Welcome

I just wanted to formally introduce myself to the Barkeley Community as I will be teaching a couple workshops this Fall! Who Am I?  

My name is Madison Carriere. I moved to Spokane April of 2022 from Michigan. Professionally I am an Electrical Engineer and currently work as Project Engineer. Why I love agility?I love the challenge agility brings and how you will never master it. There are also so many amazing people with diverse backgrounds in agility that inspire me to push myself every day. Agility BackgroundI have two dogs a rescue Cattle Dog x Mini Aussie mix named Nina and a 15 month old Border Collie x Jack Russel mix named Moxie. I didn’t pick the easiest agility dogs, but they have taught me so much over the years. My first dog Nina and I started agility training in back in 2019 at a facility where we focused on sequencing and how the handler can show the dogs path. I pay a lot of attention to staying connected to my dog and use everything from my arms to tone of voice to cue the best line. Moxie is a completely different beast. Moxie is a high drive speedster. Since I won’t be able to keep up with her, I have been focused on teaching verbal independence and have her understand my cues with minmimal to no support from my handling. I work mostly on one obstacle skills testing her independence and understanding. Both my dogs struggle/struggled with arousal and reactivity issues in different environments. I have worked with behaviorists, attended webinars, and worked with multiple agility instructors to understand my dogs body language in order to get their mental state in peak performance. Along with behaviorists, I take classes with JuliAnna Munden, actively participate in 3 online agility classes of varying topics, and attend seminars, agility camps, and webinars as much as my schedule allows. I honestly lost count of how many instructors I have worked with in the last year alone. My focus in agility is more toward ISC/ UKI. I have been taking a break from trialing while I get my young dog Moxie ready to compete. Even though I haven’t done a lot of trialing this year I wanted to share some of my favorite training moments over the course of this summer. Why do I want to teach?  Teaching agility has been a dream of mine since I started this sport. I have always had a passion for mentoring others.I also have different perspective on agility that I see being beneficial.  For example, I really love to geek on course walks and would like to share that perspective with others. In my professional career I have a lot experience teaching everything from calculus to how to how use Microsoft office. Agility Teaching StyleYou pick your training goals and we can work on a path together on how to build those skills. Whether you want to be able to confidently stay ahead of your dog or have your dog be able to take every obstacle at a distance. There are ways we can break down those skills. I also want help change peoples mind set from being an agility handler to an agility trainer. I aim for handlers to be more confident in their handling choices along with learning how to be more independent in training by themselves. Last thing I am big into is skill building and have a ton of drills and excercises you can do in small spaces that can help improve everything from your handling to verbal proofing. I really look forward to working with all the different teams. Don’t hesitate to message me if you have any questions! I would love help anyone out in anyway I can.

More Fun Coming To Barkeley’s

AKC AGILITY TEAMS

Teams are starting to sign up. If you would like to be on a team or want to start your own team please contact Laurie Kruger hansonmidge@gmail.com or Gail Eikanas

gaile1951@yahoo.com

Teams will be four to eight members.  

Berkeley’s is offering an arena discounts for 

Barkeley

Team Members

AND. Don’t Forget To Think Of a Cute Name For Your Teams,

This is information from the AKC Website 

https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn-origin-etr.akc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/18084214/AKC-Agility-League-Fall-Season-2022-Guidebook.pdf 

The AKC Agility League allows a new way to train and have fun in the Fall and Winter months. In addition to the AKC competition.  We would like to have team competitions with other local training facilities and competitions against all the Barkelely teams.  

The league season will run 12 weeks. Each team will run the same six courses during the season – one course every two weeks – on their local field.

There will be 3 divisions for the fall season:

International (minimum field size 100 X 100) – ISC style courses judged by League rules

Regular (minimum field size 70 X 100) – all regular classes – no Premier – Masters level JWW, Standard & hybrid

Limited – (minimum field size 50 X 70) Courses will be designed for the limited spaces to allow clubs/schools with smaller areas to play too.

Laurie Kruger:   hansonmidge@gmail.com
Gail Eikanas:   gaile1951@yahoo.com
CJ Davis:  I pay the taxes cjdavis14@gmail.com 

  You are welcome to book vacant slots between classes, BUT please do not move equiptment or if you do to please reset it.  

$15 per hour and $3.00 for an extra dog

Have Fun and Be Safe
CJ DavisBarkeley’s Welcomes new members however, new members need to have an introduction to the arena signing a waiver & introduction to equipment before signing up for practice.    
Have Fun. CJ

I began my dog carrier about 25 years ago after moving to Spokane, WA and joining Spokane Dog Training Club. My foundation is in obedience but shortly after joining SDTC I discovered agility and was hooked. I have been training in agility for the last 25 years and have personal trained and competed with Shetland Sheepdogs (PACH), a Border Collie (MACH) & Doberman Pinchers. I began teaching/instructing agility approximately 20 years ago and have worked with dogs of all sizes (Corgis to Akita’s). I have been in agility for so long, I remember when the start & finish line were orange cones, and the timer was a person with a stopwatch.

I believe that building a strong foundation of teamwork and trust is a major component through the training and learning process. My training is based on positive reinforcement, and I have used both verbal and clicker methods when training and/or instructing. I believe obedience and agility training are not and should not be separate. Basic obedience training can support your agility career.

Each dog and handler are unique and have their own personal challenges. My first love is problem solving training … helping teams with a specific problem and finding the best way to communicate what is wanted in a language understood by both the dog and handler.

I believe the mental game is as equally important as obstacle and skills training. If you are not having fun and enjoying the game .. ask yourself why. During my agility career, one of the best compliments I received was from another competitor…she told me … “if I don’t see your run, I can’t tell if you qualified or not at the end, you are always so happy and smiling .. either way”. My dogs never asked to run agility, they do it because I chose that sport for us … why wouldn’t I celebrate every run .. regardless of a “Q” or not.

Limited Agility Problem Solving Privates are available (contact issues / weaves / start line / team connection / jumping/ etc…). Contact privately for details