The international OneMind Dogs pack has no geographic boundaries: Megan Foster from Washington, US, and her dogs ran a Technique Quiz course designed in Finland by OneMind Dogs Coach Mikko Aaltonen. Watch a video of this talented team’s training session!

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Megan has been training and competing in agility for sixteen years. She has lived in Mississippi, Texas, and now in Washington where she teaches agility full time.

Megan currently has three dogs: Smack, a seven-year-old Border Collie, Shock, a four-year-old Border Collie, and Shrek, a four-month-old Parson Russell Terrier. Before Border Collies and Terriers, Megan had 3 Shelties (Buddy, Ty, and Dino). Agility is Megan’s sport. When time allows, she likes to take her dogs herding.

"My dogs make me laugh. They are playful and sweet and love to do things with me. From lounging around the house to hiking in the mountains, my dogs are always with me! I am currently competing with Smack and Shock, and young Shrek is starting his first foundations class very soon!"

Megan is an active member of the OneMind Dogs online community. How did you learn about OneMind Dogs in the first place, Megan?

"I remember reading lots of great things about OneMind Dogs on Facebook, and some students were asking me questions about the OneMind Dogs methods, so I started doing some research! When I did, I found that many of the concepts were similar to my own, but I had been limiting the number of techniques and variations of techniques that I used compared to the number of techniques used in the OneMind Dogs system! I was very happy to learn and to add to my handling style!

I have worked with Karen Holik once a year for the last three years and she has introduced many of the ideas and techniques to me.

The best thing about OneMind Dogs is that it makes sense to me AND my dogs - and the 80+ dogs and handlers I teach every week!"

Megan says that naming each technique seems daunting at first, but it is truly worth it in the end to know specifically how you will cue each obstacle and know how your dog will respond to those cues. Her favorite technique required a lot of training.

"Though it took me a long time to “master”, the German Turn is one of my favorite moves to use on course."

Megan remembers a funny quote from a OneMind Dogs Coach:

"I think it was Coach Janita, when talking about staying out of your dog’s way with a tunnel entrance, “There is only room for one!” I thought that was really cute, and it stuck with me. I say it all of the time now to my students."

Megan uses the OneMind Dogs website a lot:

"It has been an amazing resource for me. I teach agility full time, but I have no regular coach or group class to attend with my own dogs. The videos are particularly helpful for me to study how the dogs respond to the cues and then immediately test those cues out on my own dogs. I really enjoy the Next Level Videos and Hu’s Training Blog the most."

We asked Megan to share her favorite piece of advice with other agility handlers.

"My biggest piece of advice to agility handlers out there is to never stop learning. Before I started reading and learning OneMind Dogs, I had convinced myself that I didn’t need to learn anything new and that the handling system I did have was working really well and that I should stick to that. I am so glad that I was able to step outside of my comfort zone and start learning something new again."