Tips, Articles, & Thoughts From Dog Agility Coach And Competitor Daisy Peel
Here’s a question you can ask about any training system, including mine: what would it look like if this were wrong? How someone answers tells you more than almost anything else they could say. And yes, I’ll answer it first.
Everybody’s selling you their way, and a lot of them are sure yours is wrong. When it gets loud, what do you steer by? Here’s what I wrote down to keep me steady.
NEW PODCAST EPISODE! Your dog ducks away when you pet them before a run. YOU think you’re lowering the pressure, but from your dog’s point of view, you might be ADDING to it. Same hand, same dog, totally different experience on the couch later that night. Context matters.
How many cookies? How many corrections? We love to count, and we love to judge a single moment. But one rep is a snapshot, and your dog’s life is the whole movie. Here’s the scoreboard I actually use, for training and for play.
Your dog doesn’t get braver by being protected from the world. They get braver by being prepared for it. My first dog, Gonzo, a shelter rescue who hid behind my legs, wouldn’t eat, and peed when anyone came near him, is the dog who taught me that.
NEW PODCAST EPISODE! You lured your dog today. So did I. In agility your body IS the lure, and you’ll still be using it at Nationals. Here’s why luring itself isn’t a problem, and what to do about the cookie that never leaves your hand.