Great Clinic - Jack Knox at Julies's in Liberty NC Last Weekend

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

What a weekend! I wanted to thank Julie and everyone for helping with the clinic this weekend.

 

It was an intense weekend and I hardly know where to begin. And I was only there for two days! Any of you who were there for all three days feel free to add more.

 

Julie and Tina did a great job getting things organized with some help from Laura, the Detail Queen. The farm looked spiffy and the food was just awesome, from breakfast to lunch, to hot drinks - every detail was ready for guests so no one had to think about anything other than Jack's instruction - well, maybe staying warm, but there's nothing much that can be done about that!

 

It was one of the better clinics I've seen, I think. There was a great variety of dogs and they were all at good places that demonstrated Jack's method very well. We saw round pen dogs that needed to be taught to work as a team with their handlers, and round pen dogs that needed to be taught that it was okay to fool around and be silly a little - and sometimes they were the same dog in the same clinic!

 

Jack demonstrated the same thing with each dog - let the dog do what it's going to do, give it freedom, and use corrections as a way to build the dog's confidence in it's own ability to think. Key words of the weekend: "Is the dog thinking?" "Correct the wrong, leave the right alone" and the big one "Trust your dog."

 

Out in the big field the same principles apply. So many of us want to go to control out there when it's the same dog we took out of the round pen, presumably. Jack preferred to open up flanks, focus on pace and distance, rather than try to "shape" prettier outruns and force a dog to stop that wasn't comfortable stopping.

 

It was a great clinic but we were grateful for the lunch breaks, I'll freely admit. And they were made all the better by the outstanding food. On Friday Laura Carson made her famous chili and black bean soup and there were artisian breads to go with it, and Jimmy's mom's famous homemade pimento cheese, and Kelly's peanut butter cookies - and if someone else made a dessert and I've forgotten I'm sorry - I'm not the person to remember all the food as I was trying really hard not to look at it, really.

 

On Saturday Laura's mom AKA Mona AKA Laura's Mom AKA Ashleigh's Mom brought chicken 'n' dumplin's and Squeaky Green Beans. Which I'm hoping to get the recipe for. Someone else will have to share lunch info for Sunday. I heard rumors that I missed a good one.

 

Saturday night we had a nice surprise over dinner. Kristie Pope and Cyndy Branley went and got zillions of pictures developed that they had taken during the clinic so that we could take shots home of our dogs working (my personal fav of me and Ted is called "Sheep, A Black Dog and Some Yellow Shoes").

 

 

More pics on the gallery thread that was already started.