Expert-Led Training: Proven Methods, Real Transformations

Although resource guarding of food objects is a normal behavior in dogs, it can escalate to an abnormal state, which is of great concern to members of the household, both human and other pets. It can also manifest with other items, places, and people. In my experience, this often comes from a state of anxiety. In this class, you will learn to identify any subtle signs of guarding, to identify your dogs’ thresholds and how it can change from moment to moment, and how to manage and modify the behavior to reduce risk and injury.

Have you ever watched a breed ring dog show and thought, “That looks easy! It’s just walking in left handed circles and standing still”? Well, my friends....there’s actually a lot more to showing a dog successfully. In this class, you’ll learn the specialized skills that make a confident, polished handler: proper handler mechanics, techniques for teaching your dog how to show, and conditioning exercises designed specifically for the breed ring.

Open IS fun!! In this class, I deconstruct all the exercises into manageable pieces. Each piece is taught and maintained like a trick. This makes the exercises accessible for us and the dogs. Your dogs will understand the exercises and perform them with joy and energy. As we put the pieces together, we will maintain that light attitude. We will use backward chaining and forward chaining to pull the exercises together. All while maintaining the quality of the pieces that make up the chain. This approach makes it easy to problem solve and “fix” pieces within an exercise.
We will look at games that teach dogs how to handle pressure in a positive way. We will also look at games that maintain drive, especially for behaviors that are in the middle of the chain.

Did you know that the MOST important time in a dog's early career in Nosework happens AFTER they learn target odor (as in NW101) and BEFORE they start their general searching? Making mistakes now are costly. In this transition time, the dog (and handler) learns searching habits, passive indication, precision, consistency, and the ability to work in new and novel locations. THIS class forms the initial foundation to get you off onto the right track. Without these skills, a team may suffer from missed hides and false alerts and their ability to move up the levels successfully may be hampered.

Ready to build a dog who loves working with you — no matter what’s happening around them?