Expanded Description:
Many agility dogs are generally fearful or become fearful during training or trialing due to specific incidences. Some dogs work through fear easily while others need careful intervention. What does fear look like? It's not always as easy to recognize as you might think. Does your foundation training program inoculate your student's dogs or leave them vulnerable? What techniques do you use to help a student who already has a fearful dog? This session will provide you with an overview of what fear looks like, how to prevent it, and how to decrease it.
This DVD is a live recording of a presentation done at the 2007 Clean Run Instructor Conference.
What reviewers are saying...
APDT CHRONICLE OF THE DOG
“First impressions are important, and my first impression when I received this DVD to review was a bit of confusion. The cover has, “Clean Run Instructor Conference, Scaredy Dogs, Carolyn Barney.” There is a picture of a happy Boston Terrier with a paint brush in his mouth, and a paint-spattered A-frame. The back of the DVD package has extensive information about Carolyn Barney, the presenter. Nowhere does it describe the contents of the DVD, or the length of the DVD.
The DVD is a videotape of a presentation by Carolyn Barney at a Clean Run instructors conference. Even the most exciting of conference presentations can lose some of its spark when videotaped, since there is something about being a part of a live audience that helps feed your interest into what’s “on stage.” That said, the production did a pretty good job of keeping audience interest by using two different camera angles and going back and forth between showing Carolyn and showing her PowerPoint presentation and its embedded videos.
The content of the presentation covered canine fear and how it impacted agility training and performance. Carolyn is a very good presenter, and punctuated her instruction with personal stories of her own fearful dogs. She emphasized the uses of classical conditioning and clicker training to address common fears.
I really liked Carolyn’s emphasis on going slow in training in order to prevent fear in the first place. She also gave tips on how to address common student concerns. For example, Carolyn explained the importance of finding the fearful dog’s threshold. She acknowledged there were always students who say their dogs have no threshold, to which she responds to move a quarter mile away if necessary. There is always a threshold.
Carolyn does not go over each piece of equipment, but does cover training some of the “scarier” obstacles, such as the teeter. She explains how to break up training into small, slow stages. For example, she suggests getting the dog used to the sound of the teeter hitting the ground before even tackling the dog getting onto the obstacle.
Carolyn also gives tips on recognizing fear in dogs, and stresses the importance of never punishing dogs for acting afraid. Although I personally do not compete in agility, I have some training in the sport and have seen how competitive some people can get in their pursuit of titles. It always saddens me when I see an obviously frightened dog and his handler is angry with him because he is not performing well in the ring, so I appreciate Carolyn’s emphasis on patient and compassionate handling.”
Teoti Anderson
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