What's happening this week?
We have a lot of new classes starting this week!
To keep things fun and offer anyone wanting to jump back in if they have a hard time getting going all of these classes are easy to jump into! The weekday classes are going to alternate subjects so that you can do both if you want to.
Here’s what’s starting!
Rally Obedience:
What is Rally Obedience? It is sort of like foundations doodling. They are series of exercises that one would heel from station to station practicing. I love rally obedience! It is a fun way to keep improving your dog’s foundation, intermediate and advanced training skills. It’s great having idea of ways to work on things. Even if you have no interest in any kind of competitions, it is still a great way to work on training skills! You can make things as casual or as precise as you wish!
If you want to get an idea of the kinds of exercises we work on you can visit this link to see a list of exercises:
K9 Nosework:
What is K9 Nosework? It is basically taking the principles used to train detection dogs (drug, bomb, etc) and using other scent oils to train a dog to seek and find a hidden scent source. So it’s using all the same skills but for a safe fun hobby. What I love Nosework? It is simply one of the best games you can play with a reactive, anxious, bored, stressed, under exercised, young, old, dog. It is approachable for most any dog! Research shows that sniffing lowers a dog’s heart rate and helps to calm their nervous system. Teaching a dog to use their nose to explore for fun games with us, helps us connect with them in one of their most important and favorite activities! You can play these games anywhere! The dog is running the show and it really helps to increase confidence. Canine Nosework trials and classes are usually the most approachable activity you can do with a reactive dog! Most classes are set up so that reactive dogs can participate! Dogs work one at a time and often classes are held in places where you can have your dog safely away from all others. You can even compete with a reactive dog, again, only one dog works at a time and since many reactive dog people compete in this sport instructors and event organizers tend to be very experienced at setting up classes and events with reactive dogs in mind.
If you are interested in taking the class here is a link for a place to purchase kits if you are in the US. I do not know if they ship internationally.
Here is a shop in the UK & Australia , obviously I have not used them so don’t know how easy they are to work with or order from. Wherever you live try searching “canine nose work supplies” and your country and you will probably find a supplier!
Beginner Tricks:
In this class we will work on the Tricks on the list for the AKC Novice Trick dog title. Here is a list of the tricks we will work on together:
Cooperative Care:
We will look at teaching skills and techniques to make caring for your dog less stressful and easier for you both. Cooperative Care is the thing you end up wishing you had thought of before you needed it and wish you could start over again, and that is what we do! Even better is to just start doing these things before you need them!
Foundations:
We will continue to work on advancing all of our foundation skills together!