The Habit You Need for Goal Getting
Synergy Dog Sports Blog
by Megan Foster
1y ago
It's a new year, so everyone is talking about goal setting. I'm not into “new year new you” type goals. I'm constantly working on a new version of myself, so I don't contain these transformations to the beginning of the year only On December 30th, I was a part of a fantastic panel discussion and Q&A with Petra Ford & Sharon Carrol. You can listen that here. And, as a follow up to that, I hosted a live inside of my SDS Community to continue the conversation about goal setting and goal getting. The recording is available to members, and being a member only costs $5/month! You can sign u ..read more
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Drive & Motivation in Agility Dogs
Synergy Dog Sports Blog
by Megan Foster
1y ago
  These two terms get tossed around a lot in the dog sport world, and sometimes they're used interchangeably. So, let's unpack them! First, some definitions: drive: an innate, biologically determined urge to attain a goal or satisfy a need. Unpacking that further: urge: a strong desire or impulse. & motivation: the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way or the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. So, it's clear. These two things are NOT the same. It's maybe impossible to split apart what is drive and what is motivation when we are loo ..read more
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Relaxed AND Ready: Goals for my Agility Dog
Synergy Dog Sports Blog
by Megan Foster
1y ago
I recently re-posted a story about my puppy, Sprint, and her inability to be within 100 feet of a basketball court because the movement and sound of the game caused an over-reaction of staring, getting stuck, and vocalizing. This state, where she can't hear or respond to cues or even eat a piece of food is not compatible with being able to perform precise tasks at a high state of arousal, let alone take a nice walk through a park! One year later, here we are at our weekly obedience class, at a local park. Not only can she work within 25 feet of a basketball court, she can walk past it and ont ..read more
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Essential Skills vs Foundation Skills: What are they and why do they matter?
Synergy Dog Sports Blog
by Megan Foster
1y ago
In my coaching program, Fostering Excellence in Agility, content is broken down into bite sized pieces so that planning your training becomes less overwhelming, and those bite sized pieces are categorized in a way that is easy to navigate. Essential Skills and Foundation Skills are two of those categories, and they are the most critical. Essential skills are the tools I'll use to make learning efficient and effective with my dog. These skills also give me the ability to test new environments without asking for my all too precious foundations and other sport behaviors. Essential skills are also ..read more
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Timing in Agility
Synergy Dog Sports Blog
by Megan Foster
1y ago
The secret to staying ahead is good timing I think of timing as a loop. Good timing is all about predicting behavior, and I do think this gets lost in agility. We are so often waiting to see something specific, but if we wait until we see it, we will be too late in our response. We have to understand our cues and our dog's responses to them well enough that you can predict when they will land and how they will land based on the cues that have been given. This is the same predictive behavior that we require in good training, like Hannah talks about in her podcast: www.hannahbranigan.dog/podcas ..read more
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Before You Start: Foundation Behaviors for Weave Pole Training
Synergy Dog Sports Blog
by Megan Foster
1y ago
Let's talk about all the different skills that make weave pole training MUCH easier: Reinforcer Skills Having clear cues for how and where the reward will be delivered helps the dog mentally let go of where the reward is before they start, making it easier for them to weave under reinforcement distractions. Reinforcement strategies that I use in weave pole training include: Click + Deliver My “click” is my freebie marker. I can use it to deliver in ANY way, but I will maintain that way for the entire training session. For starting weave training, it's click –> deliver to pre-placed bowl. P ..read more
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Is Frustration a Good Motivator?
Synergy Dog Sports Blog
by Megan Foster
1y ago
First, some definitions: frustration: 1. the feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of inability to change or achieve something. 2. the prevention of the progress, success, or fulfillment of something. If I asked you if you used frustration to motivate your dog, what would you say? Take a look at these videos. They are the same training session but with two different dogs (breeds/ages/temperaments): Here is Gletta first: I am using frustration (extinction) to build a duration nose target. Watch her body language when a single nose touch to my hand doesn't work. She wags he ..read more
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What Jump Height Should My Dog Be Jumping?
Synergy Dog Sports Blog
by Megan Foster
1y ago
Oh man, what a can of worms I'm opening! This comes from a patron question: Let’s talk about jump heights. My pup has 3 different jump heights in 3 different organizations. I have had some people say always practice at the highest. Others tell me to change in practice depending on what trial is coming up next. Yet others tell me I should drop my pup down to preferred so she always jumps lower. Someone even went as far as telling me to find a judge who will work with me to get a new lower measurement. My little girl doesn’t knock bars and doesn’t appear to struggle at all at the highest one ..read more
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