contemplating - OES only agility seminar?
The idea originally crossed my mind when the prospect of the SE WI OES club possibly hosting the 2011 national came up. It's a toss-up whether or not that will happen, but the idea of a seminar lingered. Nothing specific as of right now beyond the presenter, whom, in addition to having OES experience (and, more importantly, a well developed sense of humor  ), is really quite superb at foundation work as well as trouble-shooting: obstacle performance as well as handling.
I contacted a few of the most likely participants privately earlier today and it looks like, as it stands right now, we have at least four people interested, probably five. I want to talk to the possible presenter some more to see what she has in mind, but I'd also like to get a feel for (a) how many people think they may realistically be interested and, if so (b) what kind of things they'd like to focus on Seminars, for those of you who haven't attended one (yet  ) can be one or two days, or even a half a day, or a set number of hours or.... There can be one or more presenters. There is typically a maxiumum number of working slots, with auditing (you get to sit in and listen, but you don't bring a dog - you learn by watching the participants) being generally unlimited (and a fraction of the cost).
This would, based on the responses so far, almost certainly be oriented towards pretty green dogs. Meaning they have some training on them, but typically aren't competing, or at least not beyond novice. There may be other possibilities and it will probably depend on the interests of the participants. I know that's all pretty vague at the moment, but the whole point is to gather input to best come up with a seminar that is truly useful. Since there would be mostly out-of-towners, it would almost certainly have to be on a weekend depending on the presenter's availability, and post-snow season for travel purposes. At a guess it would certainly not be more than a day, quite possibly a half day. (Sybil's brain fries after 30 minutes...though that's with continuous work. But bottom line is that there's a limit to how hard we can push our dogs and still make it fun for them.) The purpose of making it OES only is twofold: 1) our breed tends to share certain characteristics when it comes to training, so we can focus more on what our dogs commonly need to focus on (i.e "our" needs drives the agenda - for those of you who have ever taken a seminar with seven border collies and, well, one hairball...   ) and
2) there are so few of us doing agility with OES that I think it would be really encouraging to have a chance to get together and compare notes and spend time with each other and learn from each other etc. Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks! Kristine |
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| Kristine - I answered this on the performance list, but wanted to add the possibility of a combined hands on with dogs and an actually lecture type seminar on course reading or maybe using a behaviorist to talk about motivation or other issues.
Now if you could arrange a specialty competition as well  |
kerry wrote: Kristine - I answered this on the performance list, but wanted to add the possibility of a combined hands on with dogs and an actually lecture type seminar on course reading or maybe using a behaviorist to talk about motivation or other issues.
Now if you could arrange a specialty competition as well I didn't even think about that. hmmm Not for this spring, not enough time unless it was a match, plus the whole point is that a lot of people have very green dogs. By next year hopefully there will be more out there competing... 
Rumor has it St Louis has at least flirted with the idea of a trial. To be honest, it would be hard to make a regional OES only agility trial only work financially. One thing at a time, though.
You didn't respond to the performance list only because I haven't put it to the list yet. I will though. I like this particular instructor for it for the following reasons: 1) she doesn't treat the breed like they're terminally stupid (been there, done that), but doesn't mind pointing out to the not-so-bright handler that she is not exactly helping them work at their best 
2) her absolute and systematic focus on foundation. 3) there are a variety of methods to teach obstacle performance. Hers suit the breed very well in terms of clarity and safety. 4) the fact that she teaches you to handle to your dog based on what suits your individual dog best (and that will certainly vary also among OES), not to someone's preconceived notion of the dos and don'ts of handling. 5) she reads dogs - all dogs - like nobody's business. Everything she does is based on good, common <?> dog sense. No fancy gadgets or theories. Just a solid understanding of dogs, and not just some dogs. And no "well, he's an Old English Sheepdog..." (implication: so what do you expect?) You expect what you should expect from a sound, athletic, smart dog - a solid working relationship based on good communication. Her trouble shooting skills are pretty amazing. I would think that any seminar would play to those strengths. But I'm waiting to see what she suggests. She knows what she's had to go through with me, Sunny actually talked to her in Long Beach about one of her main issues. We're pretty much in agreement here that it would be helpful. One of the problems we have in this region at least is that instruction is very variable and unless you've already learned what tends to work for your dogs, you're at a disadvantage on many levels when it comes to finding an appropriate instructor and/or advocating for what is in your dogs' best interest. I know, after training multiple dogs over a period of, let's see, seven years, not a week has gone by since I started working with her that I haven't had an "a-ha!" moment. She's completely changed the way I view the game and what my dogs are capable of (for the better ) and I'd like others to have a shot at that, even if it's in compressed form.
We'll see. Now, could we make a weekend out of a series of performance related seminars? That might be challenging, but possible. Maybe a herding seminar at least. Not instinct testing, but an actual seminar, to make it more attractive for people to come in from further distances. There's also the possibility of a rally seminar which would by it's nature be more accessible for more people, with an option to audit the other seminars to see if it appeals and to actually see OES at work, But that's probably too ambitious for right now. Maybe some day. One thing at a time and the first thing is that I want to see more people out there in agility competing successfully with their OES. Kristine |
| well lets just say I responded to it somewhere - and now you know how observant I am |
kerry wrote: well lets just say I responded to it somewhere - and now you know how observant I am
Just to me, personally And thank you!
I first e-mailed you, Gale, Sun, Dawn, Jan G and Judi. I wanted to include Pam (Simon's mom), but don't have her e-mail address. Or at least not handy. So I figured it was better to throw it out on oes.org in case there are people in MN/IL/WI quietly working their OES in agility that I don't know about. I don't know that it would be of interest for Kathi, but I'll e-mail her too. Kristine |
| I think multiple seminars could draw a few more people in. If not this year in the future.
Were you thinking of Mindy for Rally? The draw for me is the access to a great instructor. Like I told Kristine my Kennel Club offers "canned" agility. Not very helpful when trying to troble shoot with Luca. I had the chance to speak (accost) Sue in Long Beach and although she was breif she gave me a direction to go in more so than I have recieved from any of my instructors in the last few months. So if I have to skip a Breed show or a family members birthday I WILL DO IT!!! Besides I'm hoping to be able to build a solid foundation with Ruby in agility. So it sounds like the focus whatever it is will be helpful. I'm really hoping other people take some interest in this and are willing to travel. I have a feeling it would be highly assistive to all who attend. |
| PS- Kerry I LOVE the avatar! |
Lucali wrote: Were you thinking of Mindy for Rally.
Yes, Mindy. Rally as well as her intro to competitive obed and her Nov A spiel which is not only helpful but hilarious! We also (potentially) have Shannon for herding. Mind you, right now I want to focus on agility. Perhaps a complete immersion weekend. Sue just reminded me there is so much to cover. We could spilt it up in sections. But we do need a decent number of partipants or we end up working the working dogs to death. (well...to brain fry anyway). Handlers as well. I can always ask Mindy to do an OES only intro rally/obed seminar to attract my main target audience locally: the puppies who've been sold locally and the rescue dogs who have been placed. In fact, I've already mentioned it to her. Kristine |
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