Kamal Fernandez Seminar

I was supposed to go to this seminar with Katie, but she started work early so I drove down to Lincoln by myself. I got a spectator ticket as I tend to take more in that way, but I would be interested in doing a working slot in the future. I think even Dylan would have worked in the atmosphere, which was very positive, effective, and quiet.

Lots of information still to process, but I enjoyed Kamal’s way of both presenting the seminar, and his actual training methods. Lots of content and explanation, but very little lecturing. I liked how he worked with the Working slot handlers and dogs, very positive and lots of emphasis on getting the timing and value of the reward right. The working slots did some group work, and then two individual sessions focusing on each dog’s problems. Most of the dogs were obedience competitors, but there were two agility-only dogs, and a working trials dog as well.

There was one small dog who didn’t want to tug, and the way they (Kamal and the handler) tackled that problem didn’t really work for me, but I think that’s because of what I heard and saw demonstrated on the Rocket Relay Seminar. I actually thought it was a little bit strange because a lot of what was discussed over the seminar related to pressure and how pressuring the dog to perform a task wasn’t effective, and usually created the opposite reaction. But I felt that the small dog was getting pressured to tug, which is why she wouldn’t … I’m still not sure on that one, but Kamal had worked with that dog and handler before so there is a strong chance I was missing some of the links in the training chain, as it were.

Really enjoyed the seminar though, and would definitely recommend. If nothing else, I have a much greater appreciation for the amount of training that goes into obedience! He mentioned at one point that obedience is like dressage, very stylised and exaggerated, which suddenly made obedience as a sport make a lot of sense to me.