Three Day Aggression Seminar

Seems to be my month for seminars.  This past weekend found me in Novato, California at the Marine Humane Society.  I attended a 3 day lecture on Aggression.  The presenter was John Rogerson from the UK.

Imagine sitting in a small theater. 

• Ascending seats with little tables attached (like grammar school). 
• 150+ women, about 5 men
• one presenter (and his wife who assisted throughout)
• participants were shelter workers, dog trainers, people with aggressive dogs....about what you'd expect

I spent my $$ and gave up my time to learn something that might be valuable in the future.  What I came away with was a hunger to learn more and a deeper understanding of why the relationship I have with my dog is of utmost importance and an eagerness to work on that relationship.

The seminar, frustrating at times, was not boring.  Day one, seminar starts at 9am.  John starts talking at 8:45.  He continued talking until 12:15 and then said we'd break for lunch.  He was back in the theater at 12:45 talking again (some people hadn't even gotten to the food yet).  Seminar ends at 4, he stopped talking at 4:30.  John has something to say and wants to get as much in as possible.  No breaks.  Does the man get tired?

John's style is to communicate with stories.  I have to say the time flew by.  I was so surprised at how quickly time passed and by day three started to feel the same way John did - we just didn't have enough time to talk about everything.

There was no video or demo.  I believe the video would have helped me understand some of his techniques, but I can see that it would have slowed the flow of information.

Some highlights (all of this is his opinion and he is quick to note that not all agree with him and it is up to us to do our research to find what works best for us...this is his experience and not everyone will agree):

• Building the relationship you have with your dog is the most important thing.  This must be done on a one on one basis and the dog must learn to love and live with humans.  (E.g., getting a dog to play with your other dog is not building a relationship with your dog).
• The dog MUST learn to play with toys.  This is part of the relationship building and is vital. 
• Using emotion to train your dog is vital.  Balance is the key.  In moving to food (clicker) we have moved away from using emotion.  Emotion is an important tool in your tool box.
• Cause no harm.  There are ways to do things without causing harm.  He uses martingales or buckle collars, food in some circumstances (surprise!), an element of fun, however, a seriousness about safety is utmost.

Johns style is to have a good time.  He uses humor and surprise to keep the audience waiting for the next tidbit of information.  He doesn't always give the answers right away.  He is trying to get us to think.  On his thinking, well, he tends to looks at the solution rather than the problem.  (e.g., problem, my dog is pulling on the leash and lunging at dogs...solution: teach your dog to walk on the leash nicely).  He admits his mistakes but keeps trying.

For those of us used to an outline, course notes, handouts, and schedule, John's style could be confusing and frustrating.  I have to admit, I'm one that falls into the box of I want to know what to expect when.  I expected to talk about a subject, finish the subject, and then move on.  Every time John said, "Oh, yes, well, I'll talk about that tomorrow," I would want to yell, "FINISH THE TOPIC WILL YOU!!"  But by the end of the three days, I was floating along the spiderweb of information like a pro.

Overall I am incredibly happy that I attended the seminar. John has given me the tools of discovery and exploration.  He has presented a good case for looking at the solutions, rather than the problems.

Coaching the Canine Athlete

Headed to Reno for the weekend. For us a 4.5 hour trip. We drive over Donner Pass (elevation 8000) then down into the valley. I will say, the weather surprised me. Except for 1.5 hours on the way home (an adventure for sure), the weather was mild with no snow on the ground in Reno. We had beautiful snow up at Donner pass, but nothing below 5000 feet (until our drive home, through the storm, with snow chains, driving 25 mph, slipping on ice.....).
Chris Zink D.V.M., PhD is a canine sports medicine consultant. She has written a number of books and I first heard of her in late 1990's when I was active in APDT and she was one of the individuals that spoke about dogs jumping at one of our conventions.

I really didn't know what to expect. I took Fin with the idea of learning about structure and getting better at evaluating structure for when I finally get my next dog (very far away, in the future, not soon, husband if you are reading this I have no plans for a puppy!).

I didn't expect to learn so much new information.

I didn't expect to have some myths debunked.

Chris has opinions. What I liked most about her is that her opinions are backed up by studies. If you ask her a question, you will get a direct answer. If she doesn't know, she will tell you.

Day 1 started with the importance of structure to agility. Loads of information. We learned about body type, rear angulation, and shoulder angulation. In addition, growth is a huge factor and we talked nutrition, spay/neuter, body structure and stress on that structure.

What was a realisation was the data she presented regarding spay/neuter. It is interesting to see the data and what it shows is that spay/neuter isn't necessarily the right answer for our canine athletes. As a matter of fact the behaviors that we think we are repressing by neutering were more common in neutered male dogs. Debra Duffy is doing work in this area and the research is enlightening. If you want to read a 16 page PDF from her, click here.

Another area of interest was dew claws. She really believes that the front dew claws are incredibly important to prevent rotation of the wrist and arm during turns. She showed photos of flyball dogs and it was clear that the dogs without dew claws showed more rotation of the front legs (in awkward ways) then the dogs with dew claws.

We had a working session were we were grouped so we had a number of different dog types in each group. Our group was to analyze angulation of the rear and shoulder and she came around to test how well we did.

The first morning proved to be extremely interesting. A short 30 minute break to walk the dogs and we were back at it.

Tomorrow I'll write about locomotion and lameness.