ABC dog agility club

01/21/2025

A reminder to everyone now that we are going into extreme cold weather season.
The indoor training room at 1250 Latimore Lake Road. Saint John is available for hire starting at $32.00 per hour with discounts for longer bookings.
I do use it most evenings for classes. but it is available most daytimes and earlier mornings on the weekends.
the room size is 40ft by 80ft so lots of room to let the dogs move around.
Message me for more details if you are interested and l can send more information .
Any dogs using the room must be up to date with their vaccinations. A liability waiver must be signed by the user. Small groups of dogs or individual dogs are welcome.

11/28/2024

new PRE-AGILITY CLASS starts Monday 6th January 2025
www.abcdogtraining.org to register

11/23/2024

We will be holding our annual Christmas time fun agility afternoon on SUNDAY 29TH DECEMBER, starting at 2pm.
Held at the ABC dog training building at 1250 Latimore lake Road. Saint John.
It's an awesome opportunity to try out a real agility course, no experience needed as we will be there to supervise any dog that has never been on agility equipment before.
You can have two runs on the course, by yourself if you are an experienced handler or supervised and then by yourself if you are a beginner.
Cost will be just $10.00 to cover the two runs.
The event will be held indoors on custom cushion flooring made to eliminate any damage to the dog's legs. Heights will be adjusted according to the dog's body size and experience on equipment.
Last year we also held a 50/50 prize draw, the money raised from this went to a well-known rescue group in New Brunswick who found two abandoned dogs in a trailer who had almost starved to death. the tickets will be $10.00 each and can be brought in advance or at the event.
Because we cannot have large groups of dogs in the room all at the same time we will need you to message us at abc dog training so that we can book you a time slot.
People viewing is available in an area behind the fencing.
Last year was a success, it was good to see so many people that l had not seen in a while, lets build on that success and at the same time help out rescue dog groups.
If anyone is interested in joining in on our agility class then our next new pre-agility class starts Monday 6th January 2025
www.abcdogtraining.org to register for this class.

Feel free to share to help get the word out, which will lead to more fun raising opportunities.

09/19/2024

TRAINING WITH TREATS. In the world of dog training everyone has an opinion of what methods to use to train a dog. This post is not to get into an argument about which method is best, it is to hopefully get across the method l like to use and how l use it.
When l do my theory classes l tell people to bring in high value treats to class, high value is because they are going to be competing with a new environment in the classroom and they need something to get their dogs attention.
Eventually high value treats would be mixed in with kibble so that the dog never knows what they will be getting. Toys would not be practical in a class setting as they would be too distracting for the other dogs although l do use toys or treats when l train on a one-on-one session if it will keep the dog engaged with me.
KEEPING THE DOG ENGAGED WITH ME is a big part of how the treats work, l do NOT just keep passing treats to the dog's mouth thinking that is all l need to do to get them following commands, l get them to earn the chance to be rewarded with that food is coming from me.
The easiest way for them to earn to food is to look at my eyes, its a natural behavior that dogs check in every 5-10 seconds, so l am using something that comes naturally to a dog.
The more a dog gets rewarded for looking at me, the stronger that behavior becomes. The more they keep themselves engaged with me the easier they become to train as l now have their attention.
At this stage l can also use my voice to encourage them and praise them for their efforts. It's a win, win as dogs love to have our attention, and the more their attention is on me😀 the less they are scanning the environment which would cause them to be distracted.
So, some of you might be thinking that this means you have to always have treats on you to get the dogs to do anything. The way l get past this is when in the beginning the dog gives me any kind of behavior that l would like to encourage them to do more l pair that behavior with the word YES, whenever l say yes l pair it up with the treat.
What happens over enough repeats is that the word YES becomes the replacement reward for the dog. You could practice saying YES followed by Good Girl, for your dog that loves getting attention from you that reward word yes would be as good as getting a treat from you.
l do use treats in the beginning stages of training so that l can lure my dogs into the position l need from them, maybe a down or sit.
With a down, the moment their legs stretch out and their tummy rests on the floor l say Yes and release a treat to them, when they hear the word yes they associate it that whatever they did at that precise moment (tummy on the floor) got them that reward.
They will then start repeating that behavior in the hope of getting a reward and attention from you.
As this behavior becomes more consistent, as they go down say the word DOWN followed by the word YES and a treat.
Of course this is just a short-written explanation of how treat training works and I generally find that a video explains it more clearly so l will try and do one his week ad post it on this page, then if you have read this it should be easier to understand.
Plus I can add a few more things in about why it might not work for you if your dog is over threshold and will not take the treats.
For anyone that follows the you tube videos that l do and constantly see my feeding the dogs l have in for training with food, it is because l apply the learn to earn, or no such thing as a free dinner principle, so it looks like l am relying entirely on the food to get the dogs to do anything.
I do admit that l may use it to much sometimes, but l would rather over reward compared to under rewarding and so far for me this method has always worked for me. I never have to use the word NO but l do constantly use the word YES.
The dogs learn to love the word yes, it becomes their reward.
Not sure why this is not showing the link to watch this , but if you go to my you tube channel which is caroline bird dog training and type in the heading bar movement games week 15 the video should show up to be watched.

09/13/2024

A reminder that l still have the agility course set up at my kennels near to st martins. With this good weather this weekend it could be awesome opportunity to come and have some private fun time with your dogs before l take the course down.
located at 721 Big Salmon River Road,
cost to hire for a hour would be $25.00 plus hst.
Set up in a safe secure fenced in area.
Contact me via the abc dog training page messenger or email at [email protected] to set up a time

09/12/2024

Our next new pre-agility class starts on Monday evening the 16th September 2024.
This is a set of 8 classes, not on the equipment fir this set of classes as this is more handling skills, a little bit of obedience skills, body awareness for dogs, toy play, crate training and so much more. Following this class would be introduction to the equipment class.
to register go to the website www.abcdogtraining.org
Cost is 140.00 plus hst
Held at 1250 latimore Lake road. Saint John, indoors in an air-conditioned room with cushion flooring to protect dogs joints.

08/10/2024

The AGILITY FUN EVENT ON SATURDAY 10TH AUGUST IS POSTPONED UNTIL SATURDAY 17TH AUGUST.
Same time, same place, but hopefully with lots of sunshine.

08/10/2024

Due to heavy rain we will make a decision by 11am about the agility fun event. Do check in.

07/30/2024

07/16/2024

Our annual AGILITY FUN AFTERNOON will be held on Saturday 10th August. Starting at 1.30pm
Open to any dogs with or without agility experience.
This event is held in a safe secure fenced in area at the property of Saint Martins dog kennels which is located at 721 Big Salmon River Road. Bay View, Near to Saint Martins
It will be fully supervised throughout the afternoon.
An agility course will be set up, dogs have 2 times to complete the course. The first time will be supervised as we want to ensure that all dogs attending use the equipment safely.
If you are an experienced agility handler then you are free to complete the course in your own time.
The cost to come into the area for your turn on the equipment is just $10.00 per dog. All proceeds collected will go towards buying equipment for the agility classes that are held in a separate training building in Saint John.
We are hoping to set up a second area that will be fenced in with snow fencing where there will be a jumper's course. This will be unsupervised but jump heights will be monitored as we do not want dogs jumping higher than the recommended heights in a regular agility competition.
You can pre-register for this event, or you can arrive and pay on the day.
We love to see friends and family coming to watch. The ring area is next to shaded tree area so bring along your own chairs so you can easily watch other people in the agility course area.
If we need to cancel because of rain, the event will be held the following Saturday.
If you want to get some practice in the Saturday before the 10th of August, then l will be holding an introduction to the equipment session at my building in Saint John. This would be a private half hour session. Cost for this private would be $30.00 hst included.

Any questions or registration can be sent to my email address at [email protected] or private message me through the page abc dog training caroline bird cpdt-ka

I will be sending put more information in the coming weeks so do keep checking in on the face book page

06/28/2024

06/18/2024

SAVE THE DATE.... Our annual agility fun afternoon will be held on SATURDAY 10TH AUGUST 2024.
This event is held every year at the st martins dog boarding kennels in a safe fenced in grass area.
Open to any dogs with or without dog agility experience.
More details for the day will follow this post as we work on our special addition for this years event . Keep checking in for more details.
If anyone is interested in doing any agility classes or events we do have a notification list , just message me your email address and you will be added to the list.