Back in 2004, I drove all the way from Oregon to Ohio to participate in a camp held at Linda Mecklenburg’s Awesome Paws facility. By the end of the camp I was hooked, begging for video review lessons. At the time, this was something that wasn’t really done – YouTube was young, and video cameras still used tape. Digital ease was a ways off. Nevertheless, I knew that what Linda had to offer was not anything that was offered in my part of the country, and what she had to offer was what I wanted. So, I persevered.
Nowadays, online instruction is much more widely available. Today, we can get all sorts of online instruction via Skype, Facetime and Google+(just to name a few), on just about any topic you can think of. Sometimes they work, sometimes they won’t. It is nearly impossible to judge if online lessons are the right choice for you, there is only one way to find out: You will need to try it!
Here’s how online dog agility lessons with Daisy Peel work, from booking to actually having your lesson:
TECHNICAL PREREQUISITES
- High speed internet connection (Broadband) – you’ll need this connection to be good where your agility set up is, so you may need a repeater or router placed in a window of your home near your agility yard
- A webcam and a microphone, or a PC/Mac with an inbuilt video camera with both audio and video enabled
- Skype, Facetime or Google+
- A bluetooth device that you can wear while you are on course, so you don’t have to return to your webcam to hear me talking to you while you’re working with your dog
ARRANGING A SESSION
- Book an appointment to arrange a lesson time and pay.
- Please understand that all sessions must be paid for at the time of booking – there are no exceptions to this rule.
- Cancellations require 24Â hrs notice – there will be no refunds for appointments cancelled within this time frame.
- Students under the age of 18 need parental permission prior to commencing lessons. This will usually be done via a short Skype session with the parent, which is of course free of charge.
THE SESSION
- I will initiate the session from my side at the appointed time. Please be ready to go prior to this time, and make sure you’ve got your technology all set up.
- My timezone is Pacific/US, so if you live in a different timezone, please have a look at e.g. Timezoneguide.
- You can focus on jump training, handling training, the current week’s handling sequences from my online Handling Classes, or any other topic of your choice (choose when booking).