I don't know if any of you remember a few months ago when the really cute red/white border collie came to stay with us in August and again in October. WELL, her name was/is Kinetic and she is a real live wire ;-) and cute as a button. She had been hanging out here in the US waiting until she could meet the requirements to go to Japan where she had an owner waiting for her. I got to go to the Stacy Peardot Goudy Foundation seminar last Friday and guess who was there----KINETIC! Kinetic finally got to meet up with her new owner from Japan-I was so glad I got to meet her new owner because after meeting her new Mama I am sure she will have a good life.
ON the second day of the seminar which was a Masters Handling day,Kinneys new mom ran two dogs-- a golden and a border collie who she did not know and had never seen run. Junko has some skills and is a really fast runner, she smoked the course with both dogs she has never run with on a course where everyone was struggling, so I think Kinetic and her new owner are going to be a great team. It really felt neat to see Kinney heading off to her new home with someone who seems like she is going to be great with her.
Kinetic was just meeting her new mom and so of course did not know her, but even with the language barrier (her new mom is from Japan) and just meeting Kinetic she had a working spot with Kinney on the foundation day. It was so cool to see the two of them together and to see their relationship growing as the day went on. By the end of the day Kinnetic was starting to get that this was her new mama.
It was a great seminar because there was a wide assortment of skills levels represented. There were two dogs that had never worked with the trainers they were with, one gal was working with a dog for a friend who has two pups, so this gal was working with one-a dog she did not know, and then there was my buddy Kinney who had just met her new owner from Japan.
I guess the biggest thing I am getting from going to all these classes/seminars/online lessons is the basics that seem to be taught with anyone who gives a really great foundation. I am seeing similarities, of course there are all sorts of little variations but to me it all seems to comes down to pretty much the same things...which makes me feel good because it does give me confidence that I think I hit most all the big things with Cricket ;-).
Stacy was really great and in one day I was surprised at how many things she could cover. With all the range of skills the dogs had it was great to see how each of the exercises could cover a barely starting dog to dogs almost ready to trial and how to trouble shoot if there was trouble with the exercises. The biggest thing that kept coming up over and over during the day was making sure you break down the exercises enough for the dog, just teaching small parts not the whole exercise, then moving forward fast enough that you don't get stuck in one place.
I really liked Stacy-she is really funny and entertaining and great about giving good feedback then she runs around cheering and yelling when someone has been struggling and they get something. I really liked her teaching style.
As far as the weather it was GORGEOUS......at least for the first day of the seminar, I can't wait to tell you about the second day tomorrow-that was Masters Handling.