I am in Seattle right now teaching a spectacular group of people, today was Novice day :-) Novice is such an ambiguous title, what exactly is novice? I guess my interpretation of Novice is from 0 to a Novice title. There is certainly a lot in between! We had a great time today exploring all of the various handling maneuvers that we will be perfecting between the Novice time period and when we are on the road to becoming the World Champions. We did not go into the obstacle side of Novice, we stuck to the handling parts of Novice. These are 2 very different things and treated as separate entities. We explored what the various cues are that we are attempting to teach our dogs, and, what the dog theoretically brings to the table from a hard wired standpoint. The things that we get to shape and mold to work in an agility setting. We discovered that although it appears to be a daunting task to make the progression from Novice to World Champion, there really are not that many cues after all! We also discovered just how much of what we need to create the ultimate agility dog comes with the dog, how lucky are we!! So much of what we ask of our dogs on course begin and end with a fairly short list of different hand signals, body positions, verbals, etc.. the devil is in the details :-) Knowing which cue when and where and being uber consistent in not only how we teach and shape these cues, but, how we present them as well. Consistency is that dirty little word that reeks havoc with our training and ultimately with our trial results. The dog comes hard wired with so many of the agility staples that if we could just remember to use them in the same way each time we would go a very long way in creating the perfection that we all so desire! But, alas, we are human and this in and of itself is a contradiction in terms as far as consistency is concerned! Take a moment to list all of the cues that you feel are necessary to create the perfect agility dog and then think about how many are taught at the novice level. Pretty much all of them I assure you. We discovered in class today that we could cover pretty much every handling maneuver found on any course on any given day in just one day! Please do not mistake this for a false statement of how difficult it is or isn't to get a dog competition ready, it is more to iterate that the basic cues are all there, next comes refinement, and, the ability to combine them in an appropriate manner to take us through the ranks. There is a significant amount of art involved in this process as well. My theory on dog agility is that the training is a science and the handling an art. As will all artistic endeavors the ability to improvise, and, utilize a lot of creative license is a necessity, while at the same time maintaining a very strict adherence to the criteria maintenance of all behaviors taught. Now we are looking at a very difficult scenario indeed! Singularly, simple... In motion against the clock, with stress, adrenaline, and, the eyes of the judge VERY difficult! The key to success of course lies in your ability to be patient, to be fair, and, to take the time to truly teach yourself and the dog what each behavior is and needs to be all by itself. Never judge your dog against another, or, yourself against another! Each dog and handler is unique, learns at their own pace and is ready at a different time. You will know when this is better than anyone. trust your gut :-) I am always in awe of just how lucky I am that although my job is to teach others, I walk away everyday having learned something very valuable for myself!! Until next time :-)