Can TAGteach Help Improve Performance?

The other evening a friend sent us a link to a video about TAG teaching children (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance).  I found this quite interesting since it is essentially using a dog clicker to tell the student when they do something correct.  We have used this method with our Greyhounds with lots of success, however, I never thought about using it on people before.  So I naturally looked into this a bit more.click3

 

One thing that I found particularly interesting is, TAG teaching has many uses, including sports training.

 

In fact if you check the TAGteach International website, you will see successful video examples from a variety of sports.

Now I get exactly what this is.  It is positive feedback behavioral teaching.  Dogs love it.  Apparently some kids and people do to. I’m not knocking it; in fact I generally am in favor of anything that produces positive results.  After all, we are all different, learn more and respond better to certain techniques than others.

As a competitive sports fan, Football in particular, this got me thinking about certain athletes who seem to be having trouble learning from their mistakes.  Perhaps we could implement the TAG method with them.

Here are some examples:

– Complete a Pass.

Click Click!

– Avoid a sack.

Click Click!

– Hold on to the ball.

Click Click!

– Tackle the guy with the ball.

Click Click!

This could work!  In fact we, as fans could participate too.  Imagine eighty thousand fans showing up to a game with dog clickers!  Though admittedly, this could get confusing since even at home games there are fans supporting the opposing team; but hey, it has intriguing possibilities.

I think I am going to share this teaching method with some coaches in the NFL as well as the personal trainers for some of my under-performing Fantasy Football players.

Perhaps it will help.

Hmmmm . . .

I wonder if it will also work on Husbands and Wives?

What do you think?

Click Click !

A Redskin Sunday

When you live in the DC area, there is almost always something going on that you can take your whole family to. And there is almost always something going on that involves at least one player from one of the local professional sports team(s).

And this weekend was no exception.

With this Sunday being a Redskin bye week, my family (most of them at least) and I headed out to the Doggone Natural’s Barktober Fest in Ashburn, VA.

 

This event had everything. Dogs of all shapes and sizes, a whole bunch of pet adoption and wellness booths, Free Food, Bounce Castles, Pumpkins, and Redskins!

 

My wife brought along our two greyhounds for generating interest in the VAGA (Virginia Greyhound Adoption) organization and foster/adoption programs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark and William practically lived in the bounce castles and the free food line. Genna took many of the pictures and I, well, I basically tried to make sure we came back with the same number of dogs and kids as we went there with.

 

Mark and William also got a chance to meet and get signatures from some famous redskins such as Graham Gano, Chris Horton, Anthony Armstrong, and the Hogettes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as a special bonus, they got the opportunity to try on a pair of Super Bowl Rings. Pretty Cool!

 

 

 

 

 

Towards the end of the day everyone started winding down and looking for a comfortable spot in the shade to lay down.

Here are Mark, William and Hero chillin back at the VAGA tent.

Here are some more shots from our resident photographer, Genna.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not a Greyt Location

But a Greyt Cause!

As a die hard, true blood, Redskin fan it pains me to post this about going to Dallas Stadium.

But this is truly about a great cause and this could be an opportunity to have some fun or at least make a tidy profit and contribute to a good cause all at the same time.

The Greyhound Adoption League of Texas (GALT) is holding a raffle for six tickets to the Thanksgiving Day Game at Dallas Stadium vs the World Champion Saints.

For $5 dollars you could win 6 club level access seats on the 50 yard line with all the amenities.

So, here are the possibilities for only spending $5 dollars.

A) You loose donate five bucks to a charity.
B) You win 6 club level seats to the Thanksgiving Day Dallas vs Saints game.
C) You go to the game and get drunk enjoy it as much as possible.
D) You sell the tickets for a tidy profit
E) You go to the game, sneak out onto the field with a football and take a shot at Sir Jerry’s big screens!

Personally, I think the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Here is the link to purchase the raffle tickets.

What’s in a Name?

As some of you may know, we have a retired greyhound named Hero.
His racing name was Star All Star.

Many of our retired racing greyhound friends on the Internet have video footage of their greyhounds. This is pretty cool.

Of course sometimes one or two of the dogs have very strange and slightly suspect names.

Well, to cut a long story short, the discussion about a greyhound named Sweaty Betty reminded someone of a horse race with a horse name Hoof Hearted.

Now, this, by itself seems to be a perfectly reasonable name, even slightly regal; until one starts to say this out loud and quickly during a race.

Please click below to witness (and hear) the spectacle!

Thanks to my wife, and all her greyhound friends, for inspiring this Fun Strip Friday’s post.

I love my wife.

Of course, there are plenty of spoofs out there but I will keep this as PG rated as possible.

But, if you REALLY, REALLY want to look, and listen to more…

Do a search on YouTube for “Funny Horse Race“.

But don’t say I did not warn you.