Blog

We spend a lot of time talking about Reward Markers. Do you use a "no-Reward Marker?" That is, can you communicate to your dog that a behavior will not make reward happen?

Especially when your...

Recently, I received some questions about the Obedience Road membership program. I created the video above to answer a few questions and give you a look into the platform.  I...

One of the biggest challenges we face in this sport, is the challenge of teaching your dog to enjoy all the obedience exercises.

Some dogs like to jump, some like to retrieve, but there is...

You spend hours teaching your dog the exercises. This won’t take hours!

Commit to practicing how to maintain your dog’s attention as you enter the ring!  

When your dog will...

If you enjoy training your dog, it comes as no surprise that you are participating in multiple venues. Add the complexity of multiple dogs to multiple venues, and it’s easy to become...

Competing in obedience for a weekend implied two trials, one Saturday and one Sunday. Each trial had 6 classes: Novice A & B, Open A & B and Utility A & B.

Now we’re faced with far...

When my dog has a disappointing performance on Saturday, I am almost always willing to try again on Sunday. However, I absolutely train between the shows, addressing both the exercise(s) that my...

It certainly seems that after you teach your dog to perform the obedience exercises, you should be able to go to an obedience trial, and earn your title.  Unfortunately, simply learning the...

Do you have a dog that whines when setting up for a retrieve, or barks when sent on a go-out?

Noise in the ring can be a difficult problem to tackle!

How can you clearly communicate to your dog...

Considering Command Discrimination, Signals and Directed Jumping, there are lots of opportunities to give our dogs signals and commands from a distance. In addition to Directed Jumping, our dogs...

When your dog is sitting in heel position, there are five different exercises that could be next. 

You might tell him to Heel, Stay, Lie Down, Stand Up, or Go-out. 

Dogs...

Becoming a proficient obedience team requires repetition and rehearsing, but dogs are at their best, that is engaged and attentive, when they are learning new skills.

Inexperienced Dogs are always...

I have written and talked about teaching your dog to pay attention in heel position (Read it Here!), but Obedience is also hard because our dogs have to pay attention to us at a distance....

In my last message, I addressed the importance of Randomizing Rewards. Today I am sharing a piece of a webinar that I gave to the Obedience Road Members titled Certainty and Mystery.

Are you...

Last week, I gave a webinar titled, “What Makes Obedience Hard?”

We all know how challenging it is to teach our dogs to love Obedience exercises that are not naturally motivating....

There are only three ways that your dog can fail the recall. He can:

1. Not come,
2. Come too soon
3. Get lost on the way.

Using simple proofing (intentionally adding distractions), you can cause your dog...

The Stand for Exam is another stay exercise and should be treated with the same importance as the Sit and Down Stay.

There are two mistakes that your dog can make during the stand for exam:

1. Move...

Have you ever struggled with a dog that starts going straight to heel in competition instead of coming to front? It can be a frustrating problem, especially if you allow it to happen in the...

Recently, I hosted a webinar- Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Your Goals. 

The first question in this video involved a dog that is sniffing the ground on his way to the scent...

Recently, I hosted a webinar- Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Your Goals.

Together, we brainstormed and addressed several training challenges. The above video includes two of the questions...