Seminars and Expo and Camps, Oh My!!

It has been a busy year. I attended my 3rd Clicker Expo, several seminars and Stacy's Camp.

Clicker Expo was great. It is a 3 day event with speakers that come from as far as Europe.
I have enjoyed every one of them and wish for them to last forever. I have decided to skip the 2009 Clicker Expo and will look forward to going again in 2010.

In February a friend and I traveled to Colorado to attend a Silvia Trkman seminar with Ryker. She is magnificent. Following her training philosophy for several years and seeing the results not only in my own dogs, but also my students is very rewarding. The dogs learn how to think for themselves. Her puppy classes are fun and produce thinking dogs. She showed me how to teach some of her more difficult tricks and her running contact method. She liked Ryker's work ethics and loved his flea trick. The highlight of the event was seeing her run an Agility course with her little La. I am looking forward on attending her next seminar in the U. S.

Leslie McDevitt has the same attitude. Positive and very understanding to the individual dog's needs. Leslie, however, is more about the dogs state of mind. How to keep an over-reactive dog calm (below threshold) is one of her specialties. The dogs should never be over threshold when using her methods. If the dog is going over threshold the handler has asked for to much, to fast, to soon. A dog learns to re-orient to the handler for more fun or food. I was able to attend her seminar with Ryddick and learned that we have accomplished a lot and that I need to start trusting him more.
I am using CU methods in all the classes I teach with great results.
Going out to dinner with Leslie, Bill and a friend was very rewarding. Leslie even encouraged us to give a workshop and give CU classes.

C-Spot Win Camp was great Agility Camp. It was held over 3 full days in Laramie, WY. I singed up for Contact and Weave Poles with Rachel Sanders. Rachel wrote an article in Cleanrun magazine about her contact training method. She also showed us some Weave Pole trouble shooting methods.
Another part of the Camp was working with Rhonda Carter, Karen Holik, Gerry Brown, Stephanie Spyr, Dana Pike and Stacy Peardot-Goudy. Looking forward on visiting again in 2009.