Tag: agility

  • Why I like training at Dog City Training Center

    I'm trying to drum up some business for a training center near my house.

    Why?

    Well, it's near my house.  It's actually in Carrollton, just north of Beltline, just west of Midway, and takes me less than 10 minutes to get there.

    As opposed to training with the area's best agility instructor, which on a good day takes 45 minutes and I've spent as long as two hours in the car getting there.

    The agility instructors are young and have good ideas.  I know Emily the best, as I have trained with her the longest, as fellow competitors.  She's a USDAA judge and has several different sized dogs.  Michelle I don't know as well, though we have been in classes together.

    The greatest part, is that the center is inside.  

    I plan to start my next dog there, and wait until we have a good foundation before I start training with Elizabeth — which I would have to do anyway.

    It's a really great place to work out problems — like my teeter issue, I posted about earlier.

    I also really like Paula as a dog trainer.  She's very patient, puts up with my "no force" ideas, and is really great with dogs.  She teaches a lot of the basic classes, especially reactive.  I've done a "Crate Grames" class with her, and plan to do another one during break.  She's super at clicker training, which I think is the best way to train dogs.

    I'm taking a Rally class on Friday nights.  I don't work really hard on it right now, but we are having fun playing with it.  One of my biggest issues with Macy right now is calorie issues, she's willing to train all day, but she'd turn into a very round beagle, it's hard to find the right balance of calories in and calories out, so I have to really maximize what we're working on.  Plus I find agility the most fun.

    We even took Traci Murdock's Hollywood Dog class — and that might even pay off soon.

    So if you are even mildly interested in dog training in Dallas, check out Dog City Training Center.  They are at http://www.dogcitytrainingcenter.com/

  • Teeter Breakthrough

    We went to @dogcitytraining Center tonight, expecting to do an agility class (I wasn't the only one), but instead spent the time working on bang-it.

    Macy has a teeter phobia, too much noise, and isn't a lot of fun for her, sadly.  We've been working on a game called bang-in and we had a major breakthrough tonight.

    Basically with bang it, you're trying to get the dog to control the teeter.  You start with them touching the teeter, and you eventually get them to bang it on the ground.

    I had it level, and she was pulling it down and standing on it.  I also got her to do the teeter completely by herself, and with me on her side, so we made some great progress!

    We'll be working hard on it during winter break.