Teaching the Teacher

Cala (left) and Viva the day Viva retired from Rally Obedience after completing her Rally Advanced Title with a first place. Cala got her first Rally Advanced leg with a first place.

At CCSC we offer a pretty wide variety of classes. And as I've mentioned before, our instructors vary a bit in approach and training philosophy. All the instructors have a lot of experience actually competing in the sports they teach, and all instructors share a commitment to positive training. But we do differ in how we train certain skills.

Another thing you'll notice if you take many classes at CCSC. We instructors also take classes. You may have an instructor in your class. Perhaps even one that teaches that class in a different session. After all, we are also trying to train our own dogs at the same time we're teaching you how to train yours. And if you look carefully, you may see us take the same class more than once.

As an example, I own three dogs. Viva, at over 10, is retired from competition. I very occasionally bring her into the building and do a bit of heeling or let her run an agility sequence over 8" or 12" jumps because she loves to do it and hates sitting on the couch doing nothing. Viva's daughter, Cala, is almost 6. Though she has several titles she's a real training challenge for me and while you may see her in a Rally class, we train in agility on our own because she's loud and gets very amped up. Cala, by the way, has taken the Jump 1 class at least 4 times because she hates to collect her stride and I keep having to remind her that she can do it. Zipper is my young dog, and has been progressing through classes. He's taken Agility Foundations (twice), Jump 1, Handling and Sequencing (twice).

Now you might think we teachers have enough training experience to "not need" to take classes. But that's not true. Taking classes has many benefits. It helps our dogs learn how to deal with other dogs and distractions. It helps us get valuable outside insight and input into our handling. And taking classes from a friend who may have a different training method or philosophy can also help open us up to new ideas and methods.

So look around next time you're in class. You might see someone beside you who may be teaching you in another session.