Course Details
3 WEEK CLASS - Verbal directional cues can be a total game-changer in sports like agility, hoopers, or field work. They are an absolute necessity in dog-powered sports like canicross, bikejoring, or sledding, where you can’t rely on body language or hand signals to direct a dog facing entirely away from you!
The best part? No matter your ultimate goal, verbal directionals are taught the same way. Once your dog learns the core concept, the skill easily generalizes to almost any sport application. With these cues on board, you’ll find bonus ways to use them in everyday life too- hiking, steering your dog through a busy crowd, conditioning, etc.
In this class, we’ll cover:
The basic turns: Build a foundation pair of directional tricks- left and right- though you will name them whatever you like!
Transform the Trick: Grow the behavior from a simple spin into a functional steering cue that puts your dog on the correct path, lines them up for the next obstacle, and sends them toward their ultimate reinforcement.
Handler Confidence: Work through targeted handler exercises designed to build your own ability to recognize the correct directional from your DOG’s perspective, to build your confidence and accuracy in steering them via verbals.
Whether you're navigating tight agility turns or blasting down a fork on the trail, building reliable verbal directionals will transform your team's communication and confidence!
Teaching Approach:
Lectures are written with short video demonstrations. No voice over occurs in the videos; all instruction is in paragraph or point form. Lectures are released twice weekly- one 'cluster' at the start of each week, and one mid way through the week.
Feedback for gold and silver students - primarily written in detail, but may include some marked up screenshots to highlight specific moments. Erin is specific about pointing out the positive moments in submitted homework, as well as things that need adjusting. This is not fluff- this is to keep students from changing the things that ARE working so that we can build on success.
Instructor: Erin LynesErin (she/her) is a lifelong dog enthusiast from Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada. Erin is certified as a Karen Pryor Academy Training Partner, a Certified Professional Canine Fitness Trainer, a Licensed Family Dog Mediator, and as a Cani-Fit Leader, ...(Click here for full bio and to view Erin's upcoming courses)
