A New Year and New Opportunities for Growth and Learning

Well, I’ve been terribly remiss in keeping the “updates” updated! Due to high demand I’ve increased the number of classes offered on my schedule of classes. Between classes, private lessons and behavioral consults, workshop presentations, competitions and my passion for continuing ed in my “spare” time, I’ve neglected this page on the website. My apologies!

One of my highlights of 2007 was that my lab mix, Chili earned her Freestyle Championship. Not only was she the first on the west coast to earn a freestyle title back in 2001, but she is now the first on the west coast to earn a Heelwork to Music Championship! You can see our performances on YouTube. Just do a search for Julie and Chili.

Up and comer, Chance, my border collie will be making his freestyle debut at the next competition. He has been a challenge since day one, but has taught me much about impulse control, and patience. I’m certain he is thinking the same about me! That Julie! What a challenge she as been! He did however enter his first agility trial and earn his first titles!

I’ve been to several fascinating and educational seminars this past year. Some highlights include a presentation by Dr. Jesus Ruiz-Rosales and Kellie Snider. Kellie, with the guidance of Dr Ruiz-Rosales from the University of North Texas, Animal Behavior Dept. have developed an operant or constructional protocol for treating aggression in dogs. Their work will be published this year and may very well change the way we currently treat aggression in dogs.

I recently returned from Clicker Expo. This 3 day conference boasts some of the most respected and knowledgable animal trainers in the US and abroad. Topics included concept training, poisoned cues, micro-shaping behavior, training for husbandry, reliability and back-chaining, search and scent training to name just a few. Clicker expo has become a yearly trek for me for the past 5 years. I continue to learn at each conference.

This year I also attended the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) conference. This was a 5 day conference educating both new and experienced pet dog trainers. Topics there included Learning 101, heritability of behavior, goals of puppy classes, body language and communication, how the brain rewards itself, early socialization vs infectious disease control, gaining owner compliance, to name only a few.

In August I attended the World Canine Freestyle International conference in Denver, again learning from the best in the field, including Andy Shimada who traveled from Japan to share his revolutionary training techniques, Linda Topliss from Great Britain, as well as some fabulous US trainers such as Diane Kowalski and Canadian trainer Cassandra Hartman.

A couple of other workshops that I attended stand out in my mind, giving me greater understanding of how dogs learn and greater skill at applying that knowledge. One was an 8 hour workshop on how to efficiently and effectively place behaviors on verbal cue, a sorely ignored and misunderstood part of training for most. And an advanced clicker workshop teaching dogs discrimination. Both were taught by Kathy Sdao in Washington state.

I was honored to be asked to present Freestyle or Clicker workshops in several venues last year and this, including, Virginia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Arizona, California, Washington and of course Oregon. Canine Musical Freestyle is an upand coming new sport which combines obedience with tricks and sets them to music to form a dance routine between dog and handler. The behaviors taught to these dogs are highly complex, and their handlers need a high degree of skill in training. I love the traveling and meeting freestylers all over the country. I’ve made many a long distance friend both in presenting and attending workshops and seminars.

I hope to be adding some new and innovative classes to the schedule this year, including Susan Garrett’s Crate Games, the ever popular “Playground” class and of course more freestyle. Let me know if there is anything you would like to see in the way of classes or future workshops!

Julie