Just got back from teaching Play With Purpose in Poland. Amazing experience. We had trainers and handlers from completely different backgrounds all working together in one place: • reactive companion dogs• sport/reactive dogs• agility• search & rescue• pet dog trainers• protection sport dogs- people using different training systems and philosophies Different goals. Different methods. Different dogs. But all of them were focused on the same core thing: bringing the dog’s performance to full potential. Because no matter what you do with your dog — every type of training starts with: • motivation• confidence• relationship• emotional regulation And structured play is one of the most powerful tools to build all of it. That’s what we focused on during the workshop. Applying Play With Purpose to different real-life goals and challenges. With reactive dogs we worked on confidence and confidence around triggers.With search & rescue dogs we worked on building play as a high-value reward and confidence approaching people.With sport and working dogs we focused on engagement, clarity, emotional regulation and performance. Really cool to see one system adapted to so many completely different dogs and handlers. Also — sorry for the radio silence last couple of days. It was a very intense and busy trip. I’ll catch up with all messages, comments and replies today and tomorrow. Appreciate your patience.

I had a great question about chomping in the Kong Hand game that we use in Heelwork training. I did short video on how to resolve it and overall where we progress. Video added to the classroom in Introduction folder. I have to admit that I go through the stages 'constant food delivery' to finally 'nose touch without the food' in the movement during heelwork training. I presented it in static as it is easier to show what is happening- but that was the first time we did it this way. Normally once my dog can walk on the step 2 this is where I progress with the kong hand. ***With most dogs we don't have to get to the stage of nose touch without the food!*** we just move to the step 3. I much prefer intensity for the hand as this gives me a lot of control over the movement. eg. if my dog wants to push on the kong hand and I walk faster and raise my hand bit higher thats the recipe for more animation in the heelwork- video below.