NEW! EXTENDED VERSION

It happened! I have extended Faith's Journey, including one more year of our journey towards a line-based agility system.

This means signing up gives you access to all her previous training from 4 to 18 months (Including my core beliefs, building communication, getting started with a puppy, building a strong body, and teaching all agility obstacles) now with the opportunity to follow our ongoing journey of teaching a non-obstacle-focused system.  

I love working with paths, and for a long time, I have wanted to make this transition. After successfully trying it with her soft-turn cues, we are now ready to make the transition entirely.

Modern course designs are already increasingly testing line management. Discrimination and traps—the way we train our dogs today—are no longer the challenges they once were, nor is commitment to obstacles; we as trainers in the sport are becoming so good at teaching this! For me, it’s getting the dogs on the right lines that leaves us facing the most difficult challenges, and that's not specific to what obstacle they face.

Most agility systems are built around obstacle identification — “jump,” “tunnel,” “weave.” Even when we talk about lines, the dog’s primary job is still obstacle choices. By teaching the dog that the line is the primary information, obstacles become natural consequences of following that line. That’s the conceptual shift I'm targeting in our training moving forward, to communicate space rather than objects. 

It’s a blind journey, with some loose ends I haven’t solved yet. However, I am confident that when mastered, the outcome will be very promising. If you'd like to get inspired and see things from a different perspective, I invite you to sign up and follow our entire journey!