Agility Abounds in Eldorado

One of my closest canine friends is a terrier "mutt" named Jaunty. As his name would imply, he has a healthy penchant for jaunts along Eldorado's extensive trail system. Yet after months of tearing it up, as it were, it became clear that we needed something to spice up our relationship, something new something different that we could do together. The answer came as the ice melted and the desert terrain revealed some level of verdure. One early spring day we entered the Agora shopping center's Eldorado's Country Pet Dog Store ( a fabulous source for reasonable and healthy dog food, treats, and apparel) if they knew of any good agility instructors. Yes, came the reply, Judy Anderson is a great Agility Dog Trainer. Agility and Jaunty seemed like a natural. Jaunty had the brains, the stamina, the intelligence, I suspected to take our relationship one step deeper. We are talking Dog Intimacy!

I contacted Judy whose delightfully sweet and genuinely warm nature came clear across the wires. We were registered for a six week Wednesday night class entitled Agility 101. We gathered with five other canines on Tuesday May 5th. Clad in no pull halters, leashes, and comfortable easy to stride in shoes Jaunty and I were introduced to the world of Agility. Judy simply showed us how to use our bodies and our voices to garner our canine partners attentions. In what seemed like minutes Jaunty was clamoring down weave poles to my "weave weave weave vocalization" and hovering hand, flying through a brightly colored tunnel to my call of "tunnel" tunnel tunnel, and jumping miniature horse jumps to the call of an exuberant "JUMP"

Each week the syllabus took us deeper. Deeper in acumen, but deeper in our bond of trust, as i was asking Jaunty to try things that required faith in me as well as faith in himself. if jaunty had had plumage, his girth would have gained inches.

Just little over a week ago, Jaunty and i gladly graduated from Judy's Agility 101 class. In the final round we leapt across wide jumps, over poles, onto a table, through a tire, round and round the weave poles, struck out through the rainbow tunnel, and rolled back over vertical poles. Jaunty off leash comes to my left my right and my middle. Our relationship is in peak form, and Jaunty's self confidence is improved.

What's next, you ask? Well, Jaunty and I are signed up for Judy Anderson's "totally awesome dogs" Agility 200 class which starts on Tuesday. We are sure to find more Gold in Eldorado at the hands of Judy Anderson. ( to reach Judy email her at awesomedogs@msn.com)

TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

Summer in Santa Fe is on the verge, and this summer I have taken to the trails with some of my clients and their dogs for a weekly saunter along the highland trails for a lesson in loose leash walking. But the classrooms that I have selected are hardly sterile, noisy, or smelling of disinfectant or (banish the thought) lit by the ever insidious buzzing florescent light fixtures. No my classrooms are the New Mexico highlands and the trails that we have been blessed with--the pristine mountain trails of the Santa Fe National Forest where snow melt turns to babbling rivers and small pools for eyes to delight in and hounds to hunker down in. In the last two Sunday mornings I have escorted human/hound teams along the Santa Fe River and Tesuque River for instructional loose leash walking classes set in New Mexico's Natural world.

I tell my students that walking is actually a composite of behaviors. We connect, we push off, we locomote. How we travel with our dogs is the end result of how we have communicated with our canines and will ultimately dictate the state of our relationship. These Sunday outings are an attempt to address the most rudimentary activity that we share with our dogs..."To Go for a Walk" and to make it a positive one. I share positive training methods to encourage dogs to walk in harmony with their owners in environments that are uplifting.

I am a firm believer in good equipments and halters over collars in all instances. I shudder to think what years of yanking dogs necks wearing collars has cost chiropractially and so I recommend halters specifically desgined to deter pulling such as Premiere's Easy Walk Gentle Leader halter, but there are many on the market now. Halters that do not distinguish between a well behaved stride and a pull are of no value, remember that the most famous of Dog Races, the Iditarod, is lead by dogs sporting halters!

I am also a firm believer in clicker training. It is perhaps the most efficient way of marking any behavior and is consistent in the sound it emits whether I, a trainer, or various household members use it, it makes a uniform sound. The trainers at Zoo's and SeaWorld type installations are all practicing clicker technicians for one simple reason....Clicker Training Works just as consistent clear clean communication. It's truly one and the same.

Group loose leash walking classes provide socialization for all dogs as well as exercise which is the single most changeable element in any dogs life. Exercise is credited in reducing Behavioral problems in 95% of the challenging canine world. I ask all of my clients how much exercise they are getting as well as their dogs. I then ask them to amp up the exercise. The results are impressive.

Positive training methods propelled several of last weeks students across narrow wooden foot bridges, into and across cool streams. Teaching body language that communicates to dogs, learning the value of intonation and pitch is the most rewarding of all. When I see a frustrated dog owner embrace these simple elements so that their dog takes notice and follows cues, it's all worth it. The body language on each side of the leash is transformed. It's a veritable hound human harmony that looks quite attractive on its own, but the aesthetic value is increased significantly by the high pinion, cedar, and Aspen trees and clear alpine streams that travel alongside the practicing loose leash walkers I spy on Sunday mornings.