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!
Hello Reader! I hope that the start of spring is bringing in some happiness! Some more training outside for me, in between the rain at least! I've continued my "Box feeding" experiment with Loot this month and am starting to make some huge progress! I slowly added in moving stuff around him while his head is in the box waiting for the next treat. For those not keeping up with our issue, he has developed an extreme fear of my club' straining building, specifically related to the fear of ring...
First, here is your reminder that it's the last day to register for classes this session! The dogs had their last local indoor agility trial this weekend before the outdoor season begins!! It was also Ginny's first time back since her long break after her spay. And unfortunately, the trial was harder for her than I expected. I was a bit disappointed on Saturday as we had been making such nice progress! It's hard to see them take steps back. Thankfully while it felt slow and meh, it wasn't all...
Almost spring! The snow will melt and soon I'll be able to do way more training outside! Loot is making some progress on his PTSD from the 2 "incidents" at the training club from last summer and then 2 months ago. I'm currently leaving him in the car and training him when all classes are done for the night. But I have been able to bring him out a few times to do some very short turns during one of my classes! He struggles when he's close to the other rings, but is trying ridiculously hard....