BetCo August Newsletter

Hello ,

We're further developing our curriculums and schedule and have made some major changes to the training calendar. Here are the biggest news:

1) The next agility classes will start October 8th, later than originally planned. Want to bridge the time in between? Take our Trick Dog class coming up in August on Thursdays!!! This brand-new class will be taught by Ella-Kate!

2) Starting in September, our Puppy 1 and Foundation Class will start with interactive learning games and a lecture at week 1, adding the dogs at week 2. Students will receive a new fun gadget, the "TAGulator"! All other classes start as usual with the dog at week 1.

3) At our Responsible Dog Ownership Day on September 10, 2016 we'll reveal the details of our own new BetCo Rewards Program! We want to reward you for your continuous training and your loyalty to us, starting with a series of specially designed stickers and later including some other fun goodies.

Visit our booth on RDO-Day to check out the first for sale TAGulators and to see our new stickers! Read our monthly story below to find out what a TAGulator really is!

Is your dog a good candidate to be a Therapy Dog? Contact our local Pet Partners instructors Terry or Pete for more info! They'll offer a Therapy Animal Handler Course on Saturday, September 10 (unfortunately same day as our Doggy Day) in Eagle River.
Terry: luv2labs@gci.net or (907) 694-4777
Pete: aktherapydogs@gmail.com or (907) 727-8633

All clickable links in this newsletter are in PURPLE.

Enjoy life with your better companion,

Claudia

Manners classes - Monday day and eve + Thursday eve classes!

My dog did Junior High, too! Wouldn't you love to say that about your dog?
For our Grade School graduates, take Junior High class on Monday evenings starting August 22 and graduate only 6 weeks later - don't wait a full school year! We'll work on heeling, stays, practice emergency situations out on your walk, refine the recall and more. You'll be one of the first classes receiving a bumper sticker through the new BetCo Rewards program!

Haven't done Grade School yet? Puppy 2 - Kindergarten and Foundation Class graduates can continue on to Grade School, offered every month. Grade School applies all the learned techniques to valuable exercises, improving your handling skills and your dog's behavior through more practice. Next GS starting July 10th, Sundays at 2:15pm or August 22nd, Mondays at 7:30pm. In September on Wednesday evenings.

Want to start your dog now? Our Package deals are the best option for the young dogs - bundle two or more classes for a great discount! You learn valuable lessons and your dog gets the best start. Next Puppy 1 classes: Starting August 22nd, on Mondays at 10:15am and 6:15pm! In September on Sundays again. Puppy 2 class starts in August, on Mondays at 9am or on Thursdays at 5pm. In September on Sundays. For dogs over 6 months new to BetCo, join our Foundation Class, also starting every month! Next FC starting in August, on Mondays at 11:30am or Thursdays at 7:30pm. In September on Sunday afternoon or Wednesday evening.

Here's what one of our clients had to say after taking Junior High:

"[The class] keeps us motivated to continue training through the busy summer. ... All the leash work is exactly what we needed. ... We can do some off leash 'Rally' type of training in the yard even with all the natural distractions. I think that shows that [our dog] enjoys working and has fun doing it. "

Read more testimonies HERE!

Activity classes:

Join our Trick Dog class, starting August 18th, on Thursdays at 6:15pm. This is our newly revised former Tricks 'N Clicks class, now with a chance to earnTrick Dog titles for your dog conveniently from the comfort of our classroom!

Start or keep going with our popular Agility classes! If we have enough additional interest, we'll even double up whichever classes are necessary, so times as listed could still change. Starting October 8th, on Saturdays, with a break on October 29 (agility trial), finishing November 19th.

Which sports class would you like to see coming up in the fall - October or later? Another Sports Sampler class on a Saturday, or Freestyle, Treibball or anything else we could offer on a Thursday evening??? Email us your wishes and you might see it coming true!

Summer Workshop - overflow possibility:

Feisty Fido Workshop is for dogs that are reactive to other dogs when walked on leash. They might be fine playing with other dogs off-leash, or it's unknown if they'd be friendly or not to other dogs. If you have been dreading or avoiding a leash-walk because of possible encounters with other dogs, this is your chance to change that! Dogs should be people friendly for this workshop.

We have one workshop scheduled for Saturday, August 6, and could schedule another one on Saturday, September 17 if there's enough interest. People from the waitlist for the August workshop will have first dibs at the overflow workshop in September! This is a 6-hour workshop plus a lunch break for a maximum of 6 dogs. You're welcome to pay for an auditing spot and come without your dog!

State Fair dog day August 28, 2016

The Better Companion will this year NOT be able to take part in the dog demos at the State Fair in Palmer. Most of our key volunteers for the demo will be attending a K9 Nose Work® trial in Ninilchik that weekend. So if you'd like to see doggy demos from The Better Companion, come to our own Doggy Day at our facility on Saturday, September 10, 2016! The State Fair still has great dog demos to offer - check it out and support their celebration of our four-legged friends!

Responsible Dog Ownership-Day (Doggy Day) September 10, 2016

Come join us with your family and maybe your friendly dog! We have great entertainment scheduled for the whole family! Start with a free door prize ticket and listen to the hourly drawings, stroll through our vendors and booths representing rescue organizations, breed groups, veterinary clinics and more, plus our Mat-Su Animal Care and Regulation Center and the Frontiersman! You might find great deals only valid that day!

Listen to our feature presentation "Pet Emergency Preparedness" and watch the different demonstrations of agility, nose work and freestyle by our students and a special search and rescue demo by the Alaska Solstice Search Dogs!

Grab a free hot dog and soda plus cookies; enjoy the presentation of different dog breeds - maybe show off your own dog in a Meet-The-Breed presentation?

Need a microchip for your dog? Kool Katz Rescue offers microchipping for only $25 per dog! Bring your dog to a nail trim by Pampered Paws for only $5! Both are available all day from 10am - 4pm.

Monthly Training Tip:

The TAGulator

Here at BetCo we aren't just dog trainers, we're dog training instructors. That's because we help YOU train your dog! We want to show you how to interact with your dog the 6 days and 23 hours between the sessions of our class to improve your dog's behavior and manners.

The TAGulator can have three different functions:

1) The clicker is used to capture a special split-second of your dog's behavior when teaching a new trick or refining an old behavior. The dog learns that this very secondwas worth a reward, and the treat can be delivered with a short time-delay. We'll teach you at class how to use the clicker properly to improve your dog's behavior. Always have treats handy when using the clicker with your dog.

2) The beads are used to reward ourselves! As the training methods for the dogs have evolved into rather avoiding the wrong behavior and rewarding the good behavior, we need to change our old habits as well! Instead of catching the dog in the act of doing wrong, we want to be one step ahead, like trying to avoid the dog jumping up on people rather than reacting to the dog during or after the jump.

The TAGulator REWARDS YOU for doing a great job training your dog! So every time you catch yourself having pro-actively avoided your dog jumping, you're allowed to TAG yourself - like patting yourself on your shoulder! On the TAGulator, you'll pull one bead down for each time you successfully avoided the jumping. Then you decide what type of reward you'd like to give yourself once all ten beads are pulled down. Time for ice-cream or chocolate? Or maybe you're just as happy as a clam to finish the ten beads, and that's reward enough for you? I love this approach because now I don't just eat ice-cream, I wait until I pulled the ten beads down. That helps me LOWERING my overall calorie intake! If it's too easy for me to earn the ice-cream, I'll raise the criteria to not over-eat.

The TAGulator - tag now, reward later!

3) The combination of clicker and beads can be used if you want to help another person improving their timing or performance, e.g. you'd click and pull a bead down for the perfect handstand position in gymnastics and then stopping after 10 repetitions for a well deserved break, maybe in combination with an additional reward for the student. This is a rather new method to train e.g. sport students and is called TAGteach. The student gets 'tagged' for each correct position. The methodology of TAGteach is also used successfully in companies to improve employee engagement and with autistic children.

The TAGulator - tag now, reward later!

We'll probably ask you later for more ideas on how to use the TAGulator at home to train yourself and your dog. For now, email us with any questions you may have about the use of the TAGulator! Your question (with our answer) could end up in a FAQ section on our web page later!

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