This weekend, I had the outstanding opportunity to attend a seminar with Kathy Sdao MA, CAAB (associate). If you EVER get the chance to see her, GO. Don’t even hesitate. She is amazing.
I learned so much this weekend my brain will be full for weeks. There were so many concepts that were either completely new to me or were excellent reminders of what I already knew and needed to refocus on. I now have a lot more tools in my training toolbox that I cannot wait to get started working with Risa again.
Of course, I also learned that I’m doing a lot of things wrong still! I totally did classical conditioning with Risa incorrectly when I was using it to help her with her dog reactivity. So we’re back to the drawing board on that. I also found out I’m poisoning cues. Crap. And that I am inadvertently rewarding missed cues! It’s a small wonder Risa has any clue what I’m asking of her! Should be some upcoming blog entries about our newest training adventures (and, hopefully, successes!).
Aside from the brain-filling seminar, I got the opportunity to converse with a wide variety of dog lovers; mostly dog trainers. It was a true pleasure to meet them and brainstorm ideas. Many people seemed interested in hearing about Risa and my experiences with canine musical freestyle. A couple trainers gave me some ideas to try to teach Risa a more reliable recall (something I have stupidly slacked on for 4+ years). I even got to speak with the trainer who ran the lure coursing even we attended and got to address my concerns with running Risa again. She devised a training session for us involving the lure at the next event we attend. All I have to do is remind her! I was absolutely THRILLED!!
This weekend was totally worth it and just so much fun. I’m really jazzed about training again. While I still think we really need to get back in classes, we might be alright for a while with a lot of the new information I got.
