Agility Seminar and Stuff

I audited an agility seminar this morning. And it was fantastic. In just a few hours I learned a lot- and have a whole notebook of stuff to work on with Leo. I am going to try and squish in at least one more session tomorrow.

Go Dog Go brought Loretta Mueller here. I found out pretty last minute, and waffled about going or not. It would be hard, but in the end the chance to watch and learn outweighed my issues. And I am so glad I did.

I've been reading Loretta's blog for a few years, and also am a facebook stalker, I mean friend. You can really tell what a person is about from reading, and watching, and I wasn't at all off the mark. She is engaging, and genuine, and has a great eye. Most importantly she was helpful to every type of handler, and each kind of dog.  She didn't brush off one person, or one persons issues. Not one. And in my books that is the sign of a great teacher.  She took her time with every student- from the ones who got it nearly right, to the people who were really struggling. It was fantastic.

For myself I took away the fact that I have some big time catching up to do. lol. I have been away from agility for more than a year now. And my how times have changed. I have been keeping as current as I can with videos and blogs, and my friends. But I see that I am definitely going to need some help to get Leo and I up to speed.

He has the basics down, and even some of the fancy stuff. But we need to put it together and I need some feedback. Training by yourself is tricky- because you don't catch everything. So it's easy to fall into bad habits. Even videoing yourself is only so good- because you can't fix it in that moment.

My only choice is to do some online coaching. So as soon as I can afford, and things get back to normal I will have to start researching who/where I should go. It seems there are lots of options out there!

The second most awesome part of the seminar was seeing all my old students and friends. The session I watched this morning was mostly novice dog- so these are the dogs that were just barely sequencing, or just starting to trial when I left. So it was so fun to watch them. I cheered for everyone. I couldn't help it. lol.  I can't wait to get back to trialing so that I can see everyone more regularly. I feel strongly that we can be ready by late spring/summer for some agility trial fun!