I’ve always had a propensity to view dog training as “art” – along the lines of taking and developing photographs. Before you ever “click” the camera you need to have a concept in your mind of the visual rendering you are trying to create.
Each work session is equivalent to taking “snapshots” for your photo album ...
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I was at a trial when a friend I haven’t seen in awhile came up to talk. We touched on the subject of how she was not enjoying trialing and was looking for some “input”. I told her perhaps she was trying too hard and with that not handling her dogs the way she use ...
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This morning I was out training a couple of young dogs of ours. One is a 19 month old smooth coated female and the other a 15 month old red rough coated male. One was a delight to work and the other I walked away from the work session just exhausted. When I came back ...
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While working a dog I have in for training I ran into a problem that seems to emerge as a common thread running through numerous dogs I take in. The problem child I was referring to is a really nice yearling bitch that has a lot of potential with an amazing amount of natural talent. ...
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“Illusions of Control”
Control – just how much is enough? When does enough become too much. This is a common novice query. As usual, a problematic question to answer “on paper”. The first supposition most make is – “too much is when the dog quits” (but that “begs the question” … how did they quit ...
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I’m constantly telling my students to keep the push in their dogs while trying to “tone down” the chase. After observing their confusion between the two terms I thought an article might help clarify the concept. So, I will attempt (as usual complicated on paper) to differentiate between chase and push so hopefully a novice ...
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Right Angle
I was flipping through the TV channels the other day struggling to find something interesting to watch (not easy task “to be sure”) and happen to run into an enticing horse training show. One of the reasons “a horse show” caught my attention was that years ago one of my student’s husband (he has ...
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SHORT-CIRCUIT I recall sitting with an “Overseas” judge, possibly 5 or 6 years ago, talking about different trainers & training methods when another competitor commented to the judge: “Candy is one of the trainers that doesn’t believe in using shock collars”. My astounded return comment – “there are trainers that do?”
Times are changing and I’m ...
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Semi-Breeding
I was sitting at lunch with some friends and we were (surprise!) talking dogs. We have a mutual acquaintance that for lack of a better word dabbles in working dogs. She has a couple of Aussies and a couple of Border Collies. She has trialed a couple of times, and when she takes lessons it’s ...
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“STYLING”
One of the questions I hear a fair amount from beginners is “what do you mean when you say style?” Oftentimes I find myself having difficulty explaining what my impression of style is so I thought an article would help clarify my thoughts and allow me to revaluate what I intend to convey by ...
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