Teaching In South Africa - Update 6

Teaching in South Africa

Final Update

Tuesday 17th January
Today was our first training/ workshops in Joburg. The first workshop was in 3 different sections Lee had Agility Foundation and Handling Skills as they could fit together well and I had weave training for young/beginner dogs. It was a good session , it was the total foundations of weave training and my method. Lots of FUN, playing and REWARDING.
I then had a Building confidence and drive group where is spoke about how in the beginning we can set our dogs up to be confident, and exercises is how I build and reward drive and confidence, and how important the handling and reward consistency is.

For tea we went to a south Africa restaurant which was basically like a buffet. The waiters brought different meats around and you said ‘Yes or no’ There were loads of meats. I loads of things a try. At least it wasn’t Sushi! Lee didn’t feel very well but it was still a very good evening.


Wednesday 18th January
We went to Maropeng Museum and Sterkfontein Caves in the morning. The Museum was all about the story of mankind.

The whole tour had loads of different exhibits which most were interactive so was much more fun :-p

Lee still couldnt help himself, with his need to touch things!

There was also an underground boat ride which we managed to do twice and have a ice/snow fight the second time around ..

He he he The Caves showed us the formations and geology, early life forms, mammals and hominid fossils. There was also the important finds such as ‘Mrs Ples’’the ‘Taung child’ and ‘Little foot.’

http://www.maropeng.co.za/

Then we went to the venue to teach

My first class today was Building Confidence , this was a totally different group of people from the day before and again I spoke about ways in which we can build confidence with something the dog already loves. I gave a few examples. - For the students that were in the class and want to see how I used a target to gain confidence with ‘Evie’ The link/Video should be below.

I then had Handling Skills for A3 dogs we worked on some exercises. Concentrating on the importance of consistent handling, positioning and what skills at this stage the dog should be able to do, what the handler should be able to do and what the dog actually knows.
My last class was weave training. The dogs in this session could weave. We spoke and trained my entry method and the importance of this. We then worked on independence within the weaves and how we can maintain this and how I get the dogs to focus forward, instead of checking back, slowing down or pulling out when we try to distance ourselves to position better.

After finishing we came back and had a BBQ or should I say ‘Braai’ with a MASSIVE steak.
 
 
Thursday 19th January

We went to a South African crafts fair in the morning where where both Lee and myself purchased some gifts and bartered. Lee however nearly made us late for training as we couldn’t get him out of the shops. He is turning into more of a woman every day!
My first to lessons were One2ones.One was working of different turns and where I feel the turns need to be qued. And building confidence with her second dog to want to work away.

My second One2one was a fantastic one2one we sat under the tree and spoke.. Spoke about ways in which I train contacts - getting the dog to learn instead of having to pick up and position all of the time. Waits - To make them more fun. Also commands such as GO, COME, LEFT and RIGHT. How to build confidence around the ring in different places.

I then had a weave proofing workshop. Within this workshop we worked on independence and entries at speed. Also training entries to reward them. Again really enjoyed all the sessions again today.

Both Lee and myself received another 2 presents, this time is was a dog bowl which was great as I need another one for the car! :-P Thanks!

Lee then had a judging seminar so we got Pizza in :-D


Friday 20th January
Today was our last day of teaching.. We had One2ones first. My first one was working on turns, teaching, training and quing. The second one2one was with about puppy/foundation training (groundwork not on agility equipment)we spoke about drive and motivation training and behaviours/tricks that can be taught now to help them when going out onto equipment later on in their life. My final session was a contact group. The first time I had had a ‘contacts’ session in joburg. It was more of how we can make the 2on2off position as rewarding and run as possible. Getting the dog to understand the position and find it rewarding to be there, and how I would initially go about teaching a contact.

We then had a BRIIA again with everyone who trained with us in Joburg, it was again fantastic! Great Great food, ive never seen steak so big, followed by a few drinks before heading off home.
Thoroughly enjoyed teaching in both Cape town and Joburg, Great people and great dogs.
Saturday 21st January
Today was our first day off in Joburg. We went to see the Cheaters at a different sanctuary and watch them run.

We also was lucky enough to stroke one again.

We then went on a trip trough the sanctuary and was saw lots of different animals like the wild cat, wild dogs, hyenas and wild cheaters along with game that was in the sanctuary too.

After we went to see the elephants. Again it was a sanctuary that had rescued the elephants from a very cruel life. We fed them and then listed to the guide telling us why and elephant never forgets. Then we went to meet the elephants and feel then. They defiantly didn’t feel like id of expected. We were then lucky enough to get to ride on them. It was absolutely fantastic. Something like is so mumerable, no better place to do it then in South Africa.

How cute is this picture!

That brings me to the End of my Teaching and time over in South Africa, as you can see from all of the previous posts and this last post I really enjoyed it. Truely lovley place.

 Lucy Osborne
http://www.agilitybuds.com/

Teaching In South Africa - Update 5

Firstly apologies for the length of time this has taken for me to get out. My laptop decided that it was going to die in Joburg and wouldn’t let me retrieve any documents or pictures , annoyingly! But here we are the final few updates from my time out teaching in South Africa. Enjoy x

Teaching in South Africa

Update 5 

Sunday 15 th January
Zip Lining Day. We got up and were out the house for 8 to start the 1h45 journey there. After some deliberation on the route we still managed to get there on time. We all got into our harnesses and strapped up. Cant say were the most attractive things in the world but at least the harness was well padded.
There were 14 of us in our group 12 doggy people and 2 were Kaths friends that we met a few nights before.
We set of, we needed to go by bus to the start location. We were told all the boring safety stuff and then told that we were in control of the break … Ohhh Dammm! The also told us that they would give us a signal when to break so we didn’t come in to fast. Although this ‘Break’ signal managed to change for the first 3 lines and I managed to get told off. Unfortunately he was telling me off whilst speaking Africans. So once he had finished I kindly said that made no sense, I speak English. He managed to do the whole safety breefing in English so the slightly confused look on his face at my response after the first Zip line was weird. So then it was guess work. But the guess work on when to break was fun and after the 3rd Zip I had nearly got my timing off to a T.
The Lines were reasonably high up and we were Zip lining past rocks that were sticking out of the clif and over rocks and spring pools the view up their was great and it was really hot up there to. Both Lee and myself really enjoyed the experience. It was really fun! :-D

Monday 16th January
We were leaving today Cape Town for Johannasburg.


Our flight was at 12.30. We landed at 2 and then after finally aftrer we managed to retrieving Lees bags we went to meet Jason. We went straight to the shops to get some drinks, then went to Jasons house to see our rooms and unpack. We both got freshened up and then went out for something to eat at the nearby shopping mall. Everyone had a steak which was massive and then mine came out. I had ordered the smallest ribs, however the smallest ribs were the size of an XL ribs in the UK. Shocking but very very good, and i managed to demolish all of the ribs but i was very very stuffed.


Lucy Osborne
http://www.agilitybuds.com/