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Agility Seminars
with Rachel Downs
December 16th-18th, 2022
Rachel Downs was introduced to the world of dog sports early in life. Raised by a family heavily involved in conformation, obedience, and agility, Rachel began competing as a young child. By her teenage years she was teaching dog training with her local training club. While conformation and obedience were her introductions to the training world, agility soon became Rachel’s grand passion.
As a young adult, Rachel trained dogs semi-professionally for both sport and to address behavioral issues. It was during this time that she started to seek out and study the science of positive reinforcement based training, motivated by her studies in college. In 2010 she obtained a Bachelors of Science in Psychology, having focused heavily on the study of behavior modification and learning theory. Over the next decade, Rachel was married, moved with her military husband across the country and back again, and had two children. Throughout, she continued to train and compete in agility, as well as instruct.
In 2015, while living in San Diego, California Rachel started her own agility training school, Strategic Dog Sports. At the completion of her husband's military career in 2016, Rachel moved back to Texas and took a full time job at What A Great Dog in Richardson, Tx. to teach agility professionally. Her love for science and her consideration for the feelings of the dogs she works with has continued to motivate Rachel to seek out new and progressive training methods to apply to her agility training. It is this zeal for learning that Rachel attributes to her success with a wide variety of breeds she has personally trained, including Beagles, Belgian Sheepdogs, Catahoula Leopard Dogs, Labrador Retrievers, Border Collies, and Belgian Malinios, as well as her ability to help students and their dogs with issues from behavioral to elite performance.
Read more about Rachel: CLICK HERE
Payment, Deposit and Refund Information
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A deposit of 25% of the seminar is required to hold your spot.
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Full payment for the seminar is due by the hard closing date of the seminar.
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A cancellation fee of $10 for each seminar spot will be applied if cancelling between the soft closing date and the hard closing date.
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A full refund will be given any time before the soft closing date.
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NO REFUNDS will be given after the hard closing date (11:59 pm of the closing date).
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Refunds are completely up to the discretion of the seminar host - in certain cases of illness, death, acts of God, etc. full or partial refunds may be given on the day of the seminar in form of account credit, cash, PayPal, etc.
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We will allow payments to be made in small increments up to the hard closing date.
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Spots may be sold/given to friends if a participant cannot come and the payment will be the responsibility of the original participant.
soft closing date: November 30th
hard closing date: December 4th
Friday, December 16th, 2022
International Sequencing Drills
3:30 pm - 7:30 pm
**dinner/beverages included - 30 min short break for dinner**
**working spots full - email for waitlist**
**unlimited audit spots - $50
A year or older - dogs should be familiar with the concepts of jumps and tunnels, and have a working knowledge of international-style maneuvers such as backsides. Join us for a super fun morning of focusing on international skills and drills! See how to break down specific handling maneuvers and execution of common challenges you may see in this type of agility. If you hope to compete in UKI, USDAA or AKC Premier class, this seminar is for you!
Saturday, December 17th, 2022
The In-Between Skills!
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
**3 working spots available - $135
**unlimited audit spots available - $45
6 months +
Join us for a super fun morning of training for the dogs who are past the puppy foundations, but not quite to the “adult” dog skills! This seminar will concentrate on specific games and drills appropriate for dogs who are in their teenage years. We will only be working with jumps and tunnels.
Saturday, December 17th, 2022
The Confident Canine
1:30 - 5:00 pm
**2 working spots available - $135
**unlimited audit spots available - $45
So often in agility we see behaviors from our dogs that are severely disruptive to our training and trialing. Zoomies, biting the handler, disconnecting, sniffing, etc. are just some of the things our dogs may do that can be super frustrating for us, but is often a direct result of the dogs themselves being frustrated! Learn why these stress behaviors are occurring, and how we can prevent, disrupt, and train past them. The Confident Canine is all about helping our dogs behave confidently while playing the game, and what to do when that's not happening.
Sunday, December 18th, 2022
Masters Handling
9 am - 12:30 pm
**3 working spots available - $135
**unlimited audit spots available - $45
A year or older - dogs should be knowledgable with coursework and be training or showing at the masters level. We will focus on clear execution of crosses and discuss some lines/course analysis. This seminar will use jumps and tunnels so we can focus on handling.