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  1. #1
    Senior Dog windycanyon's Avatar
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    Workshops-- your expectations?

    So let's say you have signed up for an obedience or whatever workshop w/ the understanding that levels are split between 2 days-- pretty much a Novice/ Foundations the first and Open/ Advanced the 2nd.
    Are you going to be disappointed if the first 3 hrs of Day 1 are recapping stuff of the past if say the 2nd half was appropriate to your level? Or would you rather your dog go w/ the more advanced group on Day 2, and be possibly buried after the first hour (or less) in that session? I had the unpleasant experience of attempting to suggest to place teams (who I knew) where they would best benefit. They were not going to be able to attend an obed workshop both days. Not fun!!! No one complained really except for a close friend, yikes.
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  2. #2
    Senior Dog Tanya's Avatar
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    Well the most important is to ensure people registered know ahead of time to decide (don't surprise them with the there hour recap). I think almost a half day of "recap/catching up" is a lot. I can see an hour or so but not half the time. If you need novice/foundation info and can't make it - that's your issue and shouldn't slow down EVERYONE in day 2.

    But I guess at the end of the day it depends most what the people who may take the course want. If you have enough people wanting the 3 day recap and then advanced stuff then why not do that. But if you have a good group of advanced people wanting to take a day session appropriate to their needs they won't necessarily appreciated a 3 hour recap of basics which gives them little to no benefit.

    Personally if I were WELL BEYOND novice and fully at the advanced level a three hour recap would be veryyy long and may have me skip the session (or be very annoyed if i wasn't aware that much of my "advanced class' was recapping novice stuff). However, i'm not as a handler at advanced in any sport yet So I can see doing day two with the long recap (or just taking day 1).

    Curious - is it unlikely someone would day both days? If people would take both days they also may be disappointing with such a recap. Or maybe just show up later in the day

  3. #3
    Senior Dog windycanyon's Avatar
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    No, it was not like that at all Tanya. The gal had been to a workshop over a year ago, but she has not progressed in her training (she has taken 2 or 3 rally classes but not done any training at all since June). The workshop was VERY REASONABLY priced at only $50 / team / day. Private lessons were another option too, but of course that was nearly the same price for just one hour of undivided attention and she didn't have anything specific to work on-- she told me she needed the basics (and believe me, she does!). We had ~12 working teams each day, and yes, the young puppies got a lot of demo time in the morning because they are clean slates, and sponges (and small, so easy to manipulate w/ platform work, etc).

    I was there for the umpteenth time and still enjoyed watching the gal work w/ the puppies personally. I pick up new things every time I go. I guess I was just disappointed that one person had to be so negative after all the time I put into the weekend w/ organizational, hosting etc (to keep costs for others down). Shoot, there were probably 8-9 others there w/ dogs at similar if not more advanced levels too, but they seemed fine with it because it was a foundations day.

    It just seemed pretty weak of her to complain, given the days/ subjects were outlined appropriately on the flyer and it was so reasonably priced. I was sad that Miss Ruby came into season last week because she actually could have benefited from the first few hours of the Sunday session until it went over her level and then my plan was that Kanzi would take over. As it was, I took Kiku who has phenomenal focus along w/ Kanzi and they both were so happy to get to go work, it was great. I felt guilty having to choose amongst my older ones on who 'got' to go in Ruby's place!

    PS, I had several who thanked me immensely for organizing it and talking them into doing the sessions they took (one gal did both days AFTER doing a private lesson even and she only has the one dog!). People are already asking when she's coming back. I guess I just wished my warm and fuzzy feeling was shared by this friend.... that's all.
    Last edited by windycanyon; 11-18-2015 at 03:25 PM.
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    Tanya (11-18-2015)

  5. #4
    Senior Dog Tanya's Avatar
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    ahh. there is always one complainer :P you can't please that kind of person no matter what (well you could if you litteraly did the course FOR THEM but why would you do that unless they were paying for the one on one time!). Everyone else seems happy and knew what to expect so i'd say it was a success!

    Like like a fun session!

    I am gun shy on taking working spots with penny as they often say the dog has to be good with all dogs and able to work while others are working. Which is probably fair enough for a workshop. I just don't know if pen can do that. We'll see, I think our flyball class will be a test where I will see how she does as it sounds like there will be multiple things going on at once. (would also depend on the size of the room and if the other handlers were using squeaky toys or not haha)

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  7. #5
    Senior Dog windycanyon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tanya View Post
    ahh. there is always one complainer :P you can't please that kind of person no matter what (well you could if you litteraly did the course FOR THEM but why would you do that unless they were paying for the one on one time!). Everyone else seems happy and knew what to expect so i'd say it was a success!

    Like like a fun session!

    I am gun shy on taking working spots with penny as they often say the dog has to be good with all dogs and able to work while others are working. Which is probably fair enough for a workshop. I just don't know if pen can do that. We'll see, I think our flyball class will be a test where I will see how she does as it sounds like there will be multiple things going on at once. (would also depend on the size of the room and if the other handlers were using squeaky toys or not haha)
    If your dog can handle the chaos of flyball, I'd think the Saturday session would have been a piece of cake. On Sunday, the dogs did need to be rock solid w/ other dogs coming near as we even had some almost collisions at times; we were doing "Crazy Ivan Heeling" as a group, both indoors (sterile bldg) and then in the afternoon, outside on stinky grass. Everyone was started in a different direction and the trainer was calling out about turns, Fasts, 270's, slows etc. It was great though many of us handlers are clearly out of shape, lol. We had one gal w/ a BC that used to be quite dog reactive just a year ago, but she did v well from what I saw. She has really worked hard w/ that dog, taking our kennel club class last winter and a follow up open level class w/ the same instructor (who has one of the puppies) this summer. Plus she got a lot of floor time on Sunday working various impulse issues... but now *there* is an owner who has put her heart and soul into redirecting that dog's impulsiveness. I think her biggest issue currently is that she tries to grab her leash in the Nov ring when under stress and won't let go (was excused at one of the trials I was at for that) so she got help there too.

    The Sat am did have more sitting around time for the dogs, and now I realize just chatting here, how valuable that was in itself! Dogs have to learn to chill out at trials w/ all the commotion, and I can't tell you how many of the locals from that training center (whose bldg we used since weather is iffy now) don't have a crate trained dog. That topic also was addressed on Sat about the importance of having a dog that can settle in a crate on the show grounds. And guess what? My friend was stressing really badly and throwing really agitated looks my way that morning (a lot of my friends noticed and asked me what her problem was). She told me how her dog was stressing as soon as I arrived on Sat (I went about an hour after it started as I picked up muffins for the break) and I told her to go sit down, that her doggy was fine...she was the one who needed to de-stress! Oye.

    But thanks Tanya, you helped me think thru things here. I felt bad that I was hard on my friend after she laid into me Monday am but I think she needed to hear it.
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    Tanya (11-18-2015)

  9. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tanya View Post
    ahh. there is always one complainer :P you can't please that kind of person no matter what (well you could if you litteraly did the course FOR THEM but why would you do that unless they were paying for the one on one time!). Everyone else seems happy and knew what to expect so i'd say it was a success!
    I agree. Our trainer recently organized a seminar and there were a couple people who were told that there wasn’t room for them (which wasn’t technically true) simply because she’s had experience with them in the past and didn’t want to deal with the complaining. These are the kind of people who have no foundation yet think their dog should be in advanced, etc.
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    Cookie (HIT HC Jamrah's Legally Blonde, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015
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    Mulder (Coventry's I Want To Believe, UD, RN, WC) 5/26/1999 - 4/22/2015

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    windycanyon (11-19-2015)

  11. #7
    Senior Dog windycanyon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Annette47 View Post
    I agree. Our trainer recently organized a seminar and there were a couple people who were told that there wasn’t room for them (which wasn’t technically true) simply because she’s had experience with them in the past and didn’t want to deal with the complaining. These are the kind of people who have no foundation yet think their dog should be in advanced, etc.

    I bet there are many trainers who have this issue. One neat thing about the weekend is one who I thought was high maintenance from a different angle ended up being one of the nicest, most eager to learn people there.
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    Tanya (11-19-2015)

 



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