My name is Paul Enriquez and I compete in agility with my wife Elga, we have been involved with agility in Australia right since the beginning in the early 1990’s. In those days, Australian agility was a lot more like obedience. Times change and so did agility, more thought went into courses which meant your handling also had to improve.

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Over the years we have competed with many different types of dogs, from Shetland sheepdogs to Labrador retrievers, all with mixed results. That is until we started using the OneMind Dogs method, which was introduced to us by Stacy Richards, Niki Drage and Tsuey Hiu, some of the first followers of OneMind Dogs in Australia. It was not until 2013, when we were advised that Stacy and Tsuey had organised to have a OneMind Dogs Seminar here is Australia with Noora Keskievari, that we really made the push to research and learn the method properly. It was about the same time that Elga, Stacy and I met a young Finnish girl, Jessica Kock, at our Club in Sydney. Jessica was here on a working holiday and was familiar with the method, already having studied with Janita. This was almost too good to be true.

Jessica introduced us to all the different techniques, where and when to apply them and the theory behind each of them. This was a wonderful first hand introduction into the method right before we were to be involved in the seminar with Noora. The seminar filled in of all the gaps in what we had learned so far. It was an eye opener for us seeing the method used with all types, shapes and sizes of dogs equally, the three Cs, Connect, Commit and Cue, being at the centre of it.

Since the seminar, Elga and I have both handled and trained using only the OneMind Dogs method. After a brief retraining period, we have made huge strides in our ability to compete successfully. Yoda and Heidi are our 6 year old Belgian Shepherd Tervurens. Yoda is 620 mm in height so he is fairly tall for an agility dog, yet it could be said that he is one of the fastest in his class in all agility disciplines in Australia. Heidi, Yoda’s sister, is also one of the most competitive dogs in her height class. If I was to say why they are so competitive, I would have to say that they turn so tightly and they commit to obstacles so well, which allows us to move earlier keeping them driving. Doing wrong courses is now a thing of the past.

But if you were to ask us which part of the method is the most useful to us, I would simply say that the OneMind Dogs system is like a puzzle; when all the pieces are put together correctly, they make a beautiful picture of sync and harmony. You cannot simply leave one part out, they are all equally important. Thank you for taking the time to develop a system that allows us to enjoy our chosen sport so fully.

Yours truly,
Paul and Elga Enriquez