Hi Amy!
If you can go, GO!!!! Working with Sharon, or watching her work with other people and dogs, is really special, and the opportunity doesn't happen a lot.
In general, a seminar is all day class (for as many days as the seminar is). There will be talking, explaining, theorizing, problem solving, but also working dogs, often sequences, occasionally longer parts of courses, with the instructor helping to work through your issues on that particular concept (if you have any...and if you don't, if the sequence fits you to a T, they'll often tweak it so it Does become a challenge, so that you still learn something, because that's the whole point!) Seeing the problems that others bring can be at least as useful, if not more so, than working on your own issues, too, especially if you have any "performance anxiety" because you can actual WATCH the evolution of a solution. And Sharon's seminars are always about so much more than just agility, touching on dog (and people) psychology, behavior, relationships, the list goes on, while making you THINK you're simply doing agility :-)
Usually there are the more expensive working spots, where you bring your dog and have the opportunity to work them (it will usually be with everyone else watching, so can be scary initially, but I promise that these people will be rooting for you and your dog and thrilled with the successes you'll have!). Then there are auditing spots, where you are simply a student/observer. You can ask questions and be a full "verbal" participant, but you won't be working your dog. If you were to bring a friend, they would need to pay the auditor fee, too. Even though they may not feel they are a "participant," they are there learning, if they're paying ANY attention at all, from the instructor. I have three times taken non agility friends (who did have dogs) to agility seminars, when they were curious and willing to pay the auditing charge and they came away amazed, feeling they learned a lot, and one now, just a few years later, does agility and has gone to Champs and the most recent one is about ready to dip her toe into the agility pool with her young dog.
So again, go if you can. As an auditor, as a working student, just go. And if you want a working spot, don't waffle about it, as Sharon's seminars fill FAST!
Vicki Storrs
