Shows / Fostering Excellence in Agility
Fostering Excellence in Agility
Megan Foster, Founder of Synergy Dog Sports and creator of Fostering Excellence in Agility, shares her passion, knowledge, tips and secrets for all things dog agility. Each episode, she will take you through a critical element of agility training and break down the history of it, the dos and don’ts, as well as some key action steps you can take today to continue your path to excellence. Discover how to approach agility training from a place of wellness and learn how to build an agility training…
Episodes
Fostering Excellence in AgilityRepairing Startline Behaviors with Sarah Espinoza-Sokal
029 Megan interviews Sarah Espinoza-Sokal about her experience repairing her Kelpie, Zi's startline performance. Megan and Sarah unpack the unique pieces of…
Fostering Excellence in AgilityHow Outside the Ring Behaviors Impacts Inside the Ring Behaviors
028 Optimal level of arousal is necessary for optimal performance. Does your dog's arousal increase in the parking lot of the agility trial or is it later in…
Fostering Excellence in AgilityHow Trialing Informs Your Training
027 Data from our training sessions inform future training sessions, right? What about trial data? Are you practicing during the week the issues that come up…
Fostering Excellence in AgilityTraining on Their Timeline with Sarah Stremming
Sarah Stremming, Cog Dog Coach, joins Megan to discuss how their two youngest dogs, Rayya (Sarah's Icelandic Sheepdog) and Sprint (Megan's Border Collie) have…
Fostering Excellence in AgilityWho Should Know Better?
025 When I hear, "Oh, they should know better", I cringe a bit. In this episode, I unpack how I understand the reality of needing to let criteria go sometimes…
Fostering Excellence in AgilityIncreasing Motivation
024: In this episode, Megan shares her thoughts on building more desire for training in our dogs. Using reinforcement consistently and in the right situations…
Fostering Excellence in AgilityPrinciples of Teaching
023 Today I'm sharing my thoughts on teaching and coaching dog agility, or any situations where a human and dog are learning together.
Fostering Excellence in AgilityWhy Do We Enter Competitions?
022. Let's all own up to our competitive nature AND hold up to our values of training and competing with excellence. We owe it to our dogs and to ourselves to…
Fostering Excellence in AgilityAssessing Your Handling System
021 When you learn something new, how do you know what to do with that information? How do you decide if you should put effort into using this new skill, or if…
Fostering Excellence in AgilityWhat Are Seminars For?
020 - What are dog agility seminars for and how can you prepare to get the most out of one? In this episode, Megan talks about different seminar formats, how…
Fostering Excellence in AgilityCommunity Q&A: Teeter Training
019 In this episode, Megan answers questions from community members about all things Teeter Training. Listen in for insights, tips, and tricks for teaching and…
Fostering Excellence in AgilityConcept Training for Improved Homeschooling
018 It's a fact that instructors wish students would practice more outside of class AND students wish that it was easier to practice outside of class. Dive…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Improving Training Habits Based on Brain Research
017 Megan draws parallels between how we practice dog agility and how musicians practice and her ah-ha moments when applying current brain research to both…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Stopped vs Running Contacts
016 Today Megan breaks down why someone may choose to train stopped contacts vs running contacts and how the choices for each contact obstacle are not exactly…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Feedback & Motivation with Liz Joyce
Join me in this excellent conversation with fitness coach and my personal trainer, Liz Joyce. She is the founder of Canine Handler Fitness where she runs a…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Technique Training
Megan shares how she introduces new handling techniques to dogs and how she progresses the training overtime in order to build ring sustainability for both the…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Foundation Skills for Agility Dogs
All agility behaviors, no matter how complex, can be worked backwards to a series of skills that I teach as foundation behaviors to my puppies and dogs new to…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Essential Skills for Agility Dogs
We all know how important foundations are, but what about the skills needed *before* foundations can begin? Those skills are what I refer to as essential…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Why I Upgraded to Location Specific Reward Markers
From frantic to fabulous! I unpack the turning point in my training, nearly 7 years ago, and how it has helped me reach unbelievable precision and clarity in…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Puppies Part 3: Agility Foundations
Ok, but what CAN we be teaching our puppies that directly impacts their agility career?! Megan goes through her list of essential skills that prepares her…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Puppies Part 2: Stop "Should"ing Yourself
009 Megan speaks to the mindset needed when embarking on raising and training your puppy for sports, and some top tips for planning your training with your…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Puppies Part 1: Life & Dog Sports
008 Megan opens this puppy mini-series talking about life and how to build the habits you want for that puppy long term and to recognize that the dog you live…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Training Plans
007 Megan breaks down her process for planning a training session, and gives her top tips for staying efficient and effective in your training. FREE video…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Troubleshooting Your Handling
006 Imagine it: you're running some sequences in your yard and something unexpected happens. Now what? Don't worry, there's a method for working out what went…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Breaking Down Splitting
005 Megan shares her tips in splitting apart the job of splitting apart the behaviors we teach our dogs. Focusing on splitting during the acquisition phase vs…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Your Mechanics Matter
Be fair to yourself and your dog: practice your mechanics to fluency without them before adding your dog to the equation! Megan dives into why your mechanics…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Loopy Agility Training
003 Let's break down the components of loopy training and how focusing on these details can help you identify and correct problems in your training sessions…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
The Big Picture
#002 Combat comparison by getting really real about your aspirations and all the variables that contribute to the path you take to get there. Join the…
- Fostering Excellence in Agility
Story Time! Who I am and why I'm here!
#001 Learn about Megan and why she's decided to start podcasting. A brief history of her 25 years experience in sport and how Fostering Excellence in Agility…