Introduction

Welcome to my blog!  I am excited to include this as part of my training program at All Agility!!  Okay… enough of the exclamation marks. I am glad you are here reading this and let me tell you what you can expect from this blog.  I have been involved with dogs for most of my life. My goal is to share my experiences in both training and competition. In this way I hope that I can contribute to your learning about agility and how to be both a good trainer and handler. This blog will include sequences for small spaces, break downs of courses used in competition, video (links), my ongoing training with my young dog Listo, my experiences with running Apex who is a senior dog, how to prepare for competition, conditioning (handler and dog) and much more!  The blog will be interactive with social media and you will be able to contribute to discussions. There is also a search available if you want to see information about certain topics. A little about me… I was introduced to agility by Marie Sawford and my foundation on training dogs was shaped by her.  My experiences working with dogs in canine security also helped with how dogs think and understanding their body language. I have trained dogs to compete in agility, obedience, flyball, and sheep herding. Although I am mostly self-taught, I have been influenced by Linda Mecklenburg, Mary Ray, Annette Hoegl, Jenny Damm, Kim Collins, Susan Salo, and One Mind Dogs (Jakko and Janita).  I have to give a shout out to Nancy Ouellette and Susan Garrett who helped me out in the early days when you had to travel 3 to 6 hours to get to an agility trial! Nancy was also helped organize some training sessions with a group of us in my early agility days. Susan also gave me a kick in the pants at my first and the first AAC Nationals when she said, “You would be much better if you would get ahead of your dog!”  Echo was the second dog I trained in agility and she had a lot of confidence issues that I had to rebuild. Without the support of that training group and also Jen Pinder I would not have gotten where I did with her. She was part of a team representing Canada in 2006. At one point Jen exclaimed to someone else while watching us run at one of our first USDAA events that she wasn’t sure that Echo would ever actually compete. This was a compliment based on knowing where she was at one point in her training.  Kayl McCann and I helped each other prepare in 2006 and that preparation was key to finishing 8th overall with Echo at the IFCS Worlds in The Netherlands!  All these people have contributed to what I know and have helped keep me motivated to learn and compete.  I hope you enjoy reading this blog and I look forward to contributing to your agility experience!