Agility Seminar with Donna Rohaus

Silaria

Silaria

Forums Sage
I'm starting to get very excited about this weekend. Spash 'n Dash K9 Sports, the agility club I belong to, is offering a seminar this Sunday with Donna Rohaus. Donna will be teaching classes in both Handling and Jumping all day on Sunday in 2 hour blocks.

Edan and I don't have the experience for the Handling class so I'll be auditing one of those. We will, however, be actively participating in the Jumping seminar since all that was required there was a dog with good handler focus, clicker training and exposure to jumps - all of which we have.

Now, I'll admit, since I'm new to the sport I don't know many of the "names" in agility competition - and they primarily show AKC events on TV. What I've learned about Donna is that she excelled in USDAA with multipled dogs - ADCH with 3 of her Border Collies and two individual silver medals as 2004 USDAA IFCS Dog Agility World Team.

This should be a very interesting, and hopefully educational, weekend for Edan and I.
 
Seminar

Sounds like a fun day.I have heard of Donna but have never had the opportunity to do a seminar of hers.You will learn lots. I tell you once you start competing the bug will have bitten you and you can't wait for the next trial.Shadow has a few USDAA titles.Have a fun day and tell us what you learn.
 
Ack! What an insane week this has been at work (11 hours on Monday, 9 on Tuesday, & 10 on Wednesday). I've been trying to get this posted all week and this is truly the first chance I've had.

I'm really glad I went to this seminar. My first impression when I saw Donna was "I've seen her before" but I couldn't place where. She was a really nice person and very knowledgeable.

The handling class, which I audited since we aren't running full height contacts yet, was very insightful. Donna had a few different runs set up, each with their own challenges, such as the base of the dog walk and a tunnel opening side by side or having to enter the tunnel from the far side, not the near side you were approaching after a jump. Even though I was auditing the class, I was allowed to walk the course and try to figure out how I'd approach it - which was a new experience for me.

Perhaps the biggest thing I came away with from the handling class is body language, body language, body language. Even something as simple as what direction is my foot pointing in is much more important than even a verbal cue for the dog; moreso with a small one (14 5/8 inches) like Edan.


The jump class, which I actually participated in, was very similar to the techniques I learned during my "Jumps and Flatwork" class. This isn't a bad thing since I know I at least learned an effective technique. It still amazes me that there is more to jumping than just, well, jumping.

Donna uses techniques developed by her trainer, Linda Mecklenburg. I actually ordered Linda's book (Developing Jumping Skills) from Clean Run because I was impressed by Edan's response to the training. Basically, using a clicker, you let the dog offer the proper rounded jump to you. It's possible to teach a dog to jump his full height, correctly and safely, within a very short time through this method - we are 3/4 of the way to 16" after just 10 minutes.

Because Edan is so intelligent, this method results in some fantastic mental exercises for him (what do I have to do to get the click/treat) in addition to teaching effective jumping foundation skills.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top