We’re in the middle of a fun conversation with Helene Lawler. Helene is a professional dog trainer. If you have listened to the previous episodes you know that she has become balance obsessed. Last week we ended with a question about loopy listening. If you’re familiar with my work, you have heard about loopy training. Helene has used this teaching strategy to develop what she refers to as loopy listening.

Loopy Listening adds more details to the Loopy Training cycle. It reminds you to make note of the small blips in your training. Those moments when your dog or your horse breaks the flow of the training to stare off to the side are significant. Why did the environment suddenly become so distracting? What was going on in your training? When your learner is with you, distractions fall away. Loopy Listening helps us to “listen” to our animal learners so we can respond better to their needs.

Do please listen all the way to the end of this podcast. I’ve added some information about the format of this year’s clinics. I’ve changed the format of the clinics to meet the constraints the virus imposes. But it turns out some good thing can come from a bad situation. The new clinic format, schedule and topics are going to make it so much easier for you to attend the clinics with your horse - no matter where you live. So do check out the clinics at my web site: theclickercenter.com