Do you struggle to make training progress without a coach? Has this time of madness and isolation seen your training stall or go backwards? If so, you’re definitely not alone. There’re a number of reasons why training alone can be a struggle. Let’s start with......
There you are, totally engaged with working your dog, when someone comes up to you to ask a question. What you do next will make a HUGE difference to how your dog views working with you and the quality of the focus he’ll give you in the future. When we have...
I have a young dog just starting his experiences of trial environments. He's NOSY! He's distracted! He has testicles that frequently override his brain cells! However, somehow despite all this, I have to teach him, nicely, that offering to work with me is a great...
If you're a clicker trainer you know that having clear criteria is a must. However this is one area that I see causing grief time after time - even with experienced trainers! If the goal of clicker training is to provide clarity and clear feedback, we need to...
This is the second part of a two part series on teaching our dogs how to focus on us in interesting places. PART ONE examined the concept of 'focus' from a dog training perspective and looked at how to teach the foundation skill of reorienting to us from...
What is 'Focus'? A very frequent comment I hear from dog handlers is that their dog can’t ‘focus’. Their dog is ‘distracted’ by the environment or specific things within it. So, I’d like to take a closer look at this very common problem. This is especially true of...
Ok, so I'm totally biased here! Competitive obedience is my passion. I love to watch and train happy, enthusiastic dogs performing precise moves and exercises with attitude and pizazz. There is something about having a dog so tightly and joyfully synchronised with...
Rally-O, short for Rally - Obedience, is a relative newcomer to the dog sport world. Unlike traditional competitive obedience and agility, which have been around for many decades, Rally-O has only been officially recognised as a sport here in NZ for a few years....
Nosework is the sport of scent detection. Very recently it was recognised by Dogs New Zealand (New Zealand's 'Kennel Club') as a discipline in it's own right - and competitions will be coming to a place near you very soon! Apart from the fun of competing with your...
I hear it all the time. People take their dog to training classes or see a private trainer to fix problems and get the basics. And then they stop. Just like that. The problem is fixed. The dog civilised. Why do more?