What do you want the end behavior to look like? Before you pick up your clicker and treat bag, you should know what you want them to learn. Actively envision them completing the behavior.

Break down the steps. So, let’s say you want your dog to crawl. Break down the steps of learning to crawl into easily learned chunks. Your dog will likely need more than one session, which is okay! It gives you more time to plan.

When you get there, rejoice! and don’t overdrill.  it’s so tempting to have your dog go over and over and over the newly-acquired teeter, but resist that temptation!  It is best to quit training while your dog is still interested.  Then next time, you’ll be amazed where you start out!

Simply acting on that quote makes a huge difference in my day – and when I apply it to agility, my dog feels the positive impact. While most work is never done, and agility sure isn’t, (what fun would that be?) the concept holds true.  Think about one thing that would be best to do, or change, or practice, and then just go do it.

It’s beautifully simple, and wonderfully powerful.

Fall can be even busier!  Sometimes it’s so busy we don’t have much time to spend with our dogs, and then when we DO have the time, we feel so bad we didn’t spend time with them during the busy time we don’t want to, now.

The best thing about dogs, is they don’t care.  They’re just so happy you are spending time with them NOW, they forget about the busy weeks when you were rushing here and there and everywhere.  They don’t know they were SUPPOSED to have learned the contacts a few weeks back, and they don’t care, either.  They’ll learn their contacts now, to make you happy.  Don’t feel guilty for what you haven’t done.  Do what you can, and know your dog doesn’t want you to feel guilty, either.  They won’t have as much fun if you feel guilty!

Set up a quick yahoo or a new course for you and your dog today and take a few minutes to do it – no stress, no fuss, just fun!

Sometimes rest is the best solution – and sometimes it isn’t.  I find that when I feel so awful I don’t want to get in the car with the dog, much less drive forty-five minutes to training, and I get to class, set up my crate (usually muttering under my breath about the finger I just jammed), I feel some of the stress roll away.  I don’t believe in stressing about training, that’s my policy!  No stress! Just fun.

Quick’s looking up at me and bouncing up in the air, doing his happy mid-air spins, his big plumey tail whipping the air hard enough to sting on my legs.  It’s agility time! It’s agility time! Best time except breakfast time!

The rest of the world is still there, true.  After we’re done with our runs and our ride home, Quick snoozing in the back, I still have more to do than I think can ever be done, but for that hour, I can relax, enjoy my dog, and run as fast as we can.

It adds another inch or two to my wick, I feel.  Does it to yours?