Nancy Tanner "Freestyle and Beyond" Seminar Wrap-Up

Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a seminar on canine freestyle with Nancy Tanner of Paws and People dog training in Bozeman, MT. Nancy is a judge for the Musical Dog Sport Association (MDSA) and also trains and competes in agility. I've been wanting to learn more about freestyle for a long time, and it's safe to say that after last weekend, I'm hooked!

And so is Cedar :)



Since Cedez and I had a working spot, we were quite active during the two-day seminar. On Saturday, Nancy started out teaching the group the basics of freestyle and those of us with working spots got to try out some of the basic moves and foundation exercises. First, we worked on basic attention and hand targeting, which Cedar knows well. Then, we practiced delayed rewarding by having our dogs perform behaviors with a plate of treats on the floor next to them. Only when the dogs gave us calm, focused attention were they released to their reward. After we had mastered those skills, we worked on teaching "bow" (which Cedar has never figured out until this weekend!) and leg weaves. Cedar really digs all these tricks and it was fun getting to play with her. It was also very motivating to have a goal, or purpose for doing all this fun stuff.

On Sunday, Nancy moved into a discussion of more advanced freestyle moves, and also taught us the basics of how to put a routine together. I would have liked to spend more time on this stuff, since it was completely new information for me. We learned about how to train our dogs to go out to a target/mat, how to back to the same target (which Cedar really loved), how to train our dogs to sidepass, how to do fancy "switches" (or changes of direction), and a few other more dance-like moves. We learned how to figure out specific aspects of our dogs' personalities, and how to do the same for ourselves.

Finally, Nancy taught us about how to put routines together, from picking music to how to rehearse for competition. One thing I thought was interesting is that she recommends finding music that matches the natural beat of your dog's footfalls. To figure this out, video your dog heeling and then watch the video while playing a wide variety of music (like on YouTube). We practiced really feeling the music to train our brains to learn how to develop routines that move logically with the music in a flowing way.

At the end of the day, a few teams were "volunteered" to do short routines based on an exercise we'd done earlier (we wrote down routines in the shape of letters). Cedar and I were one of those teams ;). It was definitely an experience walking the course to music, seeing how my planned moves worked in a real setting. Once I walked it a few times without my dog, I got Cedar out and we tried to routine as a whole. It was fun! I definitely see the value of walking the routine without a dog first. But all in all, considering I only had about five minutes to come up with the routine, walk it, warm up my dog, and run through the routine with her, it went well. I can't wait to come up with a "real" routine for us :)

A few things that stuck with me:

1) Calm gets you everything, pushy gets you nothing. This was a good lesson for me to learn, because Cedar can tend towards "pushy" with me while we're training (bumping my hand, jumping into my space, etc). In the past, I thought it was cute (okay, I kind of still do, LOL) but I can see now how it affects our working relationship. By rewarding her for being calm and thoughtful, we were able to get a lot more done.

2) Train to compete, compete like you train. I am guilty of being a bit "permissive" as a trainer. I tend to think that if something's not perfect, I can go back and fix it later... but I think Nancy's approach is much more logical and leads to cleaner and less lazy/sloppy training. So, in the future I will go into each training session with my criteria and goals clearly defined.

3) Freestyle is really just "play with a purpose." The idea of "play with a purpose" was really interesting to me. I guess I always separated trick training from "real" training, but really, the two are very much entwined. So yes, freestyle/trick training is fun, but it still is important and should be treated as such. The most productive training sessions, regardless of sport, are those in which the trainer approaches the session with focus and a clear head.

4) The importance of knowing your dog's personality as well as your personality as a trainer... and using that information to your advantage. This is a biggie. I don't think many people really sit down and take the time to analyze the motivations and personality traits of their individual dogs. And I'd bet even fewer people have analyzed who they are as trainers. These exercises were interesting, eye-opening and informing for me, and helped me to approach training my dog in a different way. One interesting thing I learned was that "cheerleading" Cedar when she's not into being a participant is actually demotivating for her.

This was a fabulous seminar that left me excited, encouraged, and totally jazzed about canine freestyle. It seems like a logical activity to do alongside agility because its focus is on teamwork and building a stronger relationship with your dog.


And now.... a completely unrelated photo of Moss: