Course Details
What would you work on if you could design your own class? Maybe you have an agility handling problem that keeps showing up in training. Maybe an obedience skill has been plaguing you, and you aren't sure how to solve it. Perhaps you have a trial video you'd like analyzed so you can understand what happened and develop a training plan. Or maybe you have several things you'd like to work on, and you don't want to choose just one.
“Your Dog, Your Goals.” is a Handler's Choice class for agility and obedience competitors. Instead of following a predetermined curriculum, you'll bring the skills, problems, questions, and goals that matter most to you and your dog now. Your topics can include any agility or obedience skill or special skills related to them.
In agility, that might mean handling, start lines, contacts, weave poles, jumping, obstacle commitment, verbal cues, sequencing, reinforcement procedures, or troubleshooting a specific performance problem.
In obedience, you might work on heeling, fronts, finishes, stays, retrieves, position changes, pivots, scent articles, engagement, reinforcement procedures, or another skill that needs attention.
Sometimes what happens in competition gives us information that is hard to reproduce in training. We can analyze your trial video, look at what happened before and during the performance, and use that information to decide what or how you should train next.
You Don't Have to Pick Just One Thing
This isn't a class where you choose a skill or issue on Day 1 and spend six weeks working exclusively on it. You can move between topics as your training progresses.
Solve one problem and move to another. Work on an agility skill one week and an obedience skill the next. If something unexpected appears in your training, we can change direction and work on that.
You can even work with more than one dog. Have one dog who needs help with agility handling and another working on obedience? Split your working time between them. The emphasis is on helping you make progress with the dogs and skills that matter to you.
More Than Troubleshooting
This class isn't only for fixing problems.
You can use it to teach a new skill, improve an existing one, develop a training plan, polish competition behaviors, prepare for an upcoming trial, or get another set of eyes on something that doesn't feel quite right.
Along the way, we'll also look at the training behind the behavior: reinforcement, communication, criteria, session structure, progression, and whether your current training gives your dog the information it needs to succeed.
No single curriculum exists because no single path fits every team.
Bring your dog. Bring your videos. Bring your questions. Bring the things you want to make better.
We'll start from where you are and figure out where to go next.
Teaching Approach:
Instructor: Nancy Gagliardi LittleNancy Gagliardi Little (she/her) has been training dogs since the early 1980s, when she put an OTCH on her Novice A dog, a Labrador retriever. Since then she has put many advanced obedience titles on her dogs, including 4 AKC OTCH titles, 6 UD titles, 3 UDX titles, and multiple...(Click here for full bio and to view Nancy's upcoming courses)
