Where are the pictures?

We have some, somewhere. Hubby should be emailing them to me today, his battery died towards the end.

What I saw we had a lot of nice shots!

I learned a lot from Claudia at this seminar and had a nice time enjoying the country side of Florida.

Claudia is very clear in her communication and her English is very good, great sense of humor as well. She was very funny panning back between thinking in German and speaking in English which produced some memorable moments. Watching her work with dogs you can tell how skilled she is as she makes it look so easy. If she lived in my area, I would be wearing out the road between us to go and train.

Very enjoyable seminar with good weather which is unpredictable in Florida. Betty and Will did a great job behind the scenes putting it all together and making everyone feel welcome.

Again, Claudia was a pleasure to be around and learn from.

Art

Does Claudia do seminars often?

Does she have a website that says when and where she will be doing seminars?

Here is her webpage.
http://www.vangoghkennels.com/

I can not exagerate Claudia's skill both as a handler and as a teacher. I may be biased but I think everyone walked away with new tools.

Claudia has set a new standard for me with what I expect to get out of a workshop. I have never seen anyone communicate as well as she did with BOTH handlers and dogs.

If you contact her and you are pretty open about dates she tries like crazy to work it in. Between us we had some real scheduling conflicts but it worked!

That was a good workshop, for sure!

We were lucky enough to have a wide range of dogs running the gauntlet from a cute five month Rottie pup ( with drives to *die* for - we invited that handler to come visit our club before someone else snatches her up ! ) to the original "Mr. I'm grumpy and have really sharp teeth", aka Fetz.
So handlers and spectators got to see a wide range of obedience sharpening exercises.

Claudia was also nice enough to work on some dogs behaviorial issues ( no, she wasn't able to make Fetz sweet, sorry... ) which had a real added benefit for the hanlders.

Claudia is super sweet and a very skilled handler. She communicated well and was a real trooper in the 96 degree heat.

If you have a chance to see her, go! You won't regret it and you'll come back with some new ideas and training hints.

Seeing her work the "Circle of Death" was priceless! We'll be using that tech. in our club ASAP!

Like Jason, I would love pics and video if you have any. Can you explain the "Circle of Death"?

The Circle of Death was used for our own Little Princess Weasel AKA Annabelle.

The Weas is Fetz's favorite child and to say that she is a little sharp is like saying King Kong was a little on the big side. Add suspicious, add civil, add serious, and you have a combination that has made me very cautious with her and people.

Basically Annabelle and I were in the center of the circle of people with her in a sit at my side. One by one people would approach and if she growled she received a leash correction.

Two leash corrections and she said, "hmmm this is not working. I'm getting popped AND the people are not backing off." So then she decided to adjust her position as people approached.

She was put back into position.

The circle shook my hand, they clapped, they made strange noices, they patted her. Lots of movement, Lots of noise.

At one time it looked like they were doing an Indian Rain Dance.

Annabelle did well. Later in the day, she was approaching a couple of the same people that earlier she had given the evil eye too. Claudia also had a couple of other suggestions that we will be implementing at club.

Like a lot of things, this falls in the category of don't try this at home. Claudia was very clear that this should only be done in a club type enviroment with people that consider a dog bite as part of the price you pay and not a chance to initiate a lawsuit. You also need someone there experienced in reading dogs, I would imagine for some too much flooding too fast could be a very bad thing, perhaps one that a dog may not recover from.

 Quote: Betty Waldron

...Like a lot of things, this falls in the category of don't try this at home. Claudia was very clear that this should only be done in a club type enviroment with people that consider a dog bite as part of the price you pay and not a chance to initiate a lawsuit. You also need someone there experienced in reading dogs, I would imagine for some too much flooding too fast could be a very bad thing, perhaps one that a dog may not recover from.

Definitely something for a controlled environment, especially with a dog like you described Annabelle. Now I can see why it's called the Circle of Death.

Great exercise for desensitizing. Thanks for explaining it.

Oh Betty, You and Will with those Czech Lap-Dogs.

<Ahem> I really was ready to buy the belly rub tickets......

Art