Getting to know Crystal Wing

03/01/22 • 58 min

Today, Stacy and Robin chat with fellow co-host Crystal Wing, who has been training dogs since 2006 and has been involved in protection sports over the years. She is the Training Director for the Evolution Working Dog Club located in St. Louis, Mo. and a certified trial helper through GSDCA for IGP and training decoy for Mondioring.

Our conversation centers around Crystal’s focus on engagement as being foundational when it comes to dog training of any kind, alongside her conviction that imagination is your most powerful tool as a trainer.

“Training is simple,” says Crystal, “but it’s not easy. Good training is good training and it doesn't matter what sport or what area. It’s all about having clear criteria. It’s about the foundation of engagement. [...] With engagement as that bottom relationship piece that builds everything else, it doesn’t matter what I’m doing with my dog. That’s where it all starts.”

Asked about the secret to successfully incorporating play into dog training, Crystal says that it’s important to read the dog and go with what they want to do, not what the handler wants to do.

“All of the play that we create, creates all of our obedience. It’s all started through play which creates engagement which then channels right into obedience. Play is work. Work is play. It’s all the same thing.”

Key Topics:

About Crystal’s four dogs and her foray into dog training (1:12)
What to know about dog bites (8:03)
Why the “introverted” Crystal acts as a decoy for dogs (11:12)
Decoys versus helpers (13:24)
What Crystal applies her search and rescue work from her protection background (21:20)
Defining “IGP,” “Obedience,” “Protection Phase,” “Mondioring” and “PDC” (24:10)
Learning from the best (29:45)
Crystal’s “creative bank account” and the art of dog training (38:32)
“Without great rewards, what’s my only option? I have to go to punishment.” (46:33)
Crystal’s advice for those who want to incorporate more play into their dog training (48:45)
The biggest mistake people make when playing with their dogs (53:00)
Crystal’s closing thoughts (56:29)

Learn more about Crystal at www.facebook.com/EvolutionWDC.

You can follow us for notifications of upcoming episodes, find us at k9detectioncollaborative.com to enjoy the freebies and tell your friends so you can keep the conversations going.

Jingle by: www.mavericksings.com Instagram: @mavericktastic

Audio editing & other podcast services by: www.thepodcastman.com Instagram: @the_podcast_man

Key Topics:

About Crystal’s four dogs and her foray into dog training (1:12)
What to know about dog bites (8:03)
Why the “introverted” Crystal acts as a decoy for dogs (11:12)
Decoys versus helpers (13:24)
What Crystal applies her search and rescue work from her protection background (21:20)
Defining “IGP,” “Obedience,” “Protection Phase,” “Mondioring” and “PDC” (24:10)
Learning from the best (29:45)
Crystal’s “creative bank account” and the art of dog training (38:32)
“Without great rewards, what’s my only option? I have to go to punishment.” (46:33)
Crystal’s advice for those who want to incorporate more play into their dog training (48:45)
The biggest mistake people make when playing with their dogs (53:00)
Crystal’s closing thoughts (56:29)

Learn more about Crystal at www.facebook.com/EvolutionWDC.

You can follow us for notifications of upcoming episodes, find us at k9detectioncollaborative.com to enjoy the freebies and tell your friends so you can keep the conversations going.

Jingle by: www.mavericksings.com Instagram: @mavericktastic

Audio editing & other podcast services by: www.thepodcastman.com Instagram: @the_podcast_man

Previous Episode

Getting to know Robin Greubel

Today, Stacy and Crystal chat with fellow co-host Robin Greubel. She, alongside her husband Joe, co-own and manage Dog Day Acres Land & Cattle Company. Robin also is the CEO of the K9Sensus Foundation which coaches the human end of the leash.

Robin has been involved in detection work since 2001, yet remains an avid student who always aims to stay on the cutting edge by learning from groups that cover subjects beyond her expertise. In Robin’s own words, “Some of the most valuable information can’t be learned in my circle.”

As a certified Executive Coach, Robin understands that, “You can’t help anybody unless you’ve created a safe environment for them. Unless they feel safe, they can’t learn, they can’t explore who they need to be, and they can't ask questions.” It’s a philosophy that permeates everything that she does, whether she’s consulting with executives heading fortune 500 companies, faculty at Tier 1 research universities, or doing bucket training for her cows at the farm.

Join us for a lot of laughter and some insight into how she balances all of the different aspects of her life, along with some new puppies!

Key Topics:

What drives Robin (1:23)
What are “odor soaks?” (4:30)
Robin’s work at Dog Day Acres Land & Cattle Company (6:35)
How Robin’s cows undergo bucket training (8:06)
Why Robin doesn’t buy into “work-life balance” and how she raises her two puppies (11:51)
How Robin troubleshoots her training sessions (16:56)
Helping handlers and trainers through K9Sensus (18:40)
Robin’s upcoming initiatives and training collaborations (24:18)
What brought Robin to give up corporate America for Niko the cadaver dog (31:23)
About Robin’s narcotics dogs and her general love for labs (36:44)
Robin’s career as an evaluator for search and rescue dogs (45:06)
Setting standards for the detection dog industry (49:15)
What Robin’s parents thought she did for a living (50:49)
Robin’s closing thoughts (55:18)

Learn more about Robin at www.k9sensus.org.

You can follow us for notifications of upcoming episodes, find us at k9detectioncollaborative.com to enjoy the freebies and tell your friends so you can keep the conversations going.

Jingle by: www.mavericksings.com Instagram: @mavericktastic

Audio editing & other podcast services by: www.thepodcastman.com Instagram: @the_podcast_man

Next Episode

Let's Talk Fluency

Today, Crystal, Stacy, and Robin talk all things fluency.

“Fluency” can be described as “a performance measure which refers to speed and accuracy of responding.” Another way to put it is as “the fluid combination of accuracy plus speed that characterizes a competent performance.”

In the realm of dog training, fluency can be considered the third and final “stage” on the road to mastery. The first stage is competency, the second proficiency. Once a trainer has achieved proficiency (usually this is when they attain certification for a particular skillset), the final step is to demonstrate that the dog can exercise the behavior they were trained to exhibit in any given context. In other words, the key is for your dog to perform consistently regardless of the search area and distractions therein.

“Beware the trainer that thinks they know it all.” It isn’t only the dog that needs to demonstrate fluency, but the handler as well. Our hosts break down how handlers typically make decisions at the competent, proficient, and fluent levels.

Ultimately, our hosts contend that, “Until you’ve reached a fully generalized set of skills, you’re still competent or proficient. Fluency is always something to strive for.”

Key Topics:

An introduction to fluency (0:50)
Finding a match between the skillset of the handler and the skillset of the dog (3:21)
The definition of “fluency” (5:17)
What does it look like when a dog is not fluent? (10:37)
Defining the intermediate steps toward fluency that drive your everyday training (16:10)
Different levels of fluency (24:04)
Ensuring that you do not create handler dependence (29:14)
Remembering that you, as the handler, are the limiting factor (37:21)
How to become a fluent handler (41:23)
Can proficient handlers and dogs “succeed”? (50:46)
Our hosts’ closing thoughts (52:37)

Freebies mentioned in this episode: www.k9detectioncollaborative.com/monthly-freebies

Resources mentioned in this episode:

K9 Detection Collaborative Episode 5: Let's Talk About Pressure

You can follow us for notifications of upcoming episodes, find us at k9detectioncollaborative.com to enjoy the freebies and tell your friends so you can keep the conversations going.

Jingle by: www.mavericksings.com Instagram: @mavericktastic

Audio editing & other podcast services by: www.thepodcastman.com Instagram: @the_podcast_man