Course Details
This class dives into the Six C’s framework: Compassion, Connection, Clarity, Confidence, Curiosity, and Creativity. Together, these elements strengthen behavior by improving focus, engagement, and recovery when training gets challenging. Great training isn’t just about fixing or obtaining behavior… it’s about creating understanding that allows for joyous work and clarity.
Each week includes games and skill-based exercises designed to help you apply that week’s “C” concept in real time. If you already have training goals or behaviors you’re working on, you’re welcome to apply the concepts to your own work instead. Think of it as a guided framework with room for handler’s choice. I’ll help you tailor the ideas to fit your team and your goals.
You’ll learn to:
- Learn the Six C’s framework and how each step supports clear, consistent communication.
- Discover training examples you can apply immediately to improve precision, motivation, and teamwork.
- Understand how relationship-based communication translates directly into smoother sessions, faster progress, and more reliable behavior under pressure while focusing on joy and partnership along the way.
- Build reliable behaviors through clearer communication, better timing, and consistent reinforcement.
- Use curiosity and creativity to troubleshoot and adapt in real time
The Six C’s give you a foundation of understanding and partnership that benefits every team, at every level. It’s especially helpful for trainers who find themselves overthinking, micromanaging, or struggling when things don’t go as planned. When communication improves, training gets easier, your dog gets happier, teamwork naturally shines and results follow.
Teaching Approach:
Lectures (5-10minutes) will be released daily on weekdays following Motivation Monday, Try It Tuesday, Workout Wednesday, Thoughtful Thursday, and Flex Friday. Lectures will be primarily via videos and will include written instruction, a mix of short and long training videos with transcripts, and reflection prompts as well as optional podcast episodes. Each lecture ties directly to real training scenarios so students can immediately apply the concept.
Gold-level students will receive individualized feedback and video review will be a mixture of written and/or video/voiceover. At times I’ll use voice-over video to teach in real time. I like being able to pause, rewind, or slow the clip down so you can really see the concept unfold instead of just hearing about it afterward.
I also follow a like, wish, wonder feedback style. I will share what I like about your session, what we can adjust, and then present a what if suggestion for your next session.
Silver and Bronze students are encouraged to follow the discussion forums and apply the weekly exercises at their own pace. Silver gets to submit two videos in the six weeks with dog-specific questions as well as general questions on topic.
This isn’t a traditional skills class where you master one step before moving to the next. The learning here is fluid and individual, because we’re working with concepts that invite exploration and curiosity rather than recipes or rigid progressions.
