Cyndy Douan of the Georgia Dog Gym put on a great hands on presentation hosted by PJ The Dawg Trainer in Foristell, MO.
Learning the correct way to teach your dog how to do a jump or obstacle from the very beginning makes the rest of the course run much smoother. Agility is much more than blowing through a set of obstacles as fast as your dog can run. Doing the obstacle correctly, safely, and confidently comes first.
The seminar taught us to work on jump drills that in itself can be great fun for the dog! and help with direction changes and working away from the handler, we learned the correct ways to teach the dog weave poles without having to lure the dog through the whole line, and we learned the importance of the Pre Agility work that can be done at home without the need of obstacles.
I highly recommend Cyndys approach to the sport even if you are just wanting to have fun with your dog. As for the Disk Dog part, well, I had no idea there was so many correct ways and non correct ways to hold and toss a frisbee and to do so that the dog can catch it correctly on top of that. I have a lot of practicing ahead of me just so DeeDee can go out and catch a few. Maybe Ill get good enough at it to keep the disk in the air long enough for her to actually catch one!
