Obedience Road closes tonight at midnight!
This is your chance to join a community of dedicated trainers, grow your skills, and receive personal feedback and trial support—all while working toward your goals.
It’s my heart’s desire to help you succeed. If you’re ready to take the next step in your training journey, I’d love for you to join us on Obedience Road!
Don’t wait, enrollment closes tonight at midnight!
www.obedienceroad.com/membership
Scent Articles: What is Your Dog Really Looking For?
👉 And....Upcoming Webinar!!
When performing Scent Articles, your dog should locate the article with your scent. But in a shared home, your scent is everywhere—making it hard for your dog to understand that your odor is the target in this exercise.
To help your dog succeed, clean and handle the articles carefully so they don’t all carry your residual scent.
If you don’t have a cleaning protocol, articles in the pile with residual odor force the dog to look for the most odor, not the handler's odor. This can cause problems because it requires the dog to check every article several times before he can confidently make a decision.
🎥 Watch our video for scenarios that help your dog focus on your odor—not the most heavily scented article.
🗓️ Join us Monday, January 27, for a live webinar exclusively for Obedience Road members! Pat Nolan and I will cover:
✅ Identifying target odors
✅ Teaching dogs to ignore distracting odors
✅ Our favorite method for introducing scent work
Not a member yet? Join Obedience Road today and join us live! 🎉
Q&A with Connie Cleveland: Proofing
During this session, I’ll discuss how to use proofing to increase your dog’s understanding of the exercises and improve their qualifying rate in competition.
Have a specific exercise or recurring mistake you’re struggling with? Message me your question, and I’ll address it during the Live.
Matches are valuable, but often scarce - let’s make the most of every opportunity! In today’s video, I discuss strategies to use match time effectively, whether you’re prepping for a show or tackling an issue that only seems to happen in the ring.
Here’s a quick preview:
If Your Match is the Night Before a Show: Focus on building confidence rather than testing. Avoid the “will he do it?” mindset; simplify exercises and reinforce your dog’s skills to ensure you both go into tomorrow’s show feeling prepared.
If You Are Addressing Problems That Only Happen In the Ring: For challenges that only appear in trial settings, use the match to mimic a show environment. Note minor errors but let them go until you reach the specific exercise that needs attention. This way, you create an environment where the problem will most likely occur, allowing you to address it in the ring.
With a little planning, each match can be a powerful training tool!
The "Stand for Exam" might seem like one of the simpler exercises, but as many handlers know, it can present some unique challenges! Two common issues I often hear about are: “My dog doesn’t like being touched!” or the complete opposite, “My dog is too friendly and can’t resist moving when the judge approaches.”
If either of these sounds familiar, I’ve got some tips in today’s video that will help. The key is using your Reward Marker at the right moment to show your dog that standing still and maintaining focus during the exam can lead to big rewards. This strategy helps build a calm, confident stand that feels rewarding for your dog.
Training Question Q&A Session!
Have a training question? Message me on FB and let's chat about it!
See you on Thursday!
Live Q&A
I received several questions related to my free training series, Improving Your Performance.
Join me as I discuss how to cause an error in training so you can ultimately increase your dog's understanding of an exercise and feel confident that certain errors will not happen again in the ring.
Are You Using Your Reward Marker To Your Advantage?
One of the biggest challenges we face in this sport, is the 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬.
Some dogs like to jump, some like to retrieve, but there is much about obedience that is not instinctively fun for a dog to do such as heeling, position changes, pivots, or retrieving without bobbling or mouthing the dumbbell.
When you learn to effectively use a Reward Marker to connect the reward with an obedience skill, the behavior will become enjoyable.
But here’s a problem! Many of us think we are using a Reward Marker, but simple, silly mistakes are preventing us from getting those results.
⬇️
Are you using your reward marker to your best advantage?
Check out today's video to be sure!
Competing in Multiple Venues
If you enjoy training your dog, it comes as no surprise that you are participating in multiple venues. Add the complexity of multiple dogs to multiple venues, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed as you juggle your time and energy to pursue all your goals!
This week, I’m sharing a segment of a webinar that I gave to Obedience Road members titled, "Simple Strategies for Competing in Multiple Venues".
I hope you find it helpful.
𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫? 𝐁𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜!
Competing in obedience for a weekend implied two trials, one Saturday and one Sunday. Each trial had 6 classes: Novice A & B, Open A & B and Utility A & B.
Now we’re faced with far more choices. Many clubs have more than one trial in a day, as well as Optional Titling Classes, Preferred Classes and even Wildcard Classes. Additionally, there is often a Rally Trial going on simultaneously!
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the number of choices available? What day will you enter? Which Trial? How many classes.
This week I’m sharing a segment of a webinar that I gave to Obedience Road members titled, Strategy: What Class Should You Enter? I hope you find it helpful.
When my dog has a disappointing performance on Saturday, I am almost always willing to try again on Sunday. However, I absolutely train between the shows, addressing both the exercise(s) that my dog failed, as well as the exercise(s) where his performance was weak.
The Fix ‘n Go is an incredible tool to fix errors, but it only indicates that my dog can perform correctly on the second attempt. It’s worth it to me to do some training before the next day.
Watch this video for some tips to help you “Fix it Overnight!”
- Connie
Ps. Often, you have the choice of entering more than one show in the same day. Keep an eye out for my next message discussing the pros and cons of entering multiple classes and multiple shows…
Another Training Q&A with Connie!
I had a great time during my first Facebook LIVE, so let's do it again!
I received several more training questions. I'll answer those here on Tuesday, 1/23 at 6pm EST!
See you there!
A complete online resource for obedience competitors. 
