Clean Run Magazine - December 2008 - 3

© Cover NUMBER 12 © MARK DILLEMUTH THE MAGAZINE FOR DOG AGILITY ENTHUSIASTS DECEMBER 08 VOLUME 14 PHOTOS © CLEAN RUN EXCEPT WHERE NOTED © LYNNE BRUBAKER PHOTOGRAPHY, INC. 19 Think Outside the Box (and the Ring) What you do (or don’t do) outside the agility ring enters the ring with you. Your warm-up routine and your activities at the trial are key to how you and your dog perform in the ring. By Rachel Tabor Flatley Foundation Fundamentals: Flatwork Skills Wrap-up In her final article, the author reviews and summarizes the flatwork foundation skills she thinks are critical to train before starting a young dog on equipment or sequencing. By Mary Ellen Barry 45 So You Want to Raise an Agility Star So, you’re not a professional agility competitor with coaches, seminars, and camps at your immediate disposal. That’s okay—it doesn’t matter. You can still raise an agility star. By Mark Dillemuth 52 12 Trainer’s Forum Does your dog always cross behind you in certain situations or at particular obstacles when you’re running a course? A group of trainers explain how to train your dog to work at your side and discourage him from changing sides without a cue. By Brenna Fender 35 When Pigs Fly: Teaching the Front Cross, Part 1 This month we’ll cover some of the fundamentals of training a Pigs Fly dog to do a front cross, from definition to training your dog to recognize your frontcross cue. By Jane Killion Features 5 Editorializing: Just One More Run Do you believe the dogs that have passed on are at the Rainbow Bridge? Since the law of conservation of energy is real, could those dogs be gone, or is their energy still around to help us? By Carole Evans 57 Canine Health Care: FAQs By understanding the basic science behind feeding your dog, you can make diet decisions that can help maximize your dog’s performance at agility trials. By Julie A. Roos, DVM 59 Conquering Ring Nerves: Feeling Overwhelmed by Big Goals? To have dreams, to turn those dreams into big goals, and to eventually make those goals your reality is important. But the key to achieving your dreams is to break larger goals into small manageable steps, which will also help you stop feeling overwhelmed and unable to begin. By Diane Peters Mayer 79 Using Silent Running to Improve Body Language With patience and practice, running your dog with no verbal cues and focusing on the appropriate body language cues can transform your runs from frenetic to focused. By Cindy Brick 16 Cece’s Gym Exercise of the Month: Treadmill Walking With winter here, a treadmill is a useful tool for maintaining performance dogs’ fitness levels and providing physical exercise on a regular basis. Treadmill walking is also an excellent cross-training activity for most other dogs in the household. By Debbie Gross Saunders DPT, MSPT, OCS, CCRP 22 Handling Your Dog in Awesome Style, Part 9: Common Sequences This month we learn how to apply Linda’s handling system to cue a chosen strategy for common sequences encountered on course. By Linda Mecklenburg 31 Agility Class Etiquette Here are some guidelines to help newcomers to agility classes feel at home and to help current novice students be confident that your class manners are impeccable. By Tom Francis and the Windy City Agility Club Instructors 42 K9 Kudos: Seeing Spots Meet Jane Winkler, who has been successful with a variety of Dalmatians, a breed some have described as hard to train. Over the past 12 years, Jane has rescued, rehabilitated, and re-homed over 120 “Spotty Bodies.” By Martha Faulk 65 Retraining Agility Skills Deciding whether to retrain agility skills can be difficult, whether it’s a contact behavior or a start-line stay. No matter which skill needs retraining, it can be a complicated process. By Roxanne Hawn 72 Walking the Course… Backward? Need a reliable method of walking an agility course that will help you be more successful in handling the most difficult challenges on the course? Look no further—just walk your course backward. By Debbie Sacerich Columns 6 7 8 Tip of the Month By Lisa Barrett Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Agility… By Brenna Fender Backyard Dogs By Mary Ellen Barry 68 Skill of the Month By Karen Holik 75 Agility Organization Update 82 Letter to the Editor By Suzi Metz 82 Course Diagram Keys Cover Dog Ch Britannia Flashback, MX, MXJ, XF, CD, RE, HSAsd, OAC, OJC, OGC, TN-O, TG-N, WV-N, a.k.a. Flash. A 6-year-old Bearded Collie owned, trained, and handled by Joanne Williamson of Massachusetts; and co-owned by Michele Ritter. Photo by Lesley Mattuchio Clean Run (ISSN 1089-8506) is published monthly by Clean Run Productions, LLC. Principal o ce: 17 Industrial Dr., South Hadley, MA 01075. Periodicals postage paid at South Hadley, Massachusetts 01075-9902 and additional o ces. © Copyright 1995-2008 Bud Houston and Clean Run Productions, LLC. All world rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Clean Run, 17 Industrial Dr., South Hadley, MA 01075. December 08 | Clean Run 3

Clean Run Magazine - December 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - December 2008