather and lots of sun for our 2 1/2 day Workshop. For the 4-hour Friday night segment, we worked our way through one of the finals courses from NAC and then did a few drills to refine mechanics. The 4-hour segments for both Saturday and Sunday were the same – Foundations in the morning and Drills for Skills the afternoon where we worked on front, rear, rear on the flat, blind and landing-side blind crosses. It’s always fun to work with young teams to help them learn just how important those foundation skills can be as well as those teams already competing who appreciated revisiting the basics and refining their skills.
Special thanks to Ken and Noel for inviting me, to Noel for organizing the entire weekend’s Workshop and to everyone who attended for their curiosity and great attitude.
Specific Drills for Specific Skills
Let’s Focus on Friday!
Friday, November 8, 2024 :: Pets Behave, Niceville, Florida
This workshop is designed to help you and your dog work through many of the most commonly seen cue combinations on agility courses today. Using Linda Mecklenburg’s “Skills Drills” sequences, as well as sequences designed by Daisy Peel, you’ll be challenged to perform a variety of “cue combinations”, which will provide you with a nice foundation.
Short, 6-8 obstacle drills help each team really work through specific skills. We will set up a small course using one tunnel and several jumps and then work through several drills that will allow each team to try different handling options for common sequences. This basic set up has 20+ options to handle the short sequences. Workshop participants can choose which options they would like to work on or try: front cross, rear cross, blind cross, landing side blind crosses, ketchker turns … some you might use all the time, some you can try for the first time. For each drill, you will be directed to perform a specific skill or combination of skills. Sequences are short so participants will have several opportunities to finesse each cross.
Novice dogs and handlers will learn new skills and Masters level handlers will be encouraged to step outside their comfort zone. This is one of my favorite group of drills.
Susan Salo Jump Grids
Let’s Focus on Friday!
September 27, 2024 :: Pets Behave Dog Training, Niceville, Florida
We are so pleased at the response and we appreciate everyone who came out to show their support for FoF. For this workshop, we focused on a few of the Susan Salo foundation jump grids. Susan considers each grid a puzzle and it was very interesting to watch each dog figure out what jumping effort they needed to get through the grids.
Practicing grid work gives your dog an opportunity to focus on his jumping skills so he can develop understanding and confidence, and ultimately speed. It also aids in the development and maintenance of the muscles and strength necessary for successful jumping.
For this workshop, the grids presented are intended to give you a means of isolating the various aspects of jumping mechanics and allow time for your dog to practice jumping skills. Lisa will set up and demonstrate several foundation jump grids that you will be able to set up and practice at home. We will video your dog’s session so that we can point out what to look for and when and how to troubleshoot any issues.
3-Day Workshop at MADOC
March 2, 3, 4, 2024 :: Montgomery Area Dog Obedience Club, Montgomery, Alabama
It was a nice surprise when Dawn from MADOC approached me and asked about offering an agility workshop at their facility in the Montgomery area. Between hip surgery, recovery and then COVID, LGA workshops had been put on the shelf. So nice to get back out there and share the love of agility and especially foundation skills with an ever growing family of agility friends. We intended to begin the weekend with a Friday night lecture and demonstration of agility foundation skills, but due to what seemed like 24 hours of rain, we moved this segment to Monday night. This opened up the opportunity for me to work with several members for private lessons during the day.
The group chose the following workshop segments:
Agility Foundation Skills
A good, solid base of foundation skills is invaluable for every agility Team. Through several years of teaching and coaching students of various skill levels, Lisa realized that Linda Mecklenburg’s observations in agility’s early days were still viable today. In this workshop segment, Lisa will show you how to use the 4 natural cues (motion, shoulders, positioning, eye contact) and the two learned cues (arms and verbals) to maneuver your dog easily and seamlessly through any level of agility course. Each participating Team will work through a simple drill that will help clarify how the cues “work”.
Skills and Drills
Short, 8-10 obstacle drills help each team really work through specific skills. Lisa can create drills that will allow each team to try different handling options for common sequences. Will you try a front cross, rear cross or blind cross? Are rear crosses your go-to moves? Maybe it’s time to give blind crosses a try. Are you confident that your dog will take that obstacle over there if you layer a jump in between? There are no definitive right or wrong answers – each team can try different options to see what works best.
Course Work – Beginner to International
For this workshop segment, Teams will be presented with sequences and coursework to meet and challenge any skill level. Participants can walk/run the sequences and suggestions will be made on an individual basis to help each Team maneuver through the course to the best of their abilities.
Contacts
For this workshop segment, we will concentrate on how to help your dog with smooth, safe approaches and exits from the contact equipment. Just how independent are your dog’s contacts? Can you handle from a distance – even just a little? We will work on several common sequences, including turn back to tunnels, managing turns off the equipment and building confidence in all contact performances.