6/1/07
Dear Amanda,
First of all I'd like to say thanks again to you for coming to do a seminar for us way back in February at Cheryl Carter's. I loved it, Mr Boone likes the gates. The last three trials we've been to he has not missed a single contact. That is SO huge for us. I'm just beside myself.
The other thing is that last Saturday I adopted my 'next' agility dog. She is a little bit of an Aussie (only weighs 30lbs) and I'm so excited to be able to train her with the gates from the ground up! She got a lot of training ahead of her. She's a bright little girl, but suffers from ADD at times. :o) I'm sure she'll love the gates as much as Boone does.
Thanks again,
Jooly & the Recycled Aussie Mob
UAGI Boone OAC, O-OJC, O-OCC, O-TN-O, TG-O,CL2, CL3, CL4-H,CL4-S, CL4-F, JS-O, RS-N, GS-N-SP, JS-N-OP,HIC,CGC, & TDI
ASCA 2005/2006 #4 Gamblers Novice Dog
Novice Triple Superior
Chip CL1-R, CL1-H, HIC, CGC, TDI
ARPH's Wickedly Hot Stuff (Figjam)
4/28/07
I wanted to say THANK YOU for an incredible abbreviated seminar Amanda! You have grown into a very confident and extremely talented young woman! Your ability to understand dogs and how to handle them and then to communicate what you see to we humans is an incredible gift!
Thank you for coming back to Minnesota! Thank you for your patience with Mazy and I!!!
You and Josh make a wonderful training pair - thank you for being here!
I hope the rest of the seminar went as wonderful as this morning (Saturday) went!
The exercises you shared with us connected with Mazy and I, giving me a glimmer of the team I know we will be!
Martha Healy and Mazy
4/20/07
Amanda --
A little success story for you...
When you came to Northern Illinois for the Gate Training clinic with Cheryl Carter's group, my daughter Corey and I were supposed to attend - but nasty stomach flu kept us from making the 2+ hour drive. We followed up with Cheryl a couple of weeks ago to catch up on the information you shared and immediately saw the value of the gates as a training tool for direction, distance, consistent contacts, and overall communication.
This week we finally had enough good weather for me to get out and build a pair of gates. I finished them this morning, let Muncher out in the yard, and the first thing he did was run to the gates and stop cold at the far end. I let Corey's dog, Nacho, out and when she finally recognized there were gates in the yard (Beagles take a little longer to see things), she ran to them and looked up at me when she reached the end. My wife has a wonderful new 1-year-old Cocker Spaniel who is starting to train - so we just went out in the yard with our 'pup' and spent about 5 minutes working on "Wait" at the end of the gates.
After completing our training session, little Hannah went back to the gates and waited at the end over and over again to get more clicks!
What a powerful and effective tool! Thanks.
Jeff Riedl
Owner / Webmaster - AgilityEvents.net
See the future of Agility!
Cheryl Carter , enrolled in the Fluid Motion Correspondence Programs and as well as a Bach Flower Consultation
10/5/06
Thank you again for the Bach Flower essence, it is wonderful. Pandy is calmer and so much more focused, it is unbelievable. I am all caught up on the lessons so far with the puppies. I have been using the gates with Pandy as well and wow, what a difference in her contacts, that too is amazing. I don’t know what it is but they really understand this method, I love it! Looking forward to the next lessons!
Thanks
Cheryl
10/9/06
I have to tell you about Pandy. We went to Indiana a few weeks ago and had only been working on the gates for 1 week. She stuck 7 out of 8 of her Dog Walks, one was from about 80-90 feet away. WOW!!
So naturally my whole group found out about it, so the following weekend was Lora’s trial here and the pressure to do well was on and with ALL eyes on me and Pandy , sure enough she did it once again. So I have proved to all in my group that the gates really work!! I have introduced everyone now to the gates and the improvement in the dogs performances and the handlers as well is wonderful. I also started the Bach Flower at the Indiana trial and then at Lora’s and a lot of people have noticed the difference in Pandy. Still fast, but much more focused now. I love it.
Talk to you soon
Cheryl
Gate Training Seminar in Cataldo, ID Summer 2006
Amanda,
The seminar today was so much fun. Hannah and I both felt that we learned a lot. Let's hope we can retain it all and then partner it with our dogs.
There are several things that I appreciate about your approach. First and foremost is your respect for the dog as a partner, which is seen in your coutesy to the dog's point of view, and from that, the concepts you convey in communicating with your dog rather than at your dog. By keeping the steps small and logical, rather than falling into a trap of yelling at the dog to do what is obvious only from a human standpoint, the method you teach works from a vantage point the dog can understand, keeping it fun and positive.
You are a natural communicator. Your teaching style is easy to follow even for the children I brought with me. But by letting us try it ourselves, with our dogs, any thoughts of it being simple vanished. This is truly an artform to practice and enjoy. We can see how people get caught up in this sport.
Finally, my lasting impression is one that still makes me smile. It is the memory of hearing dogs spoken to with words such as "Thank you" and "That's the way" and "Uh-oh, let's try again," all in a happy motivating voice. Now that's how I would want to be trained, if I were a dog.
Thank you for bringing dog training to a better partnership and joyful activity to share with our dogs.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth and Hannah Kohl
Summer 2006 Gate Training Seminar hosted by mdt-Agility Ability, this article apeared in their newsletter
Get the Gate! The Amanda Nelson Clinic
By: Cynthia Kennedy
I've wrestled with contact and distance training for years, so when I heard that mdt-AA was inviting Amanda Nelson for a clinic, I immediately sent my check. Amanda's gate methods for training contacts and distance had intrigued me, and after watching her "Consistent Contacts" dvd, and reading her articles in "Clean Run," I really wanted to learn the methods directly from the source. Although just a young woman, Amanda (daughter of NADAC founder Sharon Nelson) has a list of accomplishments that few could earn in an entire lifetime. Her friendly attitude contributed to everyone feeling at ease with her no matter what their level of accomplishment.
Saturday was for novices, and it was very insightful seeing how Amanda starts out from scratch with gates. Before we could get started, it was evident that some time needed to be spent teaching our dogs to give their attention, as well as surrender space, and recognize an invitation to take space. One bit of information was a new take on dealing with a dog that pulls on the leash and drags you around. Amanda suggested running with the dog & bumping into its space. Instead of trying to hold the dog back, "run like a freight train" with the dog and bump into it. The dog will soon realize that pulling on the leash is not a good thing. Dogs and handlers were taught how to get out, execute turns, switches, and tight and discriminate between pieces of equipment using the commands "get out," and "come" or "here."
Sunday the more advanced dogs came to play. Most of these were students of Lin's and had a good foundation already in what had been taught the day before, so lots of equipment was set for discrimination exercises, as well as opportunities for the dogs to be sent on, with handlers maintaining great distance. Four u-shaped tunnels were set up, two on each side with a straight line of three jumps in-between, that lent themselves to many configurations for handling. The idea was to figure out whether our dogs did better pushed or pulled, and to try to send as much as possible. Then weave poles were introduced with angles to try our dogs' abilities with difficult entries. Some of the dogs had problems with this, so Amanda showed how x-pens made into gates attached to the weave poles helped to successfully train this problem. The focus of this advanced day was actually more on training the handlers rather than the dogs. Gate training for contacts was discussed as well as body language to help the dog discriminate as to whether you wanted an "out" or "in" for instance when choosing between an "out" tunnel next to an "in" contact, or the reverse.
Amanda was helped by her assistant Josh, her spritely young BC "Try." The weather was beautiful, and Lin put out a nice spread of cookies, fruit, salad and sandwiches every day. All of the methods taught were deceptively simple. Anyone can do them, but there's the rub. As in any training, succees comes with clear, consistent repetition that's always fun for the dog. I'm sure everyone at the clinic is now practicing their gate training in earnest.
Thank you to mdt-AA for putting on another clinic with a world-class talent. The word is that Amanda will be back next year. You won't want to miss her! For more information about Amanda Nelson, go to http://www.fluidmotionagility.com/home.cfm
