Kiersten Lloyd Seminar- Part 1

Way back in the fall we (Go Dog Go) asked Kiersten Lloyd to come and do a seminar for us. We wanted Kiersten because a) she is a great agility trainer (her dog is on the world team) and b) she has campaigned her dogs in obedience (she was in the Top 10 in Canada 1999/2000)

I have been looking forward to it for awhile- but it takes quite a bit of work to actually put on a seminar so until last night I hadn't really thought of it as a "seminar" more like just another thing to have to do.

Anyway, so today was the Obedience day. It went GREAT! I was very impressed with what Kiersten had to say and was pleasantly surprised at all of the great advice she had!

A couple of key notes:

• "slow" does not mean short choppy strides. Long and Slow is smoother and a better signal to your dog


• wicca really needs work on her fronts/finishes.


• apparently I taught my dog how to forge =) I need to have a better picture in my mind of where my dog should be. This is what happens when you train mostly by yourself....

When she picks up the dummy incorrectly don't take it from her. Wait her out and see if she'll figure out to drop it and re-pick it up.

We also worked on "bad throws" over the high jump. Wicca did great. I was happy.

A couple fun "games"

-Down Game

this is to help slow drop on recalls. Teach them that when you move in towards them to drop fast for the cookie. See if you can "beat them to the down." This helps build excitement as well as fast downs.

-Quarter Turn

Great for teaching proper heel position, as well as how to "fix" a sloppy finish. I have done this before, but never with the excitement of a game =)

We ended with long sits/downs out of sight. I have been practicing.....alot. And it totally showed. I was very impressed with her. She went down on her sit (at about the 2.5 min mark) and sat on her down (at the 30 sec mark) both times I said nothing, and just put her back where I wanted her.

Overall I was very impressed with Wicca. She is a great dog and if I would get serious about Obedience we could have a CDX.....it's on my list for this year though...so practice, practice!

Tonite we have the dinner/talking portion of tomorrows seminar....I will post tomorrow night about how it all went.