Virtual Classes

V-LADs

These classes bring you the very best that the Wag More Teaching Team can delivery:

• to your own home
• without taking a mortgage to fill up the car
• at a time of day to suit you

You still get the benefits of class learning:

• learning in a friendly group
• inspiration from learning from the masters
• unique chance to develop your skills

PLUS you can be anywhere in the world - Yay internet!

Format

When you enrol for a class, you will be sent details to join the Virtual Learning Community: “Learn More Wag More”. This is a complete virtual campus containing a Dog Lounge for chatting with learners on all the courses, forums for your own course, access to the course resources, documents and activities.

There will be a lesson posted every two weeks, followed by a forum class over a 12 hour period. This is to allow for the time differences of learners around the world. During the time the Course Tutor will be available along with other members of the class for a variety of exercises and group activities.

Classes will usually be run over 12 week periods and contain 6 lessons. Once the course is finished we hope the group will wish to continue their training outside the class, but the Course Tutors and Mentor may no longer be available.

Support

Each learner will be assigned their own Mentor, who they can email for support. Mentors will support no more than 6 learners each. If there are learners with similar areas they want to develop, a sub group can be assigned with the Mentors.

Each Class will have a Technical Mentor that may be able to help you with tricky problems (but at the minimum your email needs to be working to access this mentor!). We are not experts, but are continually developing the skills needed to find solutions!

Lessons

Activities for each lesson will vary from course to course. But the rich benefits of learning in the virtual environment will be fully exploited.

Samples activities:

• Watching a video:
  learning to observe body language
  anticipating when to click
  counting movements
  record keeping rate of reinforcement
   
• Discussing your training
  giving feedback on what you are teaching
  turning observation into analysis
  learning to recognise progress
   
• Breaking down your learning
  following the lesson exercises & training plans
  testing your understanding of the plan
  brainstorming new ideas
   
• Working with other trainers
  gaining experience through the learning of others
  exploring different learning styles with different breeds
  give feedback

Resources

You will need to access the internet on a regular basis, broadband will lessen the level of frustration, but it is not essential. Depending on the V-Class requirements you will need to keep a folder of the training exercises, course material, personal journals etc. All the personal and V-Class resources can be kept in the virtual learning environment allowing you to access your area from any computer.

You will need a suitable dog for the course, plus access to a training environment. This may be your own house, garden or local facility depending on the V-Class. The V-Class will give you details of the requirements for each course.

Without personal tutor supervision you may find it useful to be able to video your own training. This helps with observation, analysis and may be posted for other viewers. But a video facility is not essential.

Using the Learn-More Wag-More Community

When you join a LADs V-Class you will become part of a Learn More Wag More Community. Both Helen and I have extensive experience Teaching classes directly to learners and teaching in the College environment. One of the greatest benefits of learning in a group is the shared learning OF the group.

By helping each other your understanding of the process is deepened. By viewing the learning from a different aspect you will enrichen your experience.

All of the V-Classes are Real Classes taught in the Wag More Barn. Learners from these courses will be invited to be part of the V-Class community so that their personal experiences can be shared, and their personal learning broadened by the global views of trainers all over the world. To be able to communicate what you have learned to others is an excellent learning process. It gives you clarity, makes you order your thinking, and use terminology accurately.

Back in 1999 we began an online Clicker Training course. Clicker training has evolved through the internet and for the first time we could train together and learn together as we progressed. People from that very first course are still in touch with each other - have travelled across the world to visit each others homes and shared the progress of their dogs.