Amanda Nelson

Pressure Points

The game of dog agility is all about pressure, applying pressure to increase distance or to create a turn, or relieving pressure to bring the dog into to you. In my TEAM Training system I talk a lot about pressure and how to teach your dog how to read the various kinds of pressure, inContinue reading “Pressure Points”

Fluid Motion Command Series – Tight

Fluid Motion Command Series – Tight I will be writing a series of articles giving an overview on how I teach my directional commands. In the first of the series I will be discussing how I teach Tight. Tight for my dogs means for them to turn as tight as they can toward me, whereContinue reading “Fluid Motion Command Series – Tight”

Letting Go

In this post I want to talk about a couple of different things. Pressure in the agility world and letting our mistakes go. For me these two topics go hand in hand. I have a very hard time letting things go, I hold on to the mistakes I have made and roll them around inContinue reading “Letting Go”

Treats vs. Toys

I use treats for almost all of my training sessions, most all dogs are food motivated, and you can provide a wide variety of exciting treats for your dog. So why treats over toys? I am not against toys, and I use them sometimes in my training sessions depending on the needs of my dog.Continue reading “Treats vs. Toys”

And….Wait! Again!

I had posted a previous blog about how I use the Moving Wait as the core of my distance training as well as using it for impulse control, this post will expand on that concept. https://fmagility.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/and-wait/ So one of the first things my dog’s learn as puppies is to do a Moving Wait, it isContinue reading “And….Wait! Again!”

And….wait!

People who know me, also know that i LOVE moving waits! Both my dogs Nargles and Try are taught moving waits right at the beginning of their agility career. I use them almost all the time, training and trialing both. A moving wait is great for building confidence in dogs as well as working onContinue reading “And….wait!”

Train, Play, Repeat!

Most of the time when i ask people “how long do you train for?” i get lots of different answers, some may have short training sessions that only last 5-10 mins once a day and others may have longer training sessions that last 30 minutes with short breaks during the session. The length of a training session dependsContinue reading “Train, Play, Repeat!”

The secret to my success

First lets define “success”, everyone has a different idea of what success means to them. For some it may be earning a title, winning a championship, running a course clean or just getting past obstacle two. Just because one’s person’s idea of success may be to win the championships doesn’t mean that the other person’sContinue reading “The secret to my success”

Walk away man….Just walk away

Frustration. Its that dirty word in agility that no one wants to talk about. Trainers don’t get frustrated with dogs while training, if a dog isn’t learning something; then us as the patient beings that we are should help our dogs through their issues with a smile on our face. Well, that doesn’t happen forContinue reading “Walk away man….Just walk away”

Is it okay to change your mind?

For the past few days I have been starting Nargles on her weave poles, i had trained Try using sets of four poles with wires on them, so that is how i started with Nargles. As i was watching my video clips of her weaving i wasn’t liking the way she kept following the panelsContinue reading “Is it okay to change your mind?”