Recently, I met with one of our Academy Mentorship students and we got discussing how to begin to add precision into her dog's training. Precision with regards to the commands is needed for competing in both field and arena trials.

In this blog, we are teaching the dog to move a shorter distance on the flanks.

Have a look at Norm Sommer and Mark winning the 2017 Calgary Stampede and you can see why precision, control and flow are so important.

Keep in mind, this type of control comes with time and I only add this into the dog's repertoire once he is comfortable with the verbal flanks.

Here are 3 tips to get started:

1. Choose only one direction to work on at a time. For example, I will concentrate just on the Come By.

2. Practice being SUPER consistent. When saying, "COME", this will mean move a shorter distance than if you say, "COME BYYYYY".

3. Do this training gradually. Don't expect short, concise movements at the beginning. Keep these sessions only a couple of minutes long and stretch this training out over a month or two.

Watch the video below with Sam to see how I introduce this training into his session.

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