Hi, I'm Laura, a dog sports enthusiast and online coach! I train and compete in obedience, rally, and agility. I am passionate about building motivation and focus in dogs that struggle in training or trials. Follow me on social media for daily training videos of my dogs and cat! And please hit the subscribe button to my newsletter to keep in touch!
Ditch the platform and teach fancy front pivots
Hey Reader!, This last week I did a daily training challenge of working fronts with my crew- 3 dogs and the cat. Arlo and Freya were new. Ginny has fronts that (usually) make me feel like I know what I'm doing. And since this fall, Loot at least no longer melts and thinks fronts are a horribly tricky exercise anymore. But he still needs a lot of work! As I was helping those who posted along with me, I decided that a blog post was necessary! So many people work on front platforms but struggle to get rid of it. And admittedly I don't have the skills to help them fade the platform either! That's because I do very little work with sit platforms in my training. Platforms can be a great tool, but I do best when doing more active training to show the dog what I want. And that means front pivots. A pivot perch helps the dog be close and tells them it's a rear-end exercise. But it doesn't 100% structure them to be right. I know that as trainers we love structure!! So I break down the skill of pivoting in front. I want a high rate of success, but I also want that thinking dog in a way that using a platform doesn't get me. Ditch the Platform & Teach Fancy Front Pivots
February ClassMy Novice prep class starts February 1st, I'd love if you would join us! Gold spots are full, but still room to join us at silver or bronze! Upcoming Workshop!I'm bringing back out my marking workshop! The skill of looking straight ahead before sending is needed in 2 obedience exercises: go outs and directed retrieves (gloves). But it's often used in agility at the startline too! Save the date for registration 2/22, with the workshop released March 10th! Tandem Dog Sports |
Laura Waudby
Hi, I'm Laura, a dog sports enthusiast and online coach! I train and compete in obedience, rally, and agility. I am passionate about building motivation and focus in dogs that struggle in training or trials. Follow me on social media for daily training videos of my dogs and cat! And please hit the subscribe button to my newsletter to keep in touch!
I wrote a new blog bost! This post on why I don't place the reward on the dog's line (at the foundation level). Without a foundation in knowing how to leave the reward to get the reward, I see so many dogs running blindly to it as the handler attempts to work sends. This results in dogs continually being called off the reward when they invetibly skip obstacles on the way there. People trying to block and guard the reward as they try to convince the dog to go back and try again. A lot of...
Loot got to do one trial this month. A single ring small CDSP trial. He was heavily managed to be in the building only right before his turns so that the odds of having a dog bark while he was there was lowered. And we lucked out. No barking. He was happy to go in the ring and while his precision wasn't there, he kept his attitude! New CDX-C title! Ring Confidence Group In case you've missed it, I have a Ring Confidence training group on Facebook! Free to join and read, or post whatever...
Happy fall! Raviloi is now a full teenager and the most "teenagery" I've had with independence! Still a very easy puppy, but he's lost a bit of the toy skills we had build in well, actually bringing the toy back to me! And a bit further range from me on hiking, alhtough still a nice response to being called back. Loot is still working through sound sensitivity and I'm bubble wrapping him with management when he goes to class. I was hoping for an agility trial in October but I don't think that...