Agility Seminar

[Vickie]

Last chance to book an auditor spot...only a couple of days to go in Sydney for a chance to spend a day (or 2)learning from an Agility World Champion.

[Sayreovi]

Does anyone know if the Melbourne seminar is booked out?

[Vickie]

Tollersowned,

Best to email & ask, link is here:

http://mywebsite.bigpond.com/pep-lill/1Rhonda.html

There may be a working spot in Melb, definitely auditor spots.

Good Luck.

[Sayreovi]

Tah, will be looking at an auditors spot so hopefully there are still some of those.

[FreyaJade]

I'm now stuck working this weekend. ;) Otherwise I'd be there.

[MonElite]

Me too Freya ;) I wont be able to go.

However I did speak to a Polish lady with a dobie that does heaps of agility and she agreed to point me in the right direction, being a novice and all.

You are welcome to join me when I see her.

[flowerchild]

Found a link here, Myszka.

$65 for auditors for one day, $120 for two days. Blacktown.

Sounds great - any more info on the Melbourne seminar? Date, Time, Location, cost?

Thanks ;)

Hey thanks alot for that Myszka

[gillbear]

What a great day today.

Thanks to Rhonda, Vickie and the organisers.

I got to listen, learn and watch some wonderful dogs and their handlers. I just wish I could come tomorrow too :D

I am so burnt from not bringing my hat and sunscreen, though. ;)

Here are a couple of the gorgeous dogs there today.

The first one I call: "your mother and father werent married"

Edited December 9, 2006 by gillbear

[sidoney]

Aww gillbear, I didn't see you!

It's been a good day. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. "Call to side" should be interesting.

[shelties2]

Hi gillbear,

Great photos, thats my Kelly (the sheltie).

I to had a great day.

Thank you to Rhonda, Deb & Vickie

[Maverick]

Wow what great pics...

Had a great day today (except for the bitch in season) and learnt heaps.

Thanks Gillbear for the pic of Maverick

[Pippi]

So generally what was the theme of the seminar, anything in particular or everything in general???

[sidoney]

Day one set up a course with particular handling challenges, people ran it, then it was broken down and the challenges worked through, then people ran the course again. Plus some discussion of things that arose. And a discussion at the end, in the air conditioning.

Challenge one was an A frame/tunnel discrim from a position I'd never even thought of doing it before, explanation of how to train it, and some on-the-fly training of it. Challenge two was a tunnel entry discrim followed by a jump and very sharp turn onto see saw. Challenge 3 had an a frame after a couple of jumps, with a 90 deg turn off the end to a U shaped tunnel, entry the further entrance. Challenge 4 was a send on to a jump then back over weaves. Dogs needed better send ons, handlers needed confidence to handle Ch 3 aggressively - and when pushed to do so, there were some really nice performances, Ch 2 was fairly straight forward and Ch 1 saw improvement but this really needs training, as does better send ons, and also contact performances.

One thing is that she says problems with dogs not sticking contacts tend to be release problems not contact problems (assuming dog understand performance) so says sit the dog at but not on end of contact, go back to where you were, run past and release dog when you wanted to release it. This saw significant improvements esp. with exercise on day 2.

Day two had short course including a particular lead out followed by "call to side" foundation exercises - "call to side" is very important in Rhonda's handling arsenal. This was then followed by doing the short course again and comparing the times using what people had learned and what they had done previously.

Then there was a section on the "backy uppy" threadle/pull through handling approach, which had dogs and handlers unable to do threadles doing them nicely in short order, and that was then put into a short course to use it "in action". And it was smoother for the ones that could do them.

There was a rather nifty contact proofing exercise.

Then a jumpers with weaves course where people put what they had learned into action.

Too much to type. Anyone in Melbourne, if not already booked, would learn a lot by going to audit.

Oh and BTW not only is she a good teacher, who gets people to try new things, she's also fun and nice with it. And very generous with her knowledge and time.

Oh yeah. Bending over problems? Go buy one of those back braces from a hardware store and wear it with the back bit at the front. Instant feedback when bending over. Nobody had one but we got told about it and I can see it will help me with my bending over.

"Send and run" is her basic handling approach - line commitment from the dog and obstacle independence including correct discriminations, handler takes the short path to meet the dog where control/closer handling is needed. Rhonda is a normal person in terms of her athletic ability, like most of us, not one of those whip thin super athletes that runs every step with their dog. So great to get handling choices for normal people. Mind you it DOES mean you have to train the dog properly, so it can jump cleanly with extension or collection where needed, discriminate, do its contacts properly, and so on.

Edited December 11, 2006 by sidoney

[Pippi]

Wow, sounds great Sidoney. Seems as though heaps was covered. The 'bending over' solution sounds simple and effective, I should try that one, I'm always told I bend over and mother my dog too much.

Sidoney said

One thing is that she says problems with dogs not sticking contacts tend to be release problems not contact problems (assuming dog understand performance) so says sit the dog at but not on end of contact, go back to where you were, run past and release dog when you wanted to release it. This saw significant improvements esp. with exercise on day 2.

This is an interesting one too, another exercise to try. Unfortunetely I cant attend in Melbourne but a friend of mine is going and I am hoping that she will be able to maybe video at least some of the seminar.

Thanks a lot for the feedback Sidoney, I appreciate it.

[sidoney]

I forgot to say, Ch 4 with the weaves ideally had a diverging line from the weaves, dogs had some problems with this, she explained how to train that too.

There was so much I cannot write it all, your friend will give you lots, would be interesting to hear what is covered in Melb, what is the same, what different things are covered.

Your friend will be able to video tape her own runs (or rather, have someone do it) but that's all the video taping she can do. So if she's well prepared with pen/pencil and paper, that would be useful.