Category: Learn

26.06 MPH CATCHING USAIN BOLT

When you eventually decide to show and compete one of your biggest priorities is physical and mental fitness – for all actors. The mental condition of your animal absolutely connects to the physical one. It always amazes me how people change their approach to their animal in very drastic ways when it comes to showing. They will ride their horse may be every other day and 45 minutes a lesson can be quite exhausting to many. They walk their dog three times around the block or let it run loose in a dog park working their cell phone.

On a show however they want zero hesitate to enter two or three classes a day plus a little extra schooling plus warm up. They very easily quadruple the workload and the stress level.. Injuries and mental deterioration are the most common outcomes combined with low competitiveness.

It is absolutely mandatory that your work routine equals or even exceeds your show routine ever so often – fitness is a fundamental building block ! Bernhardt completed his very first fast cat 100 yard runs with a personal best of 7.77 seconds ( what a number ) and averaged 26.06 MPH in four runs over two days.In comparison Usain Bolt averaged 23.35 MPH with a max of 27.8 MPH at his world record and the best large Greyhound on that show ran 6.1 seconds.Not only does this activity school his kick and hind end but it also helps him to learn to cope with a different show environment and it is in a natural way a great energy outlet – for a well prepared fit and healthy dog !

It’s all build in your animal – discover. nurture, make it fun and they will give it all .

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Building up Adrenalin but not FEAR or AGGRESSION.

For any level of performance outside of the natural behaviorism in normal environment or any trick/movement of high energy one has to create positive tension – and eventually release it. As higher the level as more Adrenalin has to flow to achieve the result such as Piaffe/Passage or jumping or agility sports.As more wired as less aid it takes to create reactions. Logically the handler/rider has to become calmer, quieter, slow and considerate in the approach almost equally to the amount of tension increasing in the animal.

In particular in horse training the opposite is more frequently the case, the aids get harder,the rider more tense. The spiral runs eventually out of control. Fascinating enough is the fact that in dog training or at shows you rarely ever witness a wired handler – there is a simple explanation for that : two wired Predators will just attack each other. A horse is Prey handled by a Predator – which requires extremely complex adjustments on the human part that are not that obvious in the origin and quite contrary to standard believes.

I met Jenny Schmitt and her awesome dog Sherlock at the West Bend AKC dog show and offered her some assistance on the dock, i never had seen either of the two before. We worked on finding the correct distance to place her dog and in Sherlock’s case on RELAXATION and CONFIDENCE awaiting the throw.

It is always fascinating to me how much one can feel and tell about an animal through body contact – in this case the hands in horses case the seat. How important correct timing and sensitivity in the aiding truly are. How much individualized ones training has to be to do every creature the same justice related to their personality. My dog Bernhardt is a somewhat different animal than Sherlock. The sensitivity and reactivity much different with other layers. So i adopt.

There is absolutely no every animal same training approach, it just does not exist. For that it is not simple but once done right comes along with rewards one can not buy. Emotional gratification for all involved and the awareness of doing something good.

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