Relationships matters

[Kyoko]

Well known agility trainer from CA is at our dog school for 4 days having workshops for us. I took jump class yesterday morning with Charlie, and attended PM class and today's class as an auditor. ( I am just a very newbie...) As an auditor, I learned a lot, since I didn't have to actually "Do" thing, and got to see how other people handled their dogs.

There was this little sheltie who yapped a lot. Every time it yapped, the owner got a little agitated and scoled the dog. And when it was that dog's turn, it did not perform well. So, the owner got a little more agitated and scoled it some more, and it yapped some more. Eventually, the ower started to say things like " Stop it! Shut up!" More it got scolded, worse it performed!!! It did not look like they had a positive relationship!! It was really interesting to see how some of the dogs trusted their owner and wanted to do well, and others looked like the dog was protesting against the owner!!

[Nancy - Opal, Meadow & Tariki]

I so agree with you!! One of my girls gets pretty worked up about other dogs in general. So when I take her to class, I give her TONS of love and cuddles and snacks and help her focus JUST on me.... in the most postive form. She just loves the hugs and so when it comes time to work... all she wants to do is please me. It BLOWS my mind how that works. But she digs extra deep for me.. and I just know it is the one on one love and cuddles that do it.

One of the first things we were told in Agility was that the word NO wasn't welcome in class.

[Kyoko]

Yeah! Our trainer is the same way!! It was interesting to see how people from different school has different method of training!

[Kyoko]

Amen to that!!!