Fostering Excellence in Agility

035 Megan unpacks her thoughts about bar-knocking in this requested episode. Megan's favorite jumping experts: Linda Mecklenburg https://awesomepawsagilityacademy.com/current-classes/ Dr. Leslie Eide https://www.thetotalcanine.com/online-learning.html  Join the coaching program https://fxagility.mykajabi.com/fx-agility-waitlist  Sarah Stremming's Webinar, Bravery School https://sarahstremming.com/products/webinar/bravery-school/  Teeter training program  https://fxagility.mykajabi.com/offers/sUU48VFG/checkout 

034 Should you make something easier in training or try to pivot in another way? Find out what Megan thinks in this episode! 

033 Megan shares her experience debuting Sprint, her two-year-old Border Collie, in agility competitions. Find out insights into what Megan saw change in Sprint's behavior over time and how well the debut strategy worked.  Resources: Episode 32: Are You Ready to Compete? Youtube: Sprint's First Trial Highlights Youtube: Sprint's Second Trial, Novice Jumping Youtube: Second Trial, Novice Agility Episode 28: How Outside the Ring Behaviors Impact Inside the Ring Behaviors Episode 31: Using FEO and Fix & Go Effectively 

032 When should you start competing and what does that look like for each team? How to plan to maximize success all comes down to the splits in behavior that we need our dogs to understand. 

031 For Exhibition Only and Fix and Go On are two tools we have in the competition ring that can help us narrow the gap between how our dogs perform in training versus how they perform in trials. In this episode, Megan breaks down the pros and cons of each and talks about how she would use either of these options. Mentioned in this episode: Using FEO/NFC with a toy in the ring: https://youtu.be/C6z7UqyPzDoProactively helping a dog before they make a mistake: https://youtu.be/xq4oobNp2wo  The Pitfalls of Cue Escalation --> https://fxagility.com/blog/the-pitfalls-of-cue-escalation/ Different Types of Training --> https://fxagility.com/blog/reducing-delaying-reinforcement/ Beginning of Run Routines --> https://fxagility.com/blog/beginning-of-run-routines-evaluating-your-dogs-readiness/ End of Run Routines --> https://fxagility.com/blog/end-of-run-routines-do-you-have-it-do-you-need-it/ Episode 29, Startlines with Sarah Espinoza-Sokal --> https://fxagility.mykajabi.com/podcasts/fostering-excellence-in-agility/episodes/2147886802

030 Megan talks about learning the course from the dog's perspective, the importance of sticking to the plan, the five phases of course analysis, and course memorization tips.  Join Megan on June 1st at 6pm PT for her FDSA Webinar, Agility Course Analysis

029 Megan interviews Sarah Espinoza-Sokal about her experience repairing her Kelpie, Zi's startline performance. Megan and Sarah unpack the unique pieces of the training puzzle and discuss why each piece was important and how Sarah was able to implement it in training and in competition.  You can follow Sarah on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/agilityodyssey  Sarah invested most of her first 30 years into a passion for horses. In 2016, she decided to rehome her last horse and devote herself to agility instead. She quickly fell in love with international-style agility, and set her sights on one day competing in Europe. Sarah’s first agility dog suffered a career-ending injury in 2017, retiring before he earned Novice titles. She started over with agility dog 1.5 — a Working Kelpie puppy named Zi — in September 2017. Sarah and Zi competed in their first national competition at Cynosport in 2021. In 2022, they were fortunate enough to run at World Team Tryouts, the West Coast Open, the US Open, and European Open Team Tryouts, vastly expanding their skills as a team. A lifelong writer and obsessive nerd, Sarah shares her story of pursuing excellence in agility on her Agility Odyssey Facebook page, where she loves to discuss both the smallest of training details and the largest of life lessons.

028 Optimal level of arousal is necessary for optimal performance. Does your dog's arousal increase in the parking lot of the agility trial or is it later in the run, like at obstacle 15? Let's take a look at how your beginning of the run AND end of the run routines are impacting your dog's performance. In this episode, Megan mentions several other resources, including: Episode 27 How Trialing Informs Your Training Cog Dog Radio, Reinforcement Misunderstandings Training on Their Timeline with Sarah Stremming Check back next week for an interview with Sarah Espinoza-Sokal to talk about the training that we did together in order to address Zi's startline in competition. Spoiler: the outside-the-ring behaviors were impacting the inside-the-ring behaviors!  That's all for this week! Follow on FB, IG, TikTok, and Youtube: @fxagility 

027 Data from our training sessions inform future training sessions, right? What about trial data? Are you practicing during the week the issues that come up on the weekend? Is your current way of analyzing that data producing results for you? If not, it may be how you're analyzing the data is missing a few key questions that I'm always asking myself when watching my trial videos. Let's dive in to what "competition-only issues" may really mean and how to set up training to start improving those sticking points.  Mentioned in this episode: Different Types of Training and Training vs Working Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, & Youtube: @fxagility   

Sarah Stremming, Cog Dog Coach, joins Megan to discuss how their two youngest dogs, Rayya (Sarah's Icelandic Sheepdog) and Sprint (Megan's Border Collie) have completely different training plans and are on really different paths, but how those paths ultimately lead to the same place. These two coaches dive in to why these differences are so important and the reality of the extra time and care it takes to adjust each detail depending on the day.  To learn more about Sarah and her online offerings, visit her website: thecognitivecanine.com, and follow her on social media: Facebook: The Cognitive Canine, LLC Instagram: Cognitive_Canine Tiktok: @sarahstremming  Listen to her podcast: Cog-Dog Radio and subscribe to her Patreon Platform Megan has a new website domain: www.fxagility.com and her social media channels all use the same handle: @fxagility to easily find her on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Youtube.  Thanks for listening! 

025 When I hear, "Oh, they should know better", I cringe a bit. In this episode, I unpack how I understand the reality of needing to let criteria go sometimes, and what that means for the big picture of competing with our dogs. I talk about cue escalation during this episode. To learn more about that I mean, read this blog post.  Follow me on Facebook and Instagram! 

024: In this episode, Megan shares her thoughts on building more desire for training in our dogs. Using reinforcement consistently and in the right situations gives our dogs the confidence to be all they can be! Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Tiktok: @fxagility

023 Today I'm sharing my thoughts on teaching and coaching dog agility, or any situations where a human and dog are learning together.

022. Let's all own up to our competitive nature AND hold up to our values of training and competing with excellence. We owe it to our dogs and to ourselves to be mentally, physically, and technically prepared for each competition, but now all competitions should be treated equally. Listen in to find out how Megan prioritizes different phases in training while at competition throughout the year.

021 When you learn something new, how do you know what to do with that information? How do you decide if you should put effort into using this new skill, or if you should put it on the back burner for another time? In this episode, Megan gives you a series of questions for handlers to dig into in order to filter and file new information.

020 - What are dog agility seminars for and how can you prepare to get the most out of one? In this episode, Megan talks about different seminar formats, how to get the most out of your time as a worker AND an auditor, and the different perspectives of seminar-ing: student, host, and instructor. Join the community --> www.synergydogsports.com/community   

019 In this episode, Megan answers questions from community members about all things Teeter Training. Listen in for insights, tips, and tricks for teaching and maintaining a confident and reliable teeter performance.

018 It's a fact that instructors wish students would practice more outside of class AND students wish that it was easier to practice outside of class. Dive into this episode to learn how Megan uses foundation skills and a little bit of creativity to continue building skills, repairing skills, and teaching new skills to dogs of all ages and experience levels. Essential Skills for Stopped Contacts Webinar Synergy Dog Sports Community Synergy Dog Sports Homepage

017 Megan draws parallels between how we practice dog agility and how musicians practice and her ah-ha moments when applying current brain research to both. Megan references Dr. Molly Gebrian's excellent and insightful youtube series "What Musicians Can Learn about Practicing from Current Brain Research" Please go have a listen to that series and ALL of Dr. Gebrian's work - she makes the neuroscience very easy to understand and apply.  Join Megan for her webinar on Essential Skills for Stopped Contacts on September 8th 2022 or purchase ahead of time to get access to the recording!  Subscribe to the SDS Community on MightyNetworks to gain access to extras!  Happy Training. 

016 Today Megan breaks down why someone may choose to train stopped contacts vs running contacts and how the choices for each contact obstacle are not exactly equal. Spoiler: it has a LOT to do with your big picture!    Essential Skills for Stopped Contacts Webinar --> https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/self-study/webinars  From Trick to Treat 6-week Teeter Training Course --> https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/courses/28852  www.synergydogsports.com/community  www.synergydogsports.com