In my prowling of the web for web sites to add to Googility, I found that Rachel Sanders has posted reprints of some of her CleanRun articles online. So far she has articles on weave entries, speeding up 2o2o contacts, and motivation.

Here is the direct link to her library page.

I really like Rachel and have attended all of her local seminars. I especially like her thorough approach to training the handling around contacts. I just ordered her DVD Contacts: Bridging the Gap Between Training & Competition and am looking forward to seeing it. I've also been using her running A Frame technique to retrain Meeker and will purchase that DVD when it is available.

Ever search for agility terms and been frustrated with the results returned by conventional search engines?

I've taken the web sites, blogs, forums, and individual web pages to which I've referred over the years and entered them into a Google Custom Search. This customized search engine limits its searches to pages only on those sites, giving much more useful results for every search I've tried.

I've created a new web site just for this search: http://search.agilitynerd.com/

As new content is added to these sites Google automatically updates the search engine, so it is always up to date. I'll also add new sites and individual pages to the search engine when I learn of them. If you know of a useful site or even a single page that doesn't show up in the search please send me an email.

Happy agility searching!

Top agility competitor and trainer Linda Mecklenburg now has a website. That in itself isn't notable, now a days most trainers have an online presence. What I like about Linda's site is she is including some very useful reference information.

The information is a little hidden. At the bottom of the Agility Service - Instruction page there is a link to "Online Instruction". Here is a direct link. That page has three sections:

• Course Handling Analysis
• Handling Discussion
• Library

It is worthwhile studying all the material Linda has placed under these sections. While her approach, like all top trainers, evolves slightly over time, even her oldest articles have a lot of value. Her explanations can be on the technical side because she is trying to be accurate in her descriptions.

I just came back from Linda's camp where she, Wendy Pape and Ann Braue each taught one day. I found them all to be very positive trainers and very helpful to all levels of competitors. Wendy and Ann's approaches (at least at this camp :^) are compatible with Linda's handling system. I'd definitely recommend training with them and learning more about Linda's handling system.

I just discovered Laura Hartwick's blog: Team Small Dog and all I can say is wow! Unlike other dog agility blogs that are mostly about courses and techniques and can be dry (admittedly like mine can be) or are all about how a team did on a given weekend, Laura's is wide ranging and she calls it like she sees it. As she puts it, her blog is "a Dog Agility blog that veers towards bitchy discussion about Santa Cruz County real estate, and inappropriate, Catty chat about everything else that gets up this Small Dog team captain's craw".

Speaking as someone whose writing tends to the pedantic, I really enjoy her stream of consciousness writing style that must be like talking with her. She also has a lot of photos with really great captions.

If you want an article to give you a flavor of Laura's blog I recommend her humorous article on target training the weaves: Cookin' with the Team-A weave pole cooking primer.

I've already spent a lot of time reading her older posts and I'm completely hooked. There are more and more folks taking themselves and agility pretty seriously and it is nice to see Laura refuses to do so. So another great blog for my blogroll and I hope for yours.

I've been reading another good agility blog Training Journal for Devon and Jaime lately. Cedarfield has good training discussions and articles on interesting agility topics.

Read more ...

Prompted by a query on the AgilityDogs email list Blake Stafford has put together a website for locating Agility training facilities offering ring rental. He just started it tonight but there is already considerable interest from the agility community. It looks like he is using the frappr.com engine, which is a great way to track locations by GPS or other location information.

So if you are traveling and looking to get ring rental while on the road check out his site!

Here is a link to his site.

I've been a long time reader of Lisa B's eclectic, provocative, and fun blog A Complete Bunch of Pants. Lisa was a member of our flyball team a few years ago when she lived here in Chicago. She has just started a new blog Dog-li-ness focusing on dog training, agility, and flyball. One of her first posts, on training a reliable recall, is right on the mark.

I've added Lisa's new blog to my daily blog reading and I'm looking forward to her posts. I'm glad there is another interesting dog training/agility blog on the web.

Updated: 27-Jun-2008

Here are the Agility email lists to which I subscribe. I've put a little comment next each describing why I subscribe. Some I just check periodically or search for specific information so I don't have any email delivered for them. I'll update this list as my interests change.

Name	Delivery	Description
agileBC	No Email	Border Collie list with lots of brags but some other interesting information. A good way to see what's up with other BC owners.
AgileCourses	Individual Emails	Unfortunately, a sparsely updated list of trial/seminar courses. I'd love it if more folks would contribute. I usually send an email with a link to any full courses I post to this list.
AgileTeach	Individual Emails	A list for teachers of Agility. Low volume but often high quality discussions.
AgileX	Individual Emails	Just like AgileCourses, a sparsely updated list of training exercises. I'd love it if more folks would contribute. I usually send an email with a link to any Dearlove courses I create to this list.
Agility-Australia	No Email	Found this list when emails linked to my site. Good non US view of Agility. Helped me find Marj Kibby's blog.
AgilityDogs	Individual Emails	If not the first, one of the first Agility email lists. Organization independent, but with an AKC bent.
AgilityPoodle	No Email	Another email linking to my site. Has had good technical discussions among the brags.
AgilityRecordBook	Individual Emails	List for users of Agility Record Book software. Low volume.
AwesomePawsAnnouncements	Individual Emails	Camp/Seminar announcements for Linda Mecklenburg. Low volume.
AwesomePawsHandlingSystem	Individual Emails	Discussions of Linda Mecklenburg's handling system. Very high volume. Requires active participation at least once monthly.
AKCagility	Individual Emails	AKC ONLY discussions. Very low volume some rules discussions.
BaggageAgility	Individual Emails	Rescue agility dog list. Lots of brags but some handling discussions.
CaninePerformanceEvents	Individual Emails	All about CPE.
CleanRun	Individual Emails	Good list with high signal to noise ratio.
clickerdogs	Daily Digest	Susan Garrett's list seems dead.
DobeAgility	Individual Emails	The Doberman folk tell it like it is from a big dog perspective. Low volume.
DogRead	Individual Emails	Discussion list for dog book authors. Can be high volume.
Perf-Shelties	Individual Emails	Some agility discussions. Low volume.
NADACagility	Individual Emails	Very high volume discussion of NADAC. Lots of rule discussions lately.
USDAASoundingBoard	Individual Emails	All about United States Dog Agility Association.

I just recently became aware of Australian Marj Kibby's blog Choose and Raise a Puppy. If you browse her blog you'll see her discuss choosing puppies, her thoughts on various breeds when it came to her selection of a puppy, and discussions of the important issues to consider in selecting and raising a puppy.

Marj also has a number of discussions of the approaches/views of professional Agility/Dog trainers Greg Derrett and Susan Garrett. She has quite a bit of material on clicker training as it relates to Agility too. This is going to be a good resource for all Agility and dog training enthusiasts.

I've added Marj's blog to my daily blog reading and I'm looking forward to spending more time digging into her back postings too. I'm glad there is another interesting dog training/agility blog on the web.

Crissy emailed me about Lindsay Newman's dog agility web blog Brisbee The White. I've just started browsing through the content and it lives up to its title of "The Dog Training Journal". Lindsay discusses the living and training issues the family confronts with posts every couple days.

There is also a lot of video showing training progressions and individual agility and training runs. The size of the files makes DSL or cable required. Check out the videos of London's obstacle training progressions too. I know from the few video clips I've put together how much work is involved in setting up, taping, and editing video for use on the web. So I appreciate the effort that has been put into this site.

The videos I've viewed are good for a number of reasons. Lindsay (I guess) demonstrates training their BC London at each step of the progression with a reward (a tennis ball) from all sides of the obstacle. On the teeter she starts with a flat board and rewards for a good touch on the end. She works on sends to the teeter from all sides, calls over the teeter from all sides, sends with handler motion, and sends with partial handler motion. What is even better is the early stages are demonstrated in a room in their house! I love it! I thought I was the only one with Tuff-Spun matting set up in our basement for indoor training in a tight space.

So I've added Bisbee The White to my Blogroll of dog related weblogs and will start going through the back posts and videos of this interesting site.