I guess that's the motto of my new DVD (yes, yes, coming out soon - hopefully Thursday!) 🙂 As I always say - online classes in my experience work better than any other form of teaching - and I've done it all, LOTS of it all - I started teaching in live classes in 1996 (and stopped in 2011), seminars in 2001 (and stopped in 2011) - and online classes in 2011. And I did LOTS of it since I'm a bit of a workaholic when it comes to things I love to do 🙂

Online classes are superior to the rest in all aspects - until you get one of those perfect students that send you perfect videos only that all you can say to is "perfect"!!! I call them a Facebook generation as everything posted there must be perfect and impressive and beautiful and wow. And even if it's not, 500 people will say it is. But in life, not everything is perfect and impressive and wow. Normal life is more interesting and colourful as that. That's why I prefer normal life over Facebook. And I prefer class videos that show problems as well. They give me way more work 🙂 - but also way more progress!!!

So I had this student who was always sending me perfection. Her threadles, pushes and serps were so perfect that I asked her to send me a mix of it all within one line as well to make sure the dog is not pattering. I met this person face-to-face soon after and she told me on her own initiative that she can't send me the video of the mix up because the dog will just do whatever is cued first... And I said "yes, that's what happens when you drill this too much and don't challenge the dog soon enough. But it can be fixed, so do send your struggles, so we can brainstorm together and help her get back on the right track". - I never got that video...

Why do people find it so hard to admit not everything is perfect? I mean, at least publically. Obviously, even Facebook generation can tell me that face-to-face - but not in a class? - That is not even open for public, but to maybe 100 others who are all in the same boat and learning as well?

Why would anybody try to hide imperfection? I find imperfections normal - as far as I know, no human and no dog is perfect. Well, o.k., there is one that is very close to it... That's why she gets to train AND trial way LESS as my less perfect dogs - sorry Le... That's also why she doesn't show up much in this new DVD - she is only starring in stays section ha ha - I guess it's easy to guess why she deserved that spot 🙂

Imperfections are perfect to make us learn and grow and brainstorm and live. How boring would it be, living in perfection??? Why would we all need to be beautiful and smart and fast and best in everything? Isn't it normal we have different strengths and weaknesses? Isn't that what makes life interesting?

And that's why I don't like posting on Facebook that much. I mean, Facebook is great for sharing info on classes, for gathering info on pretty much any topic (artificial turf, toe's problems etc.) - I got LOTS of very useful info that would be impossible to get any other way! I also love to check courses judges publish, trial videos to see how people managed them etc.

But... I sometimes find it hard to post because I don't want to post perfect things only - and I don't want to post imperfections to which I'll get tons of comments on how perfect it is. Not everything is perfect - and that's o.k. That's how we learn. And get a bit closer to perfection.

But I got to include all the imperfections in this DVD, yay!!! 🙂 - With explanations why and how and all!

Remember: a successful training session is not the one where you didn't have a single problem. That's for me a failed session because obviously, you weren't creative enough to find how to challenge your dog further. For me, a successful training session is the one where we found a problem, cleared up confusion and learnt something new. That's why your goal for training should never be a clean run. You can have that as a goal in trials - but you don't want them in training as you don't learn that much from them. You know: sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. If you want to win in trials, you need to learn in training.

Coming soon...