Product Description

Alex Robinson is a very successful positive reinforcement based competitive obedience trainer from New Zealand. Alex has presented many seminars throughout New Zealand, Australia, Canada and America since 2014. Alex is 28 years old and has been training dogs at a national winning level for over a decade.

Alex currently has three dogs, two border collies and a golden retriever. Alex started in obedience when he was 14 with his parents 5 year old Border collie - Sugar. Alex and Sugar won many national titles together and reached Test C - the penultimate class in New Zealand.

Fix is a 9 year old intact male border collie who has national wins and his obedience championship under his belt. The next goal is a BH title in IGP.

ASAP is a 5 year old intact female border collie, she has a 60% win rate in the obedience ring! She has had a year out of the ring learning other sports. Alex looks forward to earning their obedience championship in the new year (2020).

Sushi is a 18 month old intact female golden retriever from the states. Alex and Sushi have been working together for 6 months and have high ambitions in Obedience, Agility, and IGP. She is expanding Alex’s toolbox!

Despite Alex’s affinity for the working breeds, the Boxer remains his favorite breed. He has raised a few for friends and hopes he finds the right one to pursue obedience with in the future.

Alex:

"At the core of my training are three principles/broader ideas:

• What you put in is what you get out.
• Reinforcement builds behaviour.
• Positive relationships: between you and your dog, and your dog and competition exercises.

I believe drive comes from confidence, there is no secret 5 minute exercise you can do to gain it, instead it is deeply rooted in hard work. Just because your dog isn’t buzzing about does not mean it’s not in drive, frantic fizzing is not to be mistaken for drive. It is up to us to be honest with who our dog is and nurture your dog for who they are - then and only then will you get drive.

When we are training our dogs we can’t take anything that they do personally - when they fail, we fail and this is information and it is what we do with that information that defines us. For me this means being honest with what you’ve done as a trainer - the ability to step back and look at the picture holistically - taking full ownership of the whole process.

My goal for my seminar attendees is that they all learn to look at their obedience skills and their relationships with their dogs closer. Learning to identify the key components so that they can formulate a training programme that is essentially tailor made for themselves and their dogs. Only then is driven obedience with precision possible."