by Steve Barry

We are using this space as a means to answer your questions from a recent webinar we hosted on the 10 Ways Fast Companies Accelerate Strategy Execution.  
Here is part 3 of our answers to your questions. 
Please click here  for a recording of the webinar

Question: How do you measure alignment?

 This is a tough question to answer without knowing the context.  Alignment can be measured in lots of different ways, on macro or micro scales, depending on what you are looking at.  If you are talking about organizational alignment, it can be measured with organizational assessments.  Regardless of the content or focus of the assessment, alignment can be determined by the extent to which groups answer in the same way.  In other words, ask this question:  Are there statistical differences between groups in terms of items deemed important to the organization?

Question: Is there any reason you focused on financial and professional services organizations?

 EIU sent surveys out to its database of senior leaders, many of whom happen to work in financial and professional services.  This is beneficial for us in that several of our client organizations are in these verticals.  

Quesion: What could be the impact on the Learning & Development strategy/offering?  How should we develop leaders differently to “think and act faster” (according to clarity/unity/agility)?

 Well, for starters, there are four main leadership abilities we’ve discovered—and specific behaviors and tactics associated with each one.  This blog space is not sufficient for doing them justice.  But here is a high level overview of the four abilities: 

1) Affirm strategies.  This is the first step to take to drive speed, because people need to know where they’re going and need to be motivated to go there.  An affirmed strategy is not only correct, it’s also alive—that is, complete, clear, well communicated, and well understood by all stakeholders.

 2) Drive Initiatives.  This ability involves follow-through.  Our research shows that, after affirming the strategy, leaders cannot simply “sponsor” the initiative.  Many of the skills that support this leadership ability are project-management skills:  unfamiliar territory for many senior leaders, but territory that they need to master.

 3) Manage the Climate.  Climate is what it feels like to work in a place.  Managing climate is a matter of understanding its dimensions and the leadership tactics whose use improves it.  If you can change your organization’s climate in positive ways, you will also improve your employees’ motivation and increase speed of execution.

 4) Cultivate Experience.  Like solar, wind, and water power, experience is everywhere—and it’s rarely captured and put to good use.  Many leaders don’t know how to cultivate the experience of their employees and colleagues—how to capture it, make it visible, refine it, and harness it so that it becomes a powerful driver of results.

 For a recording of the North America and Europe Webinar, click here

un beau parcours de Mylène et Cartouche :

et nous on débute :

The weekend of October 16th,17th, & 18th, we attended the 27th Annual Jack Russell Terrier National Trial. The trial was held by the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America. http://www.jrtca.com/ at the Steppingstone Museum – Susquehanna State Park, Harve de Grace Maryland. http://www.steppingstonemuseum.org/  It was my first time attending the show. I wasn’t sure what to expect. It didn’t help that it poured and rained the whole weekend. I of course entered the agility competition and also signed up for several other events. I wanted to see what else JoJo would enjoy doing.
The way they run there agility was a little different then I was used to, but we did pretty good. On Saturday we took 3rd place in Agility II, on Sunday we took 6th Place in Agility III.
Here is JoJo and her 3rd place ribbon.
 Agility III was a little different then I was used to there was a section of the course where we had to do a Gamblers. Send the dog away from us to the obstacles. JoJo wasn’t used to being sent away from me to do the obstacles, but she didn’t do too bad.
unfortunately, it rained so bad on Saturday, we didn’t get any videos. Here is our Sunday Agility III run. You will see towards the end where we are in the gamblers and  I’m having trouble getting JoJo over the fair jump. She got it eventually, but it took a little work.

Now we also entered Jumpers, unfortunately they only had a 12″ht class, we normally enter an 8″ class. She tried, but you will see that she went around some jumps and that’s because the were higher than she was used to.

Besides agility, we entered a few other events. We entered the “go to the ground” she didn’t do very well with that, it was her first time.

We also entered a barn hunt. It was the first time we did that too. Here are the videos from that. You will see in the beginning of the first one they let her look at the tube with the rat in it. We told her it was a squirrel, since I’m sure she new that instead of a rat. Then she had to find it. On the first run, it was like a walk in the park. The second time she moved a little bit faster, like she new what she was doing. When she found the tube when tried to get to the rat. Much better result.

We also entered Lure Coursing, WELL, THAT IS THE STUFF. She loved it so much, it was all she wanted to do. It was too funny.  There was 3 different types of Lure coursing. One with obstacles, a large course and a challenge course. I heard sounds come out of her mouth that I never thought I’d hear. Have fun watching.

Lure Course with Obstacles

Large Lure Course

Challenge Course

Since we went to the Nationals, I’ve been trying to find other places for JoJo to do Lure Coursing. I went to one fun event. I met my friend there and JoJo ran against her do.
I gave the camera to video JoJo and Tara’s run. You loose Jo for a few minutes becauase Tara is a  little bit faster.

Hey…I remember the days. I’ve trained your dog it seems forever and you just want to get out there and see how it goes.

Quite frankly it all depends on you and your dog.

Trialling too early can scare off some dogs, trialling too late can make training seem ho-hum to some. Is there a perfect time? I don’t know, but it’s a matter of knowing yourself and knowing your dog. Talking with people who know the two of you just might help.

Here are some guidelines: NOTE, these are not all from me, most comes a person named Robin.

1. What are your goals for your dog? Do you have any? If you don’t,
you should.

The best goals are are performance oriented. Good goals are “I want nice fast sits on the table.” “I want a happy dog in the ring.” “I want my dog to do 2-on 2-off.” Adapt your goals to your dog. You should make short-term goals (this weekend, I want a good start-line stay), and long term goals (I want to be able to do 3 jump lead-outs). Your short term goals should never be discarded if they will adversely affect your long term goals. So letting the dog break the start-line “because he might Q anyway” is a bad decision.

2. What are your goals for yourself? Do you have any? If you don’t,
you should.

Again, not title oriented. “I want walk a course smartly and run like I walk.” “I want to be a team with my dog.”

Once you have set your goals, think about ways to accomplish them. And where you are on the journey to accomplish your goals will also help you know when you’re ready to trial. But here are a few more tips, some concrete things.

1. Is your dog crate trained? He’ll need a nice, comfy, quiet place
to hang out at the trial. Keeping him out all the time will exhaust both
of you. Doesn’t need to be a crate, can be safely stowed in your car, can be tied to a tree while you both take a break from the busyness of life, can be lying quiet under your chair, etc. My dog stresses in a crate so I work around it all.

2. Is your dog used to riding in the car? if not, you may wish to work on this as many trials need to be driven too.

3. Has your dog been exposed to the shows before entering? It’s a
really good idea to take your dog to some shows before you actually
enter so you can get him used to the noise and smells. Check all the rules first, some trials don’t allow unentered dogs on the grounds.

4. Do you understand all the basics of the sport and feel confident
of the rules? One of you needs to know what they’re doing out there, and you’re the only one that can read the course maps. That makes you team captain. You don’t want to spend all your time fumbling around the course, you want to know what you’re doing and convey that to the dog.

5. Does your dog understand all the equipment, and is he relaxed
and confident in his execution? If your dog is tentative on the teeter
or can’t do weaves at home, it’s going to be worse at a trial. It’s
ALWAYS worse at the trial. It’s never better, so think about that before
entering.

6. Can your dog work on both sides, does he know how to switch sides,
and can he read your crosses? If not, he’s not ready to trial and
neither are you. Even novice mandates side switches! NOTE: I have seen some owners do some creative things that have resulted in clean runs. so it all depends on just how creative you want to be.

7. Have you practiced in more than one area? Yes, I know there are
stories of how some dogs do fine at a trial after only having been
trained at home-but those are the exceptions not the rule! Remember that if your goal is for your dog to be relaxed and have fun, then your job is to help him figure out that agility is something he can do (and have fun doing) anywhere.

8. Do you feel confident about entering? If you aren’t confident,
don’t enter. I don’t mean confident you can get all clean runs, but
confident that you and your dog can have a GOOD TIME.

8. Finally, do you have a positive attitude? Are you prepared to
laugh at mistakes, not cry? Can you put agility into the right
perspective–that it’s a fun game we play with our dogs? Can you be
absolutely, positively sure that when things go wrong out there and
everyone is watching, you will NOT get upset, and you will NOT start
blaming your dog? If you’re not sure, please do not enter. Though I have to admit, at times it is your dogs fault….and all you can do is laugh about it.

If you can answer yes to these questions you are ready to enter an
agility trial. Remember there’s no huge rush to title. This is a game
you play with your dog, and having fun at the trial is an end goal, no
matter what your score ends up as.

Agility Dog Dictionary

A-frame — a long slinky-like pipe that is fun to run through.

AKC — an agility organization that also has beauty contests, though
no one knows why.

Chute — what your human says when you take the “long slinky-like
pipe that is fun to run through” once too often.

COME! — go immediately to your human as soon as you’re finished with
the next three obstacles.

Contact — what your human says to get you to start your engine and
take to the skies.

Damnit — a dog title similar to Dr. for humans, or MACH for some
dogs: e.g., Dr. Smith, MACH Fifi, and Damnit Rex.

Quiet! — means you should cheer on the dog running the course. In
the spirit of good sportsmanship, cheer louder for those dogs you
don’t particularly like, but cheer loudest of all for the dogs that
live with you.

STAY! — an agility command that means wait until your human turns
her back on you, and then quickly take the first few obstacles while
she tries to catch up.

Table — one of the few shady spots on the course.

Teeter — a long slinky-like pipe that is fun to run through.

Touch — what your human says to get you to jump over the yellow zone
on contact obstacles.

Triple — a long slinky-like pipe that is fun to run through.

Tunnel — a long slinky-like pipe that you run through anytime you
don’t know which obstacle your human wants you to take. Can also be
taken because you prefer it to the obstacle your human wants you to
take.

USDAA — a government organization that employs people with really
good noses. Their job is to decide if meat should be eaten or rolled
in.

Sobotę spędziliśmy bardzo pracowicie- na treningu w naszej szkole Fire i Dancer naskakali się za wszystkie czasy, powoli Dancer zaczyna skakać zerówkowe tory, Fajerkowi podnieśliśmy jeszcze poprzeczkę, niech się stara

Oprócz naszej całej grupy, był oczywiście też Diselek- idzie mu naprawdę świetnie, jest skupionym, bardzo chętnym do pracy psiakiem- jesteśmy z niego ogromnie dumni!

Sabine Mac Nelly

.pdf: jumping large, jumping, agility

Más pistas

Nalle Jansson
Suecia

Agility: 1, 2
jumping: 1, 2

Nalle Jansson

Meillä on menty koko loppuviikko sairastelun merkeissä. Koirat olivat pari päivää täysin muutaman kusetuskiekan varassa, kun itse olin melkeinpä täysin poissa pelistä kuumeilun vuoksi ja J teki vuorokauden ympäri töitä. Hyvin kuitenkin meni nekin pari päivää, vaikka koirat olivat luonani. Olivat todella rauhassa ja vuorotellen nukkuivat vieressäni eivätkä olleet koko ajan kommentoimassa rappukäytävänkään tapahtumia.

Tänään olo on ollut vielä pahempi itsellä kuin aiempina päivinä – jos mahdollista, mutta kun kuumetta ei enää ollut, niin mentiin Pessin kanssa agiin. Kyllä nyt täytyy sanoa, että se mitä on etsitty tokossa vuoden ajan, löytyi todella helposti agissa. Pessi rauhoittuu todella hyvin silloin, kun ei ole itse suoritusvuorossa. Tänään tosin vähän paineistui, kun toista koiraa käskettiin hiljaiseksi vesipullon avulla. Muutenkin Pessi selvästi pyrkii ignooraamaan muut koirat, koska suurin osa niistä on uroksia maxi-medi-ryhmässämme. Kaupungilta kantautuneet rakettien paukkeetkaan eivät haitanneet Pessin suorittamista.

Lisäksi Pessin keskittymiskyky on aivan mahtava siinä välissä, kun pääsee suoritusvuoroon. Pessi sulkee ympäristön täysin pois mielestään ja keskittyy vain suoritettavaan esteeseen ja kuuntelee ihan mielettömän hienosti käskyjä ja ottaa niitä vastaan. Jos tällaista olisi ollut ikinä tokossa, meillä ei olisi mitään ongelmia sillä saralla. Ja se Pessin into, millä se tekee agia, on aivan mieletön, ja tottakai parasta, mitä Pessiltä voi agiin suhtautumisessa odottaa.

Tänään tehtiin aluksi A:ta neljä kertaa. Pessi ottaa käskyt todella hyvin vastaan eikä sillä ole ollut mitään ongelmia A:lla vielä kertaakaan. Seuraavaksi vedettiin putki läpi kuudesti, ensin niin, että kutsuin kahdesti putken toisesta päästä ja sitten niin, että ohjaaja oli palkkaamassa Pessin putken päässä, mutta itse jätin sen odottamaan vuoroaan putken toiseen päähän ja siitä sitten käskyllä putkeen. Hienosti Pessi hakeutui aina putkeen eikä edes yrittänyt kiertää sitä.

Tämän jälkeen vaihdettiin toiseen päähän hallia ja tehtiin keppejä. Lähinnä tässä oli ongelmana vain oma sijoittuminen ja palkkaus, muuten Pessi teki aivan loistavasti. Tällä kertaa tehtiin vain yhtä väliä. Ja lopuksi otettiin rengasta yksinkertaistetulla renkaalla niin, että Pessiä vain kutsuttiin toiselta puolelta ja palkattiin sitten suorituksen jälkeen. No problem.

Aivan mahtavaa.

I have fallen behind in my opinion and am trying to catch up; I got 83 Mining and am working on 84 with about 200k left. I am going to try to get 84 this evening and 85 tomorrow before noon. Hopefully I can get it on a runite rock if I can stand finding one that is free.

Along with getting 83 Mining I gathered resorces from my subjects and got 2 ranarr seeds. I save everything except the flax which I sell to make my money back. Things are pileing up I have 80k Maples and 32 ranarr seeds 9 snapdragons and birds eggs are in the 30’s! This circus this week was south of the Mining Guild, I got 20k Magic (failed the level 80 alch and I am 88 Magic!), 13k Range with 18k left until 74 and 9k Agility which made a little dent on the way to 87. Penguins took longer than last week and made a little dent in my exp to 75 Summoning (it would be 96+10 Combat) I have about 70k left.

JaGeX has relesed a bunch of dumb updates so I hope they make up and do somehting cool for Thanksgiving this Thursday.

Läste precis i Annas blogg att Nalle Jansson ska dömma nästa års VM i Tyskland. Vem är den inhemska domaren, någon som vet?

Author: Brandon Richey
Source: ezinearticles.com

So do you even, drills
, know what a ladder is? No, I don’t mean the one you lean up against the house to do home repairs. The ladder I am referring to is the one that strength coaches like myself, drills
, use for athletic performance. The ladder looks just like a ladder in its design except it is made up of plastic and a thread-like material. It is made of this material so you can lay it flush on the ground in order to perform footwork, drills
, exercises, drills
, .

The cool thing about doing these type of exercises is that you can, drills
, do them pretty much anywhere you have a little flat open space. Your front or back yard, a park, and the local high school football field all serve as great locations to implement the use of these type of drills, drills
, . You can improve on your footwork and hand and eye coordination by doing high-knee runs, shuffles, and bounding drills through the rungs of the ladder. All of these drills, drills
, should be executed, drills
, with good running mechanics, drills
, and form. They should also be done in an intense fashion to get the full benefit. Ladder drills are, drills
, great and you can pretty much, drills
,, drills
, replicate them in a number of ways. If you have a fairly long driveway or court and you don’t want to spend the money to buy a, drills
, ladder then you can simply, drills
,, drills
, create your own with some colored duct tape that you, drills
, find at your local hardware store! If you go this route make sure the ladder at least 5 yards in length, drills
, .

All in all, you will get a quick feel as to what real cardio is like when it comes to this type of training! Improve your performance now, drills
, . Step up your training to get the results you want.

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com
To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at: http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html
I’m Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!

Principles of Simple Agile is a good read. Here are two principles that I really like:

1. Respect
2. Keep it Simple

Here are some snippets from the article. I reformatted the para on Respect and trimmed it a bit.

Posted via email from Dorai’s LinkLog

Hallöle,

muss ja auch mal wieder was von mir hören lassen.

Kuckt mal was ich im Internet gefunden habe:

*klick*

Ich sage nur ein “Hoch” auf meine Dackelkameraden -schließlich bin ich ja auch fast einer-! und natürlich den Mann! Er ist 97 !!! Das ist einfach der Oberhammer in dem Alter noch so etwas hinzukriegen…. Laut meinen Informationen ist der Dackel auch nicht mehr der Jüngste, nämlich sieben Jahre alt In dem Alter hab’ ich erst angefangen damals mit Verena auf den Hundeplatz zu gehen….

servus

euer Möpselfloh

P.S.: Frauchen sagt: Ich soll noch erwähnen, dass die Ergebnislisten von den Fetzigen online sind. Blue hat im Spiel den 8. von über 80 Hunden und von 30 fehlerfreien Läufen gemacht ! Also -auch wenn ich’s mir nur ungern eingestehe- langsam vertritt er mich würdevoll Wobei er sein Publikum nie so gut unterhalten wird wie ich

Igår nåede jeg lige hjem inden det blev mørkt, så jeg skyndte mig at finde springene frem og sætte dem op i parken. Jeg startede hvor jeg sluttede sidst, altså kombinationen | 1,8m || 2,1 m | 2,1m | – woohoo, hvor var Sookie sej  Hun springer så flot og det går bare stærkt!

Jeg sprang lidt frem i øvelserne, og satte denne kombination op \ 6 / 6 \ 6 / – her startede jeg med det vandrette spring og de to spring til højre og gentog disse tre spring tre gange. Så det vandrette spring og de to spring til venstre – også tre gange. Herefter en enkelt tur til højre igen, så en enkelt tur til venstre. Til allersidst de 4 spring lige ud.
Denne øvelse var en udfordring for Sookie og det var tydeligt at se, at nu måtte hun koncentrere sig om at lægge vægten rigtigt og sætte det rigtige ben forrest. Anden og tredje gentagelse gjorde hun rigtigt fint – og den enkelte gentagelse til siderne til sidst var rigtig flot – dog kunne jeg se, at nu var hjernen godt træt!

Normalt lader jeg nogle dage gå imellem jeg træner springteknik eller agility – men vejret var så skønt i dag, så jeg tog ud og trænede lidt felttræning (og nej, jeg har stadig ikke besluttet mig for hvordan feltet på A-brættet skal være.. ). Jeg satte også en nem kombination op, hvor jeg ville træne at skifte bag Sookie ved tunnellen – det gik nu fint

Her til eftermiddag har jeg haft en dejlig træt hund, som har ligget og snorksovet i kurven. Ovenpå denne lange “morfar” må Sookie være helt frisk til hyrdekurset i morgen

Idag skiner solen och det har varit rätt så “varmt”, ca 10 grader. Så jag, Tomas, Akito och Milton begav oss iväg till rastgården som inte ligger så lång ifrån oss. Akito vart överlycklig när han fick springa helt fritt utan koppel, han sprang och lekte massor… och den här gången glömde jag inte kameran hemma!

Dom hade några runda cement tunnlar i rastgården, i olika storlekar. Jag testade med Milton den minsta tunneln för att se om han vågade gå igenom den. Och det gjorde han!!! Jag kan inte säga hur glad jag blev över det, jag hoppade och tjoade glatt och Milton fick massa godis + beröm Trodde ALDRIG att han skulle våga gå igenom tunneln, med tanke på att han är livrädd för agility tunnlarna. Men här var det inga problem alls och han fick göra det några gånger. Så det var dagens stora lyckorus för mig

Titta, jag kan hoppa åt höger…

Och jag kan hoppa åt vänster!

Tjoho vad roligt det är!

Se upp för här kommer jag!

Ser ni hur farlig jag är!?

Lite balansträning på cement tunneln

Ingen agility tunnel, men den får duga

This week I took Hannah and Kestrel to agility.  Both girls are in heat right now.  I brought the girls into the training arena and brought towels to put down in the crates where I would contain them during our lesson, with the intention of wiping down the crates afterwards.  Having bitches in heat has never been a problem where I was doing agility training before, nor has it ever been a problem at any herding venue.  In fact I had both girls at a herding clinic this weekend and all I did was keep them a few feet away from the boys to avoid unwanted puppies.  The boys still had to think and work, and they had no problem doing so (young dogs with virtually no training, I might add).  In herding, the attitude is: “if your dog can’t work around a bitch in heat, that’s a fault in the dog, not the fault of the bitch.”  This is also true for Shutzhund and other working-type sports, and even conformation competitions.

Today I found that this attitude is exactly the opposite in the agility world.  My instructor said bitches in heat are only allowed on the property while wearing diapers, and warned me that they are universally banned at all agility trials.  The reason she insists on diapers at her facility is that she holds trials there and can’t afford to replace equipment spoiled by contact with an in-season bitch’s blood.  Furthermore, bitches in season are forbidden on the property two weeks prior to any trial.

The argument is that intact male dogs often lose their brains around a bitch in heat.  In fact, they lose their brains if a bitch in heat has been near the agility equipment, ever.  In other words, if my dogs were to go over a jump and leave a drop of blood on it, the jump would have to be thrown out because intact males would become incapable of going past the jump without stopping and sniffing and losing their brains.  This – the argument continues – is not fair to the owners of said males, so bitches in season must be diapered, and kept away from any competitions completely.  It was further explained to me that the reason that things are do different at agility trials is that dogs in agility are rarely exposed to bitches in season, and as such don’t learn how to control themselves.

My thoughts on the above is that this is a load of crap.  At the risk of anthropomorphizing the situation, it is more than reminiscent of the argument that women should be covered up because men are not capable of controlling themselves if they see hair or breasts or, heck, an ankle in the Victorian era.

Last fall I competed with Hannah at a sheepdog trial and the male dogs there were all perfectly capable of functioning in her presence, and keeping their mind on sheep despite her scent mark at the post.  I’ve seen an intact stud dog pick sheep up off a bitch in standing heat at a trial and, after a quick glance and sniff in her direction, get back to work with a single holler by his owner who was a couple of hundred feet away.

I would hazard a guess that these agility dogs lose their focus because agility is not something they are driven to do by instinct (unlike herding) and as a result, they are not used to having to control their primary instincts, unlike a trained herding dog.  At the same time, an intact male agility dog with sufficient training should get over this.  The first step in agility training is, after all, impulse control.  Hannah has been in standing heat at an agility class and the intact males were perfectly capable of running a course, although they did sniff and froth a bit while waiting for their turn.  My former instructor (who is now too far away to train with) never thought twice about having my girls in class while in heat.

I think a big part of the problem is that a bitch in season will bring out holes in the training of the owner of the intact male.  If the dog’s training is not solid enough, or if his enthusiasm for the sport is not strong enough, he’ll get distracted.  And since our society is quick to blame the woman for any poor behaviour on the part of a man, the distracting bitch must therefore stay home.

Another potentially contributing factor to this issue is that, in my observation, agility dogs on the whole tend to be a lot less stable than working dogs.  A dog who is capable of working (be it stock work, hunting work, search and rescue, police work etc.) must be capable of considerable self-control.  In fact, many people do agility with their dogs specifically because their dogs are so high strung and reactive.  I have taken a number of my foster dogs to agility classes for exactly this reason.

This is likely for a number of reasons.  Dogs bred for these types of sports (agility, flyball, dock diving etc.) are selected for manic and obsessive-compulsive behaviours, instead of for an ability to think and have self-control in face of strong stimulus.  Also, many agility people get partners from shelters, and many of those dogs have been rejected because of their behavioural issues to begin with.  In other words, it’s a population already tipped in that direction.  This is often made much worse by the stress of the shelter coupled with being surgically altered and heavily vaccinated all at the same time (for my thoughts on this horrifically damaging practice, read this).  Some agility training facilities require yearly vaccinations, and many of them as well, further contributing to the mental problems of these dogs.  As a result, many agility dogs start with much lower thresholds for distractions.  Reactiveness and hyper-sexuality are both behaviours that can result from a demyelination of the central nervous system caused by vaccines, especially the rabies vaccine (here is a list of articles discussing this further).

Nevertheless, I don’t think this is a good reason to ban bitches in heat from competitions.  How about more proofing people?  Is it my dog’s fault if your dog can’t work past a toy or treat that has been dropped on the ground?  Or gets distracted by someone else’s shout or movement or click?  Certainly not.  When a dog who is afraid of men is running, does the judge ask all men to stand back from the side of the arena so as to not distract her or cause her to panic and run out of the ring?  No again.  People who have dogs who break for these reasons all have to work very hard to desensitize their dogs and have them stay focused despite such distractions. My girls will all break for various reasons, and I proof my training against this as much as possible.  We in fact look for such holes and practice, practice, practice. This is a big part of agility training in general.

My instructor told me today that until I could get my dog to hold a 2-on-2-off contact position and continually nose target a piece of plastic on the ground, while I run at top speed, hooping and hollering and tossing toys and treats as I go, she will not be ready to trial. If my dog can hold her position during the above scenario, surely an intact male can learn to hold it when a bitch in heat walks by. So why not train and proof intact males around bitches in season?  Why should my girls have to stay home just because someone else hasn’t trained their dog to keep his mind on the ball instead of her tail end?  It seems to me that sending any bitch in heat home only serves to make this problem worse.  If I had an intact male (which I have had in the past, and will have again in the future), I’d work him around bitches in season intentionally, as another level of distraction.

The icing on the cake is that if you have to keep your in seaons bitch home from a trial you have already paid for, you can only get your money back if you get a certificate from the vet to prove that she is in heat.  This requires having a good relationship with a vet so that you don’t get charged for an office visit to get the certificate. When I heard this, it was enough to make me reconsider ever trialing in this sport.  How unbelievably ridiculous.