Rover's Philosophy on Dog Agility and Training People

Written by Karen Selbert

Basic Tenets: 

1.  Be nice to your dog. 

Although self-explanatory, we are amazed at how frequently this is forgotten.  Remember, your dog did not choose to participate in agility, you did.  Your dog will put up with many of your foibles, be sure to reciprocate.

2.  Have a good time.

Really, this is just a game, right?  Even if you are competing in the $10,000 Purina Superdog Challenge, in the end, it is just a game.  Try not to take it or yourself too seriously!

3.  Don’t give up.

We all need some consistency and repetition in order to learn, so don’t give up if things don’t seem to be working out…  give it some time, and be sure you are being clear.

          4.  Learn new things.

Training is not only a learning experience for the dog, it should be for you as well.  Don’t be afraid to try out new ideas, techniques, or approaches; you could be surprised!

Other than the basic principles above, we believe there simply are no hard and fast rules to agility and dog training.  We do not offer a streamlined, rule oriented, goal driven system for how to succeed in agility.   We do not have technical expertise in operant conditioning, nor are we behavior specialists.  We do not have all the answers; heck we hardly know the questions!

However, what we do offer is a broad dialectical discussion with thoughtful suggestions and supportive feedback to improve your agility game.  We will be happy to provide all sorts of advice in the context of fun and learning.  Our fairly relaxed, easy approach to agility maintains focus on fun; if we (and our dogs) are not having fun, then why are we here?

 Our experience is varied; although the “traditional” breeds (border collies, aussies, shelties) are represented in our training backgrounds, many of our stars are of the non-traditional variety.  We run a greyhound, Chihuahua, Brittany and of course “Rover” the All-American at advanced levels.  Not yet trialing are a Borzoi, whippet and maybe even a St. Bernard.  On short hiatus is a Cairn terrier.  This provides us with a broad breed familiarity, and experience with unique approaches to some of the common challenging situations that can occur with different learning styles.

Please contact us if you are interested in joining a training group!