NOT petting my dog on the head/face as a "reward."
Hey Gary, I've never heard this before. What is the reason? Thanks, Steve

 Quote: steve strom

NOT petting my dog on the head/face as a "reward."
Hey Gary, I've never heard this before. What is the reason? Thanks, Steve

LOL Steve - when Gary got home Saturday night, he demonstrated the concept by "petting" "me" on the face to thank "me" for my support of him going to the seminiar.

Bottom line? Does your dog like to be rewarded with "hands on face?"

Beth

I thought he did, LOL. Kinda like rubbing his ears gently it always seemed to have a calming effect.

Dave, Kathy and the rest of the Joliet / Stateline folks did a great job of putting on the seminar under some pretty adverse conditions.

I pulled in my driveway about 3:30 this morning and am just starting to try and digest this year's round of tips. It was interesting to note that several folks there were on their second or third seminar with him. I understand why Will said that after eight seminars, he was still learning new things.

I especially liked his new method of teaching a nice, tight front.

Bernard also did a bit of helper training. He gave Eric several tips and coaching on how to better work Dave's dogs. As Bernard noted, "Who works the helper's dogs?" Eric did some very nice catches on Dave's dog -- nicely smooth and fluid.

Regarding the face thing. It really is directed more to not quenching the dog's drive during a play or working session. Many people will pet by starting at the nose, stroking over the top of the head, and back over the ears. This will temporarily block his vision and interfere with the hearing. That stresses the dog a bit. A good way to tell if it's stressing the dog is to watch for eye blinks and the carriage of the ears (on Shepherds).

We also had instruction on the proper way to use calming strokes while the dog is in our arms. Simple stuff ... but a lot of us have never really thought about way we touch the dog and how affects them.

More photos later. I have a couple of nice ones of Dave's 'Show' dog that his daughter is learning to handle.

Charlie,
Great photos, as always.
Your ability to produce top-notch dog action pics constantly impresses me!

Thanks! Now, if I can just learn to train a proper down.

First off, I'd like to give a big THANK YOU to everyone that attended. The weather was less than ideal with blizzard like conditions on Friday and better conditions on Sat. and Sun. Everyone was a real warrior and benefited from the knowledge Bernhard had to share. Nobody was complaining, everyone was having a good time, and really the weather didn't seem to be an issue till it was time to push people out of the mud.

Bernhard really enjoyed himself and that has a lot to do with the participants. Everyone was willing to learn, and had good questions. All the handlers were respectful of his advice and most importantly they were respectful to their dogs and progress was made with all of them.

For me it was great to see Bernhard again and spend some time with him away from training as well. He is really a very genuine and extremely nice person to be around. The fact that he knows a lot about how to get where we want to go with our dogs is just a bonus. I felt like a family member was leaving yesterday. I'm probably preaching to the choir though, most of you already know this about him.

It was great to finally meet Charlie and Nikki. We were able to get a partial "family portrait" with Nikki, Lowen, and Zoe for the first time since they were puppies. It's intersting to see their similiarities and differences. Thanks for taking all those pictures, I can't wait to see the rest of them. A leaking oil pan from some road debris and a blizzard didn't keep Charlie from attending, my hat is off to you sir.

Most were from the midwest, but we had one from as far as GA attend. I'll just reiterate what the rest have been saying, when you have a chance, go see him, even if its just to watch, i know I learn as much watching others. Thanks again to everyone that attended, can't wait to do it again, we'll try and order up some better weather this time.