Karen Holik Seminar

Today I went to a Karen Holik seminar. It was just a 1/2 day seminar. We started around 9am. It was kinda chilly this morning but once the sun came out it quickly warmed up to about 70 degrees. There were 6 people and dog ( BC, Rotti, lab, boxer, boykin spaniel , and miley) teams . All the dogs were a little crazy at the beginning of the seminar. Miley was over the top. Taking jumps, tunnels and just doing her own thing. Then when I tried to get her under control and bring her to me, the circling started. Ugh! It was embarrassing. Everyone elses dogs seem to settle down quickly except Miley. I'm suppose to take her to our club trial this weekend and boy was I having second thoughts . I have no control of my dog and I'm sure everyone there agreed. The guy with the border collie was glad I was there. His dog kept running away, so with Miley circling, he didn't look to bad. Miley finally settled down by 11am. After that she ran great. Karen asked me, it that she usually runs. And I said yes. Even with all the circling, Karen did say she thought Miley was going to be a great dog.
One of the biggest things I got out of this seminar, was I need to do obedience with Miley. But really, I had already come to this conclusion. This just brought it home. Ive always hated obedience but I need to become a better team member. She thinks I should put the circling on cue. Her dog Sizzle did do tight circles around her ,but she could stop it, and I cant. Tonight she is giving a lecture and will talk more about getting herding behavior under control.

Another key point that she teaches in all her puppy classes it to get your dog to look at you. Call you dog's name and when they look at you, click and treat. Once you have that, start moving around and call there name, click and treat for them looking at you. After the dog really gets the hang of this and they are out in the yard or doing other things, call their name. When they look at you, click and they will start coming to you to get their treat. And when they start coming, then put the word "come" in there. That's how you teach your dog to come to you. ( I thought that was a neat way to teach come). One thing she told me was to teach Miley the difference between "Here" come close to me vs "here" come all the way next to me. Like if you are walking and you just want your dog to come along "here" or you are on an agility field and you want them to come between two jumps so you need them right to your heel. ( I hope that makes sense) So "come" with in 10-20 feet of you, or "come" right to your side. And of course you need a different word for both.
We did lots of small sequences. Ive got to get my arm flapping under control. Karen asked me, "what are you pointing to? Your arm is way up here and your dog is little. Do you think she can see your arm?" Good point. So that is my goal for this weekends trial. Keep my arms under control. Point to the jump , but point to the bar, not over the top of the jump. Also to keep my shoulders straight. We did a sequence with a serpentine and Miley did it correct . But she wasn't as fast as she could be and she seemed unsure. Well that's because I was running next to her. When running the serpentine, I needed to get ahead of her , so she can see my arms. I ran it again, making sure I was about a jump ahead of her in the serpentine and she was much faster and more confident.

Off the to the lecture. WooHoo!