It’s been almost a year since the last episode. The real reason is a little embarrassing, and it turns out it’s the same shape as something I got wrong in my training for many years.

For a long time I believed that if you ever needed to tell your dog no, you’d failed somewhere upstream. That belief didn’t stop me from correcting my dog. It stopped me from correcting my dog WELL. In this one I talk about what that belief actually did, why the bad feeling afterwards was pointed at the wrong thing, and what happens to any part of your training you’ve decided not to look at.

So... what are you not looking at?

Tell me: HereToHelp@daisypeel.com, or leave a comment on this episode’s page at daisypeel.com. And if you made it to the end, hit subscribe, so I know somebody’s out there.

In this podcast with Ivan Balabanov of Training Without Conflict, we go deeper into the sport of agility and compare it with other dog sports. We talk about what it really means to select and train dogs for the world stage versus training a pet dog simply to provide an outlet and maintain a healthy, balanced mind.

Here's a bit of dark humor for Valentine's Day that has to do with dog training...sort of...mostly it's just a fun thought experiment!

In this episode, I join Andrew on The Doggy Stoic podcast to talk about high-level agility competition, the Kynology Agency-Accountability Framework, and why I'm open about using complete training methods. We discuss the Kynology workshop I hosted in Ohio, the politics around training approaches in agility, and what it means to prioritize dog welfare through clarity and realistic expectations rather than ideology. If you've ever wondered why some of us talk openly about using all four quadrants while others stay quiet, this conversation gets into the real reasons behind that divide.

The Doggie Stoic on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@doggiestoic

What does Christmas Eve have to do with Heart Health? What does dog agility have to do with heart health? Some thoughts from Daisy Peel during this holiday season.

Holding ourselves accountable to stay sharp, to stay focused, and to stay in the sweet spot at the edge of our abilities when we're alone is important – it's not what happens in class each week, during that one or two hour period of time! It's what happens when you're at home, in your back yard, or your basement, by yourself, with your dog, working on the things you've set out to work on, with purpose!

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As a dog trainer and handler, you're not only a student (of the game, of your instructor, etc.), but you're also a coach for your dog. And, good coaches, whether it's to your dog or to your own agility students, share a knack for transforming the most mundane activities – especially the mundane activities – into games.

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In this Agility Challenge Tip, learn why practice "snacks" are better than practice "binges", what days of the week you should practice, and what it means to be ruthless about noticing and fixing mistakes.

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