Key Points from Silvia

The Foundations seminar from Silvia Trkman was great. She covered aspects of teaching all the obstacles and explained what she believes are the most important parts of covering an agility course. 

Some key points:

Agility should be fun for both the handler but especially the dog. Agility is all about running, and most dogs love to run so teach the dog to run. Such an easy concept but one that is often forgotten. Most handlers are so antsy to get their dogs on the equipment and start teaching contacts and other obstacles, that they lose sight of what most of the course is - running.

Teaching obstacles is easy but the main focus for dogs from the time they are very little is that they should learn to run. A course is really just something the dog runs through and then there are a few obstacles they have to go over.

Reward your dog a lot. Silvia was a bit surprised how little we reward our dogs here. She said even if you forget the course you need to keep directing your dog to a few obstacles then reward and redo the course the right way. It isn't fair to the dog to just stop. The dog was following your directions and shouldn't suffer because the you, the handler, has memory lapse. 

Talk to your dog. Use both body language AND verbals, why not you can. Isn't it only fair to give the dog all the information you can. If you can tell them and show them with your body - do it.

Silvia starts her dogs on jumps early, but makes it a very long process. So the dog is just reaching their full jump height when they are 18 months.

Start training sequencing without contact obstacles even if you don't have a start line yet. Start the dog from a send so they can work on running.

You can never have too much handler focus or obstacle focus. Reward what the dog is not good at, as usually they will be better with one or the other.

Reward coming to had a lot, especially while you are moving, running etc.
Turns are taught separately and are usually the first thing she starts working on.

She trains all her contact obstacles and weaves separately from everything else. She will only add them to sequences when they are solid and the dog can perform them independently. Then she will place them at the beginning or end of a sequence so that it is always easy to reward the dog.


For weaves she does not like using guide wires, gates, hoops etc. It makes it difficult to know if the dog is really understanding what you want. The dog can do it with the guides there, but take them away and they don't know what you want. So basically you still haven't taught anything.

You should always look for the dogs understanding so that you know you can go on.
2on/2off is taught with a trick, as is the teeter.

Never ask your dog to do something scary. You need to be able to be trusted. The dog needs to decide if it wants to do something. Never lure a dog into something they are afraid of.

If things go wrong no worries, just do it again but always remember to have fun!

One of the best quotes she had was,"Of course it helps if you run to the right obstacle."  But she said not to worry about all the wrong obstacles, just run to the right one. There will always be many more wrong obstacles on the course you can't worry about avoiding all of those, just run to the right one.

It was a lot of fun to hear about her training methods and hear the critiques she had for those that had working spots.  Lots of good handling and lots of improvement made during the day with her suggestions.

Silvia Seminar Recap....

is coming. I need to put my notes together and then will get the highlights out. It was amazing I will say that. So glad I got to work with her on Wednesday. A bit nerve racking at times with how crazy amped Reese can get around other dogs. But with Silvia's help I got Reese working with me, while four other dogs were tugging and playing all around us.....very cool.  I wish I had it on video as I can hardly believe it happened, but I know that it did. Whoo hoo!

I also talked to Silvia a bit afterwards and she gave me some ideas of things to try to help Reese with that even more.  But got to get to bed now.  More this weekend.

Processing the Information....

I am trying to process all the information I have heard, saw and learned at the Silvia Trkman seminars thus far. I have attended three sessions so far with three more to go. Yes, it is a bit overwhelming. Very refreshing as something has always drawn me to Silvia's techniques ever since I found her online a number of years ago. 

Her dogs are all so happy, and confident. Her methods are very straight forward and I really like that. Not a lot of rules and if something is done wrong, so what, just move on. It is not the end of the world, agility is just a game we play with our dogs after all.

I am processing everything into different sections and then will hit the high points, but it may take a few days to get it all organized. 

I really like Silvia's principals or her 10 Golden Rules as she puts it on her website and I try to follow them as much as I can. The need to walk your dog is nothing new. But walking your dog to increase the bond between the two of you is not often thought of. More that you walk your dog to give it exercise, which is true, but there is a bond that develops also. I walk my dog at least twice a day even if I don't get home until 9:00, we head out. Of course in MN in the middle of January sometimes the weather prevents it. And I will admit our walks are usually much shorter in the winter when our goal is at least a mile twice a day, longer if the weather permits. In the Spring, Summer and Fall we get in longer walks and try to get in about a hour twice a day.

But alas Reese is usually on leash for those walks or runs. Yes, I might run but Reese is trotting or she is on a long line and can run back and forth etc. I want to be able to find a place where she can run, really run!  That is a huge problem for us and for agility. Reese loves to run and agility is about running with a few obstacles thrown in the middle. I need to use running to motivate Reese on the agility field and if I can do that we will have it.

Zoomies on course are not an evil thing that need to be stopped and suppressed immediately, they can be used to our advantage so we will use them. Granted this is not such an issue anymore except for at new places, so we will see what happens tomorrow.

The thing that really struck me was when Silvia said, she can tell right away when she sees a dog who gets to run and one that doesn't. The dogs structure is different and the whole way they move is different.

I can see this with Reese as she bounces more up and down when she runs, instead of using smooth movements at least on courses. It is also one reason that I have trouble getting extension from her in her jumping. Granted I think I raised the jumps too fast for her, but I need to work stretching for her hips with her legs out behind her more, something a dog that runs free and fast is going to have more naturally.

And of course tricks is where it is at. Many people still scoff at the idea that it is all about tricks but that is what it is. Agility obstacles are just teaching the dog a behavior. Nothing hard about teaching the obstacles, it is the handling that makes agility hard. So why not teach the obstacles in a fun way through tricks. Makes sense to me.

Reese knows a lot of tricks and I have had a blast teaching them. Tricks also help to prevent injuries, another reason I teach them to Reese. Since she doesn't get to full out run a lot to develop those muscles we do the funny tricks like lifting her back legs up independently. Yes, she will throw this behavior onto the agility field too. Like coming down off the teeter or the dog walk if she is slightly to the edge at the down contact, she will still hold it with one back paw on and the other back paw much higher in the air. But it is a solid hold on the contact, not a paw flailing around in the air where she might pull a muscle.

By teaching these tricks you are able to strength train the dogs muscles that often don't get used as much if at all. Many people have heard if you have a backache do crunches. If you improve the strength of your stomach muscles your back muscles will improve too and they won't have to work as hard.

More strength = less chance of injury
More flexibility = less change of injury
More strange positions and movements the dog is used to = less chance of injury when stepping wrong.
An injury free dog makes me a happy handler!

Between spending more time walking with Reese and the time we have spent learning tricks we have developed a much tighter bond and working relationship. Sorry folks it hasn't been the time in a crate that she has spent away from me that made her want to work with me or be more focused on me. It has been the fun we have had while doing things together that improved our relationship. 

That being said the time Reese has spent in her crate has had its own value. So I won't discount that it hasn't helped her separation anxiety or helped her learn to comfort and rely on herself to cope when she is alone.

It is so nice to see someone like Silvia who truely wants the focus to be on fun not rules, and someone who is not as strict about criteria and still manages to get the end result she wants.

Silvia Trkman Seminars 2011

Silvia Trkman is in town for a seminar from Saturday through Wednesday:))

I can't wait. I am so excited, I hope I will be able to sleep tonight. I have followed Silvia for a number of years. I found her on the Internet shortly after she had been to the U.S. for some seminars and I was really bummed that I had just missed her.

Last year, well in 2009, I was going to travel to Ohio to see her. The weather did not concur and I had to postpone. So....as soon as I heard she was coming to Minnesota I was ecstatic. What luck, sometimes it is better to wait.  I don't wait well, I am very impatient but this time it worked out well.

I am auditing most of the classes. Tomorrow day is A Foundation for Excellence, with the first part of the Tricks class tomorrow night. Sunday night is Starting Your New Puppy or Dog, with the second half of the Tricks class on Tuesday night. Wednesday Reese and I have a working spot all day. The first class Turns or Cik/Cap and then in the afternoon Motivation and Play.

 I am so excited, did I mention that!

I have my notebook all ready as I am planning to take lots and lots of notes. Get some great information and bring it home to work on.  I am going to be a sponge and soak it all up.  This is such an incredible opportunity I couldn't pass up the chance to attend as many sessions as I could. 

Running Contacts

I have been training Reese on running contacts using Silvia Trkman's methods and she is doing really well. While we were training the 2on/2off method, it was never super solid. Therefore, I don't think this is going to confuse Reese. I think this method is going to be safer for her shoulders, and avoid potential injuries in the future. It will help us trim our course times too, which is never a bad thing. However, I will definitely need to be on my toes using running contacts and make sure I am providing clear information to Reese so she can make a clean transition from the dog walk to the next obstacle. Here is a video of our progress so far.