Before the age of the internet and online learning (yes, I’m *that* old), there were only 2 ways to learn from others: One was from books, and the other was through in person seminars.

These days, those learning modes are still available to us, but so is a third mode, online learning.

Online learning varies from single event webinars to week long classes and annual group memberships, and I think this kind of learning is just fantastic. Here’s why.

1. Access to Expertise: No matter where you live, if you have a decent internet connection, you have access to some of the best trainers in their fields.

2. Drill Down to the Issue: You name the challenge you are having with your dog, and there’s probably a class for it. Online training allows you to get specific training to help with your specialized challenges.

3. Low Distractions: Most online coursework can be done in the comfort of your own home, which provides an ideal, low distraction environment for skill building.

4. Less Travel Time: Logging into an online class incudes zero driving time and zero nights in a hotel with your dog.

5. More Learning Time: At weekend seminars, 16 hours of learning is crammed into 2 days. This doesn’t leave you a lot of time to process what you’ve learned, and if you have questions after the seminar, you are often out of luck. With online training, learning happens at a much more digestible pace. It can be easier to retain what you’ve been taught, and you have time to ask questions.

Have you done online training? What do you love about it?

It may surprise you to know that, as a professional dog trainer, I don’t rely on high levels of motivation to reach my dog training goals.

If I waited for motivation, I’d never get any training done.

Instead of waiting for motivation to activate my training, I use the following strategies to jumpstart my training and help me reach my goals.

Set the stage: Often, I have the inspiration to train, but the thought of collecting my props, setting up my tripod, finding my clicker, and chopping up hotdogs to use for rewards makes the task less than appealing. One thing that gets me over this hump is having a space where my training stuff is always ready to go. In my house, in the living room, my tripod is always ready, and training props are stored in a storage bench for easy access. I also regularly chop up hotdogs and keep them in a container in the fridge with my clicker for easy access. It’s all ready to go, so the hardest thing I have to do if I want to trian is walk into the living room and call a dog.

Make a Date: Sometimes, I need a little external accountability to help motivate me to train. For me, this can look like planning a training date with a friend, booking a lesson with a mentor, or renting a training facility for an hour.

Use a Timer: If setting the stage and making a date don’t lead to motivation to train, I can usually convince myself to train for 2 minutes. For some reason, it’s really hard for me to say no to a measly 2 minutes of work. Strangely enough, once I’ve trained for those 2 minutes, I find myself motivated to keep training after the timer goes off.

Building a rally obediece course correctly and efficiently is a skill that will serve you well as a rally obediece competitor.

People who can build courses well, will build them more frequently, and people who build courses more frequently will likely practice courses more frequently.

Below are my tips for making course building more efficient. This information is honed through over a decade of experience judging and teaching rally classes.

1. Review your course map to determine what equipment you will need. The course map above shows that for this course, 15 sign holders, 5 pylons and numbers 1-13 are required.
2. Pull your signs. Most rally obedience software will put the sign # in brackets beside the sign description on your course map. This means that I would pull signs 1, 17, 19, 34 42 and so on for this course.
3. Place your signholders/station numbers down first. Pay close attention to the location coordinates of your signs.
   1. Most signs will be placed to the right of the handler’s path. (Stations Start, 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 13 and Finish above)
   2. The exception to this rule is that change of direction signs (most turns, sidesteps, etc) will be placed in front of the handler’s path. (Stations 3, 5, 8, 9, 11 and 13)
   3. Depending on the organisation, signs for obstacle stations may be placed near obstacles, or a certain distance from them. It’s always a good idea to confirm placement of obstacle signage with your rulebook. (No obstacles in this course)
4. Place your signs in the appropriate sign holders. If you have someone helping you, they can follow behind as you place sign holders. 
5. Measure your distances. A number of exercises have specific space/distance requirements. It’s a good idea to use a measuring tape to measure these elements to ensure accuracy. In the course above, I would measure out distances for stations 4 and 7.
6. Make any necessary adjustments. After the initial placement of signs and measurement of stations, you may find you need to make a number of minor adjustments to the course to ensure accuracy. 
7. Walk your course with your coursemap. This is your final check to ensure that you have placed signs correctly, your numbers are correct and that the course flows as intended. If you are building a course for a virtual trial do not skip this step!

Now you are ready to walk the course with your dog and handling strategies in mind. Have fun!

If you are interested in learning more about the sport of Rally Obedience, you might want to check out my upcoming classes page at: http://www.ayokabubar.com/services

I don’t remember much about my first herding trial with Bear, but I remember one thing with absolute clarity: Someone looking at Bear and exclaiming something to the effect of,

“Ooh a Rottweiler, is he having mutton for lunch!?”

Fortunately, when you own a Rottweiler, you get used to people making assumptions about your dog so you collect great comebacks for these moments so I replied,

“Not likely, I fed him a big breakfast today.”

The other thing I distinctly recall about that herding trial is that Bear qualified in all of his runs, and the lady who made the comment? I saw her dog grip out at least twice in the take pen.

There began my experience participating in a dog sport with an breed of dog not usually seen in that venue.

In each dog sport, there is generally a small number of breeds that are highly represented, a smattering of breeds that are reasonably represented, and then other breeds that maybe only have a handful of active competitors in the country. Those breeds that are measured in the handfuls are what I would call ‘non traditional’ breeds for that sport.

In my experience there is a huge amount of satisfaction in doing a sport that I love with a breed that I love, but it does not come without the following challenges not experienced by those with more traditional breeds for the sport.

1. People may qualify any/all of your accomplishments. “That was a great run…for a, <insert your dog’s breed here>!”

2. Not all trainers will know how to work with your dog. While the basic concepts are the same when training dogs, what one dog or one breed might find reinforcing will vary as will their responses to various training styles.

A textbook example of this is that rottweilers, generally do not respond to pressure from humans or livestock in the same way a Border Collie, or Kelpie might. I once had a clinician put too much pressure on Bear by waving his stock stick. Bear’s response was to run at him and grab the stock stick out of his hand. This clinician was smart and has experience with rottweilers so he acknowledged his error and figured out another less confrontational way to get the point across.

3. Not all trainers will WANT to work with your dog. Depending on your breed, some people may flat out refuse to work with you. Either because they know your breed requires experience they don’t have, or because they do not believe your breed can or should participate in a particular sport. I can respect the former, the latter is always a bit of a struggle for me. If you approach training with the goal of keeping things safe and fun for the individual animals and humans involved, I think anyone should be able to participate. This may mean you choose a reduced jump heights for your basset hound in agility, or take extra precautions to keep your bulldog cool, or put a jacket on your Italian Greyhound to keep him warm, even at indoor trials.

4. People may flock to the ring to watch your run. This can add stress and anxiety to a trial experience, but in my experience it’s generally curiosity that brings people to watch. I actually have heard someone say “We can’t go yet, I want to watch this rottweiler run.”

5. You may find yourself doing a lot of breed education. Having people watch your run is a great opportunity to show that your dog is a dog, just like any other and provide the public with some education.

6. Judges may have different expectations. In a perfect world, all dogs would be judged equally, however, the world is not perfect. Some judges may score your barking Rottweiler differently than they would score your barking Shetland Sheepdog. Some obedience judges might choose to excuse your anxious German Shepherd on the exam, but not an anxious Papillon. You are not obliged to show under these judges. If you choose to continue to show to them, you can try to train for behavior you know they will expect in the ring, or you can take your deductions.

7. People will tell you that you need to change breeds to succeed. This one is the one that frustrates me the most. You start a sport with your breed of choice because you love it and once you show that you are a capable trainer some people will tell you that if you want to ‘go far’ that you should get a <insert not your breed here>. My sassy comeback is usually to gasp in horror and ask, “Why would I do that!?”

If I’m feeling less snarky, I might say something like I love the sport because people with different breeds can participate, and that Rottweilers fit my lifestyle perfectly. I’d probably also add that my dogs have their share of titles, high in class, high in trial and high combined ribbons in many sports, so I’m not convinced getting a more traditional breed will ensure success.

Now that you’ve heard some of the challenges folks with non-traditional breeds in Dog Sports might face, here are some suggestions for how you can support people showing and trialing non traditional breeds in your sport.

• Learn as much as you can about their breed by asking them questions!
• Speak up and share the knowledge you have acquired when you hear others making judgmental comments.
• Compliment the owners and handlers of non traditional breeds. No need to lie here, just be kind and honest. What do you love about their fog or their performance?
• Sponsor Awards for Non Traditional Breeds at trials and tests you attend

Need more ideas for how to support owners of non-traditional breeds? Check out my post, 9 Ways to Welcome BIPOC at Dog Shows and Trials. The strategies covered in this post are perfect for being kind and welcoming to people of all kinds, not just BIPOC.

A recent discussion with a friend about the difficulty of teaching a class with a demo dog got me thinking about the use of demo dogs in the dog training world.

I’ve taken a lot of classes with my dogs over the years and attended many seminars and clinics. Demonstrations have been part of many of these learning opportunities, but some demos have been more useful to me as a learner than others. As a dog training instructor, I have occasionally used a demo dog, but not for every class.

Below are 7 things I ask myself before using a demo dog in any given class or seminar.

1. Are the dogs in this class likely to react to my dog? Demo dogs are useful in environments where learner dogs are likely to be confident and well managed by their owners. I would not, for example, reccomend a demonstration dog for a ‘Reactive Rover’ type class.

2. Will the humans in this class be able to absorb the demonstration? I find that human students are better able to absorb demonstrations when they have the skills to keep their dogs calm AND watch the demonstration.

3. Do I have the right dog? A demo dog needs to be confident. They need to be able to work with the distraction of other people and dogs and they need to be able to wait when not demonstrating without disrupting the class.

4. Do I have a plan to use demos in my class? Having a plan for demonstation, allows you to make the best use of your short time with your students. Most people come to class to work their dogs, and they will likely want to work their dogs more than they watch yours. Having a plan that outlines when, where and how long you will use your demo dog will help you keep that working to watching ratio fair to your students.

5. Where will the dog be when not working? How will you ensure your dog’s comfort and safety while not demonstrating? Is this an easily accessible and reliable option?

6. Does the dog know the behavior I want to demonstrate? Again, depending on what you are demonstreating, this will matter more or less. If you want to demonstrate a complex agility handling sequence, you need a dog familiar with the obstacles AND the handling moves. If you are teaching a beginner tricks class, it may be helpful to demonstrdate how to train behaviors with a beginner dog, or with a dog that can demonstrate the more completed finished behaviour.

7. Is this helpful? Finally, ask yourself, how will the demo help your students learn? Are you using a demo dog to show off your dog’s skills? To show your students the finished behavior or to demonstrate how to teach a behavior? In my opinion, while it can be fun to show students your dog’s amazing skills, it doesn’t always advance their learning and learning should always be at the forefront of your mind when considering any new strategy for group classes.

If you’ve ever had a fabulous training session that ended poorly because you chose to ask your dog for ‘just one more’ repetition of a behavior too many times, you are familiar with the affliction I call ‘just-one-more-itis’, or JOMI.

It usually happens because we humans are highly reinforced by sucess in training. A friend and I recently discussed how sucessful training is addictive and that jolt of dopamine we feel when our dog gets it right, is something we often try to chase a little harder than we need to. Dogs are beings with finite attention, and physical capacity and in every training session that goes too long, there’s a point at which the dog’s behavior begins to degrade. As trainers we should be actively trying to avoid that point, but sometimes, we are victims of dopamine.

Fortunately for you, I am well versed in this affliction and here are 4 things I do to keep it at bay.

1. Make a plan

We know that the most efficient training involves a training plan. Sometimes those plans might be written, sometimes those plans might reside in our heads. Either way, having a specific training plan for a session, and even better yet, outlining when and how we’ll end the session can help us from automatically falling into the JOMI trap.

2. Set a timer

Using a timer can help prevent JOMI by making you more aware of how much time you have been training for. In the past, I’ve used inexpensive kitchen timers, and my smart watch timer function to remind me when my time is up and I need to end a session. Generally I set my timer for 1-2 minutes as that’s generally enough time to get in quite a few repetitions of a specific behaviour without overtaxing a dog.

3. Count out your rewards

If you count out your rewards before a session and train until those rewards have been given to your dog, you’ll be forced to stop the session to reload. If you put your container a few steps away from your training area, you’re forced to break for more than a few seconds. Another way to do this is to cheat for this grab as many treats as one hand will hold and train until those treats are gone. I call this training in handfulls. Whichever strategy you choose, limiting the number of rewards on your person will give you a break between sessions to evaluate your progress against your plan and stop JOMI in it’s tracks.

4. Record your training sessions

I sincerely believe that recording and reviewing my training sessions makes me a better trainer. Why? Because I can use a video camera as an electronic accountability partner. After I’ve made my training plan, grabbed a handful of treats and trained my dog, I can review the session instantly to see if that session met the goals I set in the training plan. Finally, in my experience sometimes, just knowing I’m recording something for review helps me be more rigorous and conscious when it comes to carrying out my training plan.

If you are using positive reinforcement to train your dog, chances are that you are using food to reward your dog. The reason most of us use food is that you can reward multiple repetitions in a short amount of time, compared to tossing a ball or playing tug.

When looking food rewards, a lot of people go out to the local pet store to buy ‘Dog Treats’, but did you know that younmight be limiting by only shopping at the pet store? There are a bunch of other foods out there that you can reward your dog with and they can be found in your pantry, freezer or local grocery store.

If you are finding your dog doesn’t seem to be enjoying their ‘Dog Treats’, or you’d like to mix things up a bit for them, try one or two of the suggestions below. Your dog will thank you!

1. Meatballs
2. Blueberries
3. Hot dogs
4. Vienna Sausages
5. Beef Jerky
6. Pepperettes
7. Popcorn
8. Sliced carrots
9. Chickpeas
10. Peas
11. Bread cubes
12. Croutons
13. Peanuts
14. Banana chips
15. Yogurt
16. Cream cheese
17. Cheese whiz, peanut butter
18. Baby Food Purees
19. Baby puffs
20. Baby melts
21. Cream Cheese
22. Liver sausage/pate
23. Puffed Wheat
24. Cheerios
25. Pretzels
26. Bits & Bites
27. Mandarin Orange Sections
28. Canned whipped cream
29. Cottage cheese
30. Goldfish crackers
31. Macaroni, cooked al dente
32. Cherry tomatoes
33. Hummus
34. Green beans
35. Shrimp
36. Quail eggs
37. Rice cakes
38. Fish Sticks
39. Edamame
40. Life Cereal

Despite having fewer show and trial opportunities due to COVID-19, I still managed to log a decent number of KM on the Kia Rio this year. During those long drives, I rely mostly on podcasts and e-books for company. Below, are my 15 favorite podcasts of 2020, in no particular order.

Drinking From The Toilet – A behind-the-scenes look into the reality of dog training, behavior, teaching, and learning. We love our dogs, we love our jobs, but sometimes it’s not all unicorns and rainbows. Sometimes at the end of the day, you just need a drink and friend who gets it. We’ll keep it fun, and keep it real.

Cog Dog Radio – Dog trainer, blogger, competitor

Bananas – Kurt Braunohler and Scotty Landes discuss the strange, fascinating, and just plain bananas news from around the world.

The Daily Zeitgeist – There’s more news and less comprehension today than any historical period that didn’t involve literal witch trials, and trying to stay on top of it all can feel like playing a game of telephone with 30 people, except everyone’s speaking at the same time and like a third of them are openly racist for some reason. From Cracked co-founder Jack O’Brien, THE DAILY ZEITGEIST is stepping into that fray with some of the funniest and smartest comedic and journalistic minds around. Jack and co-host Miles Gray spend up to an hour every weekday sorting through the events and stories driving the headlines, to help you find the signal in the noise, with a few laughs thrown in for free.

The Science of Success – The #1 Evidence Based Growth Podcast on the Internet. The Science of Success is about the search for evidence based personal growth. It’s about exploring ways to improve your decision-making, understand your mind and how psychology rules the world around you, and learn from experts and thought leaders about ways we can become better versions of ourselves.

True Crime Garage – Each week Nic and the Captain fire up the true crime garage flying ship fueled with beer, great discussion and listener participation. The garage covers a new case each week from headline news to local real life horror stories. Discussions about Serial killers like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and BTK, cold cases like Jonbenet Ramsy, OJ Simpson and the Zodiac, disappearances, missing persons and unsolved mysteries are all on tap along with craft beers from all over the world. If you like to kick back and have a little fun with your true crime than this show is for you and your friends. Remember don’t take yourself too seriously because if you do, nobody else will.

Scientology: Fair Game – Leah Remini and Mike Rinder’s new podcast, Scientology: Fair Game will take you behind the facade and expose the terrible truth about scientology’s Fair Game doctrine. It’s been used for 5 decades to destroy anyone they label an enemy — former scientologists, media, government officials — anyone they think is impeding their objectives. Leah and Mike are covering new ground, digging deeper than ever into the shocking documents, facts and stories that will make you wonder how any of this is going on in America today.

Court Junkie – Imagine being wrongfully convicted for a crime you didn’t commit, or imagine your child’s killer is still on the loose even though there’s enough evidence for an arrest. I want to help shine light on the injustices of our judicial system. I delve into court documents, attend trials, and interview those close to the case to help me tell their stories.

Feminist Survival Project 2020 – A podcast for feminists who feel overwhelmed and exhausted by everything we need to get done in 2020, and still worry that we’re not doing enough – hosted by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, authors of BURNOUT: the secret to unlocking the stress cycle.

The Missionary – A young missionary named Renee Bach left her comfortable life in America to start a malnutrition program in rural Uganda. Folks back home and in
Uganda praised her as a model missionary — an example of the healing power of God’s message. But
a decade later she’s accused of masquerading as a doctor and rumored to have killed hundreds of
children in her unlicensed clinic. How did Renee Bach end up here? Is she a case of good intentions gone
wrong…or a predator posing as a saint? Hosted and reported by journalists Rajiv Golla, Halima Gikandi and Malcolm Burnley.

The Upgrade by Lifehacker – Each week, Alice Bradley and Jordan Calhoun of Lifehacker bring in all-star guests to tackle the stuff that matters—like how to be happy, how to buy a TV, how to be less bad with money and how to tell if you’re dating a psychopath. Look, you’re doing great, but quite frankly we think you can be a little better. All your friends do too. It’s time for The Upgrade.

All In The Mind – ABC RN’s weekly podcast looking into the mental universe, the mind, brain and behaviour — everything from addiction to artificial intelligence.

You’re Wrong About – Mike and Sarah are journalists obsessed with the past. Every week they reconsider a person or event that’s been miscast in the public imagination.

Ologies – Volcanoes. Trees. Drunk butterflies. Mars missions. Slug sex. Death. Beauty standards. Anxiety busters. Beer science. Bee drama. Take away a pocket full of science knowledge and charming, bizarre stories about what fuels these professional -ologists’ obsessions. Humorist and science correspondent Alie Ward asks smart people stupid questions and the answers might change your life.

Behind the Police – How did American police get so violent? The answer to that question goes back centuries, to the earliest days of this nation. On this special podcast miniseries hosts Robert Evans and rap artist Propaganda (Jason Petty) draw a straight line from the darkest days of slavery, to the murder of George Floyd and the mass violence American police meted out to their citizens this summer.