The spring session of Backyard Training Matters, A Weekly Training Group, is up for sale on Clean Run! Join now and you can weigh in on what types of things my courses should focus on this session! I made this Backyard Dog Training Matters Skool group originally as a place to continue the conversations and connections formed in my Clean Run training group that meets twice a year. Many of my repeat students are in this Skool now, so I wanted to let them, and everyone else, know that the course is open. I'd love to see anyone who'd like to work on their agility skills consider joining us for 6-weeks of agility training and fun! Thank you in advance for your patience in reading about my course. There's, of course, no pressure on you to register for the course. This Skool group will remain open and free of charge -- it is separate from Backyard Training Matters in the Clean Run Learning Center. I just want to tell you about what I'm doing that's available. If you'd like to share it with your friends, I'd be super happy for you to do that! Here's my spiel for those who don't know me and don't know about this Clean Run course: ***I may not be well known as an agility competitor, but I'm an expert in designing small-space agility training courses (I've written two great-selling books on this topic!), I've got a great eye for handling analysis, and I know how to create a positive and supportive coaching environment.*** If you train agility skills frequently at home, you will find that you make much faster progress toward your agility goals than if you only train once a week at class. *Don't have a lot of space? *Don't know what to train? *Don't have the motivation or support you need to get to work? Backyard Training Matters with ME -- Brenna Fender -- can help! This weekly training group is a unique opportunity to improve your skills in a supportive, friendly environment—all while training in your backyard! Each lesson takes a variety of challenges from upper-level agility courses and replicates some of these challenges in an approximately 40' x 40' space.

Hi Friends! How was your weekend? Did you train or trial? Share your successes here! On Sunday, I took my English Toy Spaniel puppy to a pet store about 40 minutes away to practice conformation training in the aisles with his brother. It went really well. I was very pleased with how well Oliver was able to concentrate both with his brother and "first mom" there. He is really quite full of himself, which is a good trait for a show dog :) Now we need to work on standing still! I'm really pleased with how the Fetch training is going with my Whippet, Parker. I'm attaching a video of a recent practice where he's learning to go to get a specific ball from behind a blind and ignore the ball behind another blind. I shared this video on social media, so you might have already seen it. The training trick here is that the ball he's not supposed to get is a ball he likes LESS, so I made it easier for him to make the right choice, even though the right choice was the ball I put down first, not second (it's always easier to go to the last one placed). Later, we will work with balls of equivalent value. Hope that makes sense! Hope you all are having a happy Monday!

My weekend isn't going to be super doggy, but I believe I have a conformation practice scheduled with a friend tomorrow. I think we are going to meet at a PetSmart and do some gaiting out front as well as inside. She owns his brother, and they will likely show against each other, so we want them to be ready to do their best and not distract each other. I'm also working on Fetch practice in my yard -- I'm trying to teach my dog Parker to go to the spot I'm directing him to in order to get the ball, even though there is another ball in another spot. At the same time, I'm working on forward focus in agility with him. I'm excited that he's finally getting the idea of running directly from tunnel to tunnel without checking in (I'm working at a distance and he'd like me to be closer). My goal is to be able to direct him at a distance in CPE Speedway. What are you up to? PS-I'm going to do a bingo game for the May challenge so get ready!

Parker and I entered a Fetch trial last week and qualified on both rounds. It was super fun and we can't wait for our chance to try Intermediate. It's similar, with more distractions and a 50 foot throw instead of 30. I've attached my two Q videos here so you can have an idea. It's not a great view because I was worried he'd be stressed and I didn't want my tripod to, say, blow over into the ring or something. :) Anyway, if anyone wants to talk about it, I'm happy to. I'm really looking forward to training the more complicated levels. https://youtu.be/1XBz_NsYDt4 https://youtu.be/C6m7EqIS32g

Let's talk about it! I competed last weekend in Fetch for the first time and it was a blast! My Whippet, Parker, got his Novice title. I think the next available Fetch event for me isn't until August, although I'm not sure about that. Hopefully we can be there. I think we're ready for Intermediate now. I'm spending today working on videos for my job (all the videos are starring my dogs, so that's cool). I'll post one of them in the comments so you can see what I'm doing. Tomorrow I'm going to do some conformation training with my English Toy Spaniel puppy. What's up for you?