The K9 GAMES in France – May 2009

It’s very difficult to get back to routine life when you have just spent 3 days at a K9 Games workshop with Ian Dunbar.

I had the idea to bring the event to Toulouse, in the south of France so I could have the pleasure of participating with my dog. But I never imagined that it would be so funny, so exciting and so relaxing!

Since the event we have emails from attendees everyday who say « Thank you to have given us the opportunity to be part of such an event. When does Ian come back? »

These are only games, but oh my, we are training and having fun at the same time and dogs can at last experience their owners having fun in training.
I really do think that the K9 Games should be much more popular all over the world.

Why?

Because dogs try to teach us every day to get back to our child heart and the K9 Games give us the opportunity to act like children, joyful, playful, silly, and to realize just how right dogs are about play and enjoyment being important in life.

Most owners have such a boring idea of training, but the K9 Games offers this unique opportunity to learn how to make training fun for both ends of the leash.
Our dogs’ lives are too short (as well as our own lives) to spend our time nagging them and depriving us of sharing good times with them.

Many people still don’t realize that teaching dogs to feel good around humans and other dogs is so important. The K9 Games illustrates this important point beautifully and also give them this opportunity to make positive associations and continue socialization.

As trainers, we are sometimes stuck in a rut when trying to explain day after day what behavior and training are all about, but it is so easy to stop explaining and in a few games and just show people what training is all about.

Yesterday, a couple came to my place asking for help because their male was growling quite hard towards his owner and strangers.  As I listened to their story, and all the advice they’d gotten to train well their dog, it became clear that the way they act with their dog gave him good reason to behave like that towards them.
In 2009, when everybody is talking about socialization, when everybody is talking about puppy training, only some trainers in France realize that some types of training can make dogs aggressive. I think the K9 Games are the way of the future to show everyone how to bring out the best in dogs and people alike.

Thanks to Ian and his Games workshop, which gave me back my motivation to keep going. Whereas everybody is talking about dogs’ motivation for training, we have forgotten to take care of the dog trainer motivation and the owner motivation as well.

This is what the K9 GAMES is all about.