Podcast Guests: Eva and Emelie of Carpe Momentum
This week we are returning to our series all about Foundations and talking about Foundations for Agility. In fact, we are hanging out with my excellent Swedish friends again, Eva and Emelie from Carpe Momentum, and the authors of the book Agility Right From the Start, which is one of my favorite dog training books and not just for agility. I really recommend it for everyone’s training library no matter what kind of training you do.
I love their systematic approach to teaching and training that applies good, solid science while still focusing on joy and success for both dog and handler. They claim agility is for the most part pretty simple. It’s mostly about getting the dog’s nose going in the right direction and the rest of the dog will follow. I argue that this is one of those cases where it may be simple, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy.
If you enjoyed the Start Buttons workshop we did together, you might be happy to hear that we are teaming up again to bring you another live workshop in September. So stay tuned for more information about that in the very near future.
In this episode we discuss:
- Reinforcement strategies
- Tools that they use to teach the dog where to go
- Ways to communicate when the dog should look to you for cues and when to work independently
- Structural behaviors for efficient training
- Putting dogs in control to work on noise and movement
Links Mentioned:
Episodes with Emelie and/or Eva
This podcast is supported by…..
AWESOME OBEDIENCE: A POSITIVE TRAINING PLAN FOR COMPETITION SUCCESS
Hannah built a new training program from the ground up. The results were awesome. Her dogs have competed successfully at the national level, earning High-in-Trial awards and advanced titles through several organizations. These strategies have transformed training for hundreds of teams, who also believe in the power of positive reinforcement and good training practices. In Awesome Obedience, Hannah lays out all the components to build the behaviors needed to go as far in obedience training as you want. You’ll learn:
How to create a happy, reliable partner using motivational games
Where to put your efforts (hint: not in Fronts and Finishes)
How the mechanics of exercises affect training
How to fine-tune your dog’s arousal level for maximum performance
How to train your dog to ignore ring distractions (like that judge following you around)
How to train the critical, unscored transition portion of your performance between exercises
Most of all, how to have a blast with your dog while you train
