Teaching In South Africa - Update 6

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Teaching in South Africa

Final Update

Tuesday 17th January
Today was our first training/ workshops in Joburg. The first workshop was in 3 different sections Lee had Agility Foundation and Handling Skills as they could fit together well and I had weave training for young/beginner dogs. It was a good session , it was the total foundations of weave training and my method. Lots of FUN, playing and REWARDING.
I then had a Building confidence and drive group where is spoke about how in the beginning we can set our dogs up to be confident, and exercises is how I build and reward drive and confidence, and how important the handling and reward consistency is.

For tea we went to a south Africa restaurant which was basically like a buffet. The waiters brought different meats around and you said ‘Yes or no’ There were loads of meats. I loads of things a try. At least it wasn’t Sushi! Lee didn’t feel very well but it was still a very good evening.


Wednesday 18th January
We went to Maropeng Museum and Sterkfontein Caves in the morning. The Museum was all about the story of mankind.

The whole tour had loads of different exhibits which most were interactive so was much more fun :-p

Lee still couldnt help himself, with his need to touch things!

There was also an underground boat ride which we managed to do twice and have a ice/snow fight the second time around ..

He he he The Caves showed us the formations and geology, early life forms, mammals and hominid fossils. There was also the important finds such as ‘Mrs Ples’’the ‘Taung child’ and ‘Little foot.’

http://www.maropeng.co.za/

Then we went to the venue to teach

My first class today was Building Confidence , this was a totally different group of people from the day before and again I spoke about ways in which we can build confidence with something the dog already loves. I gave a few examples. - For the students that were in the class and want to see how I used a target to gain confidence with ‘Evie’ The link/Video should be below.

I then had Handling Skills for A3 dogs we worked on some exercises. Concentrating on the importance of consistent handling, positioning and what skills at this stage the dog should be able to do, what the handler should be able to do and what the dog actually knows.
My last class was weave training. The dogs in this session could weave. We spoke and trained my entry method and the importance of this. We then worked on independence within the weaves and how we can maintain this and how I get the dogs to focus forward, instead of checking back, slowing down or pulling out when we try to distance ourselves to position better.

After finishing we came back and had a BBQ or should I say ‘Braai’ with a MASSIVE steak.
 
 
Thursday 19th January

We went to a South African crafts fair in the morning where where both Lee and myself purchased some gifts and bartered. Lee however nearly made us late for training as we couldn’t get him out of the shops. He is turning into more of a woman every day!
My first to lessons were One2ones.One was working of different turns and where I feel the turns need to be qued. And building confidence with her second dog to want to work away.

My second One2one was a fantastic one2one we sat under the tree and spoke.. Spoke about ways in which I train contacts - getting the dog to learn instead of having to pick up and position all of the time. Waits - To make them more fun. Also commands such as GO, COME, LEFT and RIGHT. How to build confidence around the ring in different places.

I then had a weave proofing workshop. Within this workshop we worked on independence and entries at speed. Also training entries to reward them. Again really enjoyed all the sessions again today.

Both Lee and myself received another 2 presents, this time is was a dog bowl which was great as I need another one for the car! :-P Thanks!

Lee then had a judging seminar so we got Pizza in :-D


Friday 20th January
Today was our last day of teaching.. We had One2ones first. My first one was working on turns, teaching, training and quing. The second one2one was with about puppy/foundation training (groundwork not on agility equipment)we spoke about drive and motivation training and behaviours/tricks that can be taught now to help them when going out onto equipment later on in their life. My final session was a contact group. The first time I had had a ‘contacts’ session in joburg. It was more of how we can make the 2on2off position as rewarding and run as possible. Getting the dog to understand the position and find it rewarding to be there, and how I would initially go about teaching a contact.

We then had a BRIIA again with everyone who trained with us in Joburg, it was again fantastic! Great Great food, ive never seen steak so big, followed by a few drinks before heading off home.
Thoroughly enjoyed teaching in both Cape town and Joburg, Great people and great dogs.
Saturday 21st January
Today was our first day off in Joburg. We went to see the Cheaters at a different sanctuary and watch them run.

We also was lucky enough to stroke one again.

We then went on a trip trough the sanctuary and was saw lots of different animals like the wild cat, wild dogs, hyenas and wild cheaters along with game that was in the sanctuary too.

After we went to see the elephants. Again it was a sanctuary that had rescued the elephants from a very cruel life. We fed them and then listed to the guide telling us why and elephant never forgets. Then we went to meet the elephants and feel then. They defiantly didn’t feel like id of expected. We were then lucky enough to get to ride on them. It was absolutely fantastic. Something like is so mumerable, no better place to do it then in South Africa.

How cute is this picture!

That brings me to the End of my Teaching and time over in South Africa, as you can see from all of the previous posts and this last post I really enjoyed it. Truely lovley place.

 Lucy Osborne
http://www.agilitybuds.com/

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Teaching In South Africa - Update 5

02:01 in

Firstly apologies for the length of time this has taken for me to get out. My laptop decided that it was going to die in Joburg and wouldn’t let me retrieve any documents or pictures , annoyingly! But here we are the final few updates from my time out teaching in South Africa. Enjoy x

Teaching in South Africa

Update 5 

Sunday 15 th January
Zip Lining Day. We got up and were out the house for 8 to start the 1h45 journey there. After some deliberation on the route we still managed to get there on time. We all got into our harnesses and strapped up. Cant say were the most attractive things in the world but at least the harness was well padded.
There were 14 of us in our group 12 doggy people and 2 were Kaths friends that we met a few nights before.
We set of, we needed to go by bus to the start location. We were told all the boring safety stuff and then told that we were in control of the break … Ohhh Dammm! The also told us that they would give us a signal when to break so we didn’t come in to fast. Although this ‘Break’ signal managed to change for the first 3 lines and I managed to get told off. Unfortunately he was telling me off whilst speaking Africans. So once he had finished I kindly said that made no sense, I speak English. He managed to do the whole safety breefing in English so the slightly confused look on his face at my response after the first Zip line was weird. So then it was guess work. But the guess work on when to break was fun and after the 3rd Zip I had nearly got my timing off to a T.
The Lines were reasonably high up and we were Zip lining past rocks that were sticking out of the clif and over rocks and spring pools the view up their was great and it was really hot up there to. Both Lee and myself really enjoyed the experience. It was really fun! :-D

Monday 16th January
We were leaving today Cape Town for Johannasburg.


Our flight was at 12.30. We landed at 2 and then after finally aftrer we managed to retrieving Lees bags we went to meet Jason. We went straight to the shops to get some drinks, then went to Jasons house to see our rooms and unpack. We both got freshened up and then went out for something to eat at the nearby shopping mall. Everyone had a steak which was massive and then mine came out. I had ordered the smallest ribs, however the smallest ribs were the size of an XL ribs in the UK. Shocking but very very good, and i managed to demolish all of the ribs but i was very very stuffed.


Lucy Osborne
http://www.agilitybuds.com/

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Training In Cape Town

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Training in Cape Town
Update 4

Wednesday 11th January
We didn’t have any official lessons or classes again untill 3.30 but I went with Kath to her field to talk over handling criteria, and verbal commands.  We left Lee at home in bed, we got back about an hour later to find Lee feeding his SKYPE addiction!  We had some sandwiches for lunch and then we spoke about a course that I would think the ‘General Advanced; dogs would find beneficial doing. And that Lee could then use later for his ‘Judges workshop.’

We left early as Kath wanted to show us the kite surfers on the beach next to the venue we were going to be teaching at -Cape Handlers  Dog Club. (On the west cost) Although when we got their there was no wind and therefore no surfers (DAMM) I was sooo looking forward to seeing some surfers ;-)
 We then went to set up. I had a ‘General Advanced’ class first whilst Lee had beginners. I set up the course below.

All handlers ran it and then we discussed  looking for the fastest lines, what you should be looking for whilst walking a course and focused on the handling of turns.  Where the turn should be qued, and/or handled in order for the dog to be able to collect/gather their stride to turn tight. We then worked on the tunnel - weave sequence.  This highlighted grey areas for most and proved if we always que our dogs to weave, the jump before the weave  (Before they take off for the jump) they will look/want and maybe stutter wanting to jump or worse jump the unwanted jump  on the ‘weave’ command, because ‘weave’ has always previously meant jump and then the weave. Not just straight to the weaves.

I then had a one2one  working on turns and how to increase speed off turns, contacts and reward value being more positive and confident.

I then had got a massive tea and watched Lee do his Judging Seminar. It was great as it wasn’t intense and everyone took notes on how and what the should be including within grades.

Thursday 12th January
Today was another day off .. Goorr looking back the past few days seamed like we have done nothing but we crammed most of the training into the first few days.
So we planned today to go to the Theme Park. Unfortunately when we got there it was closed and their last day open was Tuesday  and the close when the children go back to school. So we decided to go to Robin Island to see where Nelson Mandela was summoned to imprisonment. We were shown the conditions he had to live in and what jobs he was made to do.
We were shown around by and X-convict who was imprisoned their. He was imprisoned for treason. He told us about the Gangs and how the criminals were separated into race. If you were in communal cells they could be up to 60 people in one room. Each newcomer would be faced with a challenge to join their gang. And even if they didn’t want to do it, they had to or the gang would turn on them. This could be as serious and killing a other race in a different gang. I’m glad I went and learnt and saw their conditions and how they suffered and what life was really like, It was such a depressing place, everywhere looked deserted and dead and there were still 200 people living on the island. On of the people asked the guide why do you work here when it holds no good memories? He replied ‘a man needs to eat and to eat he needs money and  to get money he needs to work, doesn’t matter it I like it.’  It was definitely a touching experience. Below are some pictures that I took of Robin Island.

Tour Guide

Few inspirational quotes this island gave to me

‘In my lifetime I shall step out into the sunshine, walk with firm feet.’ - Nelson Mandela

'' The Journeys Never Far When Freedom's The Destination.''

''Driven By Freedom.''

Friday 13th January

Friday 13th Doom day! Lee was teaching in Port Elizabeth  for the day so had to get off early to the airport whilst I had  more classes  in the afternoon.
So Kath and I got up and we went to see the Penguins and see if we could see any baboons.  We had just started our journey to see the penguins when it started raining . When we got their it stopped it was a mad search for the penguins but we found them, again it was really good to see a wild animal in their habit and living where they should be and not a faults place.  Some pictures should be below.

We then drove down the road and a baboon appeared out of the trees running alongside the road towards us so we stopped and watched it. It was so surreal that we were driving down the road and this Babbon just is going about its life with not a care in the world. He jumped up onto a tree and started calling and scanning around looking for others. Peoples houses were so close, yet its just normal here to see them again, I had to snap some pictures.

Wildlife as it should be, in their natural habitat, not cramped in zoos driving them insane making them perform such unnatural behaviours to the ones displayed in the wild.

We then had a massive feta and beetroot salad it was soo scrummy! We them preped for my last two training sessions, filled the cool box with cold juice and bananas and food and set off
My first class was
   
• Managing Rewards & Proofing Skills

We touched on loads on managing rewards Why, What , Where & When we should reward. Where rewards should go to the individual dog.  How to get a high valued verbal and how we can train a verbal to be as high as a toy for in the ring, also where the verbal ‘Yes’ should be used. The importance of toys and reward in proofing skills and how we would proof such things as rear crosses, contacts and turns.

• Super Power Advanced Agility

This session I set various exercise dirlls up. This was a class with G2 G3 dogs in to should be our G5-7. I set drills up to test independent weaves and a send around command. We also spoke and disgused contact methods and weather their dog was independent - can they do them without you at their side or behind them, can you run away or in front? Will the still find the position still? We then touched of reasons why contacts may be slow and where I feel the reward should be. How courses can be hard without independence and discrimination at this level and again how we should look to train and reward to build independent dive to obstacles, When do we command and what do our commands mean and the biggest most important factor IS IT CONSISTANT?????

At the end of the session I got given 2 Bottles of Cape Town and a Handmade Cape Town Necklace, that was really nice. (Although I suppose I have to give Lee a bottle of wine too!) Along with lots of thanks and hugs.  So that’s the end of my Teaching in Cape Town, I can honestly say I have loved every session and hope that the students were honest in there feedback and did get loads out of the sessions, and now have a structured plan for this years training. Its been great! 

Now it’s a weekend off before Joburg on Monday . Let the weekend begin : - )


Lucy Osborne

http://www.agilitybuds.com/

For Indpendent Weaves DVD follow the above link.

Take a look at Lee's blog

http://leegibsontraining.blogspot.com/

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