For those of you involved in the world of Agility training, Ann Braue needs no introduction. However, if you have never competed in Agility, Ann is someone who you should look into. The drive, passion, skills, and ability to teach that she brings to dog training can transfer over into all aspects of training. Her training will serve as an outstanding new tool for trainers from all dog sports and disciplines.

Ann has set the bar high by competing internationally 6 times with her own dogs, both on the US team at the AKC FCI Agility World Championship, as well as being the USA representative at Cruffs. Ann has also been a coach for the US Worlds Agility team 4 times. The list of accomplishments and titles here in the US goes on and on. Needless to say, when it comes to agility, Ann Braue is one of the best in the world.

Ann is certainly not new to us here at Leerburg, over the past 10 years both Ed Frawley and Cindy Rhodes have attended Anne’s puppy seminar on more than one occasion. We have been gathering footage and producing an online course with Ann mirroring her puppy foundations seminar. The more we dive in to the material, the more excited we get about the information we are going to be able to present.

While Ann focuses her training in the Agility ring, her puppy course is something that every sport dog trainer should have the opportunity to attend. Cindy Rhodes has brought 4 of her last puppies to the same class. While Cindy has never competed in agility she has competed in obedience and a variety of protection sports with dogs who attended the class as puppies. Cindy brings her puppies to Ann’s class regardless of the sport she plans to compete in. The class helps develop a thoughtful problem solving puppy regardless of your ultimate training goals.

Here is what she has to say about how she manages new puppies:

During the first couple of years of my pup’s life I am very aware of everything I expose him to. I am very conscious of every situation I put my pup in.  I do not just turn my pup loose in the yard with my adult dogs and hope all goes well.  When I bring my pup home I restrict the amount of time it will spend with my adult dogs.  I use a crate or X-pen whenever I cannot be actively supervising my pup.  Within reason, I do all of the care taking of my pup; I do the feeding, pottying, etc.  I want my pup to see me as the “biggest, most important” part of its life.

2 min 15 sec

About Ann Braue

The video footage in our on-line course and DVD comes right out of seminars Leerburg filmed at Ann’s training center in WI. Ann has been holding these puppy seminars for over10 years. They have gotten better and better as she continues to add more and more content.
The seminars help develop a thoughtful problem solving puppy.

Every interaction I have with my pup has a positive or negative influence on our relationship. I am critically aware that dogs do whatever is reinforcing - whether it is intentional or unintentional reinforcement. It is at this stage that I am laying the foundation- if I ask my pup to play with me, I don't want them to think “no, that leaf, that grasshopper (whatever) is more interesting.” I am building the foundation for our future working relationship; therefore, if I ask my pup to play with me - my pup MUST play with me. PERIOD. I also understand that this is a two-way street- if I have my pup out and want my pup to pay attention to me, I in turn must pay attention to my pup. Remember, from the get go you are developing your pup’s work ethic.

Now let’s talk about a few of the topics Ann covers in her course.

1- How she rewards her puppies, using both food rewards Vs toy rewards.

2- She shows the puppy that work can be play and play is work. She introduces her rules and expectations in working with puppies.

3- Ann teaches students how to train simultaneously with food and a toy. She teaches her puppies to switch between these types of rewards and she shows students how to work through issues that come up during this training.

4- Ann addresses the issue of a puppy that doesn’t want to play. She shows how she motivates these puppies to “want to play”. During this training she demonstrates how to have patience during this process. She has a saying when working with new trainers “WHO IS TRAINING WHO”. Ann explains what this means and demonstrates what it looks like with her students when they struggle with training issues.

5- Ann has a section on “Building Drive and Passion for training.” She teaches impulse control along with showing the puppy that training can be fun.

6- Trainers come in all sizes and abilities. Ann encourages new trainers to accept their abilities. She helps people understand that their dogs are a reflection of their abilities.

Training a dog is a mechanical skill. It is a learned skill. Ann emphasizes that training and handling are two very different things.

7- One of the most important concepts new trainers (and old trainers) need to wrap their mind around is their “RATE OF REINFORCMENT”.

Ann talks about “expectations of the handler and the dog during training” She encourages people to focus on the timing of their reward and to think about “EXACTLY WHAT IT IS THEY ARE REWARDING”. The fact is poor timing can result in a dog thinking it is getting a rewarded for something completely different than what the handler thinks.

So Ann explains that there is a place where trainers need to slow down and think about what they are going to do and what they just did.

8- Reward placement is a huge thing in dog training, it is even more important in puppy training. Ann explains and demonstrates when it is better to LURE your puppy with a reward and when it is better to REWARD the puppy for a behavior. These are two different things.

9- In the course and DVD Ann has a section on improving handler’s clicker skills. One way this is accomplished is to us a clicker and reward placement to train a friend to perform a goofy exercise. Everyone loves these games.

10- The “Hand Touch” is a useful exercise that every dog should learn. There is no limit to when a “Hand Touch” command can be used: to refocus a dog away from a distraction: to get a dog out of a problem that pops up in training a new behavior.

Ann shows how she trains the “hand Touch” and what she does to increase the speed of the puppy to perform the exercise.

11- Ann has a unique approach to problem solving crate games. We love the way she combines crate games with impulse control.

12- Restrained recalls are an important skill every puppy should learn. In Ann’s training system she teaches students how to initially use food and toys to lure the puppies to chase and then switches the training to use food/toys to reward the chase. She explains how these are important distinctions.

13- Ann has section on developing quick responses to her verbal cues. Her goal is to teach the puppy to listen when she talks. There are excellent ideas in this section to improve a very important skill set.

14- One of the areas Ann had added material since she first started teaching this course is to show trainers, who compete in dog sports, how to stretch their dogs before training and competition. If more competitors would take the time to learn how to stretch their dogs they would have fewer injuries.

And finally in Ann’s seminars she sets up stations that the puppies go through to work on environmental skills. We have included each of these stations in the Course showing various students and puppies working.

The stations are:

• 4 Feet in a Box
• Wobble Board
• The Cone
• The Ladder
• The Hoop
• Travel Plank and Doughnut
• 1 Large 3 Small
• The Plank
• The Table
• Fit Bones and Pods
• Jump
• Back Up
In closing, this is a course that every level of dog trainer can learn from. We were so pleased when Ann agreed to do training videos and courses with Leerburg. We know this is some of the best training information out there and our customers will agree when they see Ann’s training system.

You can learn more about Ann by visiting her website: www.abctc.com/