"Scent"sational Teamwork with Jill Marie O'Brien Building a solid relationship and clear two-way communication with our canine partner is a key element in developing a successful search team. One of the challenges in building our teamwork lies in creating a training program tailored to our individual dogs and adjusting the program as our dogs evolve. Training and handling is fluid, not a one size fits all proposition. The focus of this workshop will be on building an independent relationship with your dog or dogs. Training and handling strategies, and being flexible to adapt to your dog’s needs, can mean the difference between frustration and success. Working within your dog’s personal learning style, physical and emotional needs, and the external factors that impact performance are essential to building the trust and bond for creating a satisfying partnership. Understanding the unique nuances of your dog instead of trying to perform like another dog can facilitate a solid relationship and enhance team performance. This intimate day-long session will focus on deepening the understanding and connection with your dog. Instruction will be customized for each team and exercises will be designed to illuminate areas of opportunity in which each handler can identify what works best for the dog at the end of the leash. Jill Marie’s goal will be to help handlers create search and handling strategies that supports long-term success. Advanced Handling for the Environment with Amy Herot The search environment dictates the way in which a dog and handler team will work together. This is an interactive workshop to work on analysis, strategy, equipment choice, reinforcement schedules and the application in a variety of search scenarios. Teams will examine pre-search choices versus the on the fly adaptations based on conditions. Review of search areas and understanding how and why you may employ particular strategies and/or equipment will be a significant part of the exercises for the humans. Teams will then have the opportunity to run some of the searches so we can compare the variations in environmental change, breed style and experience. Through group discussion, walk-throughs and demos, we will look at a range of search areas and situations.

Sponsor:Dogs of Course
Speaker(s):Amy Herot, CPDT-KA and Jill Marie O'Brien, CPDT-KA

Contact: Dana Crevling
 Email: Dogs_of_course@comcast.net
 Phone: 508-529-3568
 Web: https://dogsofcourse.com/