I teach Cue Discrimination for a variety of reasons.  I needed it in competition for Mondio Ring Sport (sit, down or stand under “adversity”), for TEAM3 (Two positions at 20 feet with the handler taking unusual positions) and now…AKC is proposing adding cue discrimination into the Open Class as well.

While that proposal is still under discussion, some handlers may wish to begin working on it now, so I’m sharing the August 2107 TEAM newsletter since the topic was…Cue Discimination at a distance!

TEAM Newsletter

If you’d like to get a jump on the proposed AKC exercise, take a look at the newsletter.  Note that the emphasis should be on adding challenge before distance.  If you take that to heart, I may well have saved you and your dog a fair bit of grief.  Remember, distance is simply another form of adversity.

Also by good luck, this particular TEAM newsletter discusses “backing up” – that skill will be quite valuable to you if you find that your dog likes to creep between cues.  What you can do – give your position cue – ask the dog to back up – give another position cue, etc.  If your dog learns to back after each cue, you may eliminate that creeping altogether.

If you find the TEAM training program intriguing – either because you can use it to teach all of your competition exercises for any organization or because you like the idea of a systematic training program that leads to the option of video competition, check out the TEAM1 Training class we’re offering this term.   We start on Sunday the 1st of October – so get registered!  At $65 for bronze, you can’t go too far wrong.

If you do decide to pursue TEAM as a standalone training or titling option, you’ll absolutely want to join the extremely supportive Facebook group where you can submit videos and get help from other Team Players.

The program is fun!  We look forward to seeing some of you there!