How do you track the cue words? I compete in multiple venues and use some words differently.

So for me, I have a fitness journal because I use a ton of different words. I have a lot of cues

in agility and I just recently changed some of them

for my youngest puppy this. And so what I did is I wrote all her cues in the back of her

fitness journal that way Kim would know them and I know them. So my advice to you is a spreadsheet

or a journal, write them on a whiteboard somewhere where you'll see them and every day, try to rehearse them in your head so that they just become second nature. You don't want to think out there, okay, I'm going to get my dog to turn right. What is my dog's right turn cue? Okay, so for me, my dog, I want her to turn tight right on a jump. I would say, rye, rye. If I wanted to turn tight right on coming out of a tunnel, I would say check check. If I wanted to turn tight right off of a dog walk, I would go rrr. So, different cues. You don't ever want to have to think about them. You just want them to be there, but it starts by keeping track of them in a journal or on a whiteboard or somewhere you'll see them every day and then rehearsing them in your brain out loud every day. How do you focus an over-excited

dog at the start line? So, why is a dog overexcited? Remember, I've talked about your dog's

emotions many times here in shape by dog and I'll leave some links in the show notes to some

episodes. I really recommend you, you go and listen to. And

emotions need to be dealt with first. So, some dogs are coming into a start line very anxious,

maybe because they've had a history of you and your dog having mistakes out there and you

may be getting frustrated with your dog or disappointed with your dog and or maybe giving the dog a time out and punishing them for something they did. So, that may be causing a lot of anxiety at the start line. And remember, our dogs are always doing the best they can with the education we've given them in the environment that we're asking them to perform. So, it is never the dog's issue. So if you have problems out there, please

go back, peel back the layers, build a better foundation and never let your dog know that

they haven't done anything but an amazing job for you anytime you leave the ring in agility.

Okay? Now, some dogs are just like joyful and excited and they love the sport and they're

excited at the start line. That doesn't mean

they can't give you 100% focus and control. So, where does that come from? Focus forward is one of

the first things that I teach my agility puppies and that it gets built into absolutely everything

I do. How do I get that? Exactly. Like I said, with how do we get our dog interested in agility,

wing upright, just by transfer of value, right? Focus forward. That might be the skill that you're

shaping today is, I want you just to focus. You know,