• 03Sep

  Dog Packing

  Dog Training (General) No Comments

  Hiking is a great way to exercise and get out, and here in Upstate New York, we have some gorgeous hiking trails!  We went hiking the other day, and my dog carried his own weight with a backpack. He had two water bottles, the car keys, his treats, my sandwich, and my cellphone in his backpack.  I would never have been able to walk up and down the hills for as long as we did if he hadn’t carried the backpack.  The nice thing about a big dog is they don’t know they’re carrying five pounds!!! My favorite part about carrying water for the dogs and myself is that halfway through the hike the water is drank, and thus the weight is halved before the walk back to the car. Has anyone else noticed the walk back is longer?

  The backpacks we carry here at Affordable Agility are perfect saddlebags for starting your dogs in the wonderful world of carrying. You can use backpacks around the house for fun.  Train your dog to carry items to family members in the backpack.  Make sure they get a treat for being such a good deliverydog!

  Tags: dog products

• 01Sep

  September Contest

  Member Photos & Stories, Monthly Contests 12 Comments

  Last months’ contests was one of the best ones ever- so many great stories!  Read through the comments here, it’s a great read!

  This month is Responsible Dog Ownership month, and our contest is about agility dog ownership!

  1. What breed(s) of dog do you have?
  2. Where’d you get them? A breeder, a rescue, they found you?
  3. How much time do you spend training them?
  4. If you could only have one obstacle to work with, what would it be?

  You could win a treat and ball bag, perfect for walks, agility, or working inside. Keep your treats secure, and your pockets clean!

  The winner will be chosen via random number generator on or around October 1st, and announced/emailed on or around the same.

  How to enter this contest:

  If you have never done so before, you must first register your email address on this blog.  We will then notify you if you are a winner of this contest.  You only need to do this once, and you will be good for all future monthly contests (and get priority notification of when they occur)!

  Scroll to the bottom of this page and enter your comment/answer.  Or, if there is no box, click on the “comments” in the upper right corner.

  Tags: Affordable Agility News, member stories

• 30Aug

  At Last, Pictures!

  Dog Agility Training No Comments

  Thanks to my kind classmate, we got pictures of Quick! Isn’t he huge? (and adorable!) for all his photos, you can go to our facebook page- I’ll be putting them all up there shortly!

  Quick started out the night with his dewclaws neatly taped so he wouldn’t hurt himself. He never has, but I live in perpetual fear of it. By the time he came out of the crate for his first nose-touch session, he had removed it. Oii.We’ll try that again!

  His nose touches suddenly became spot-on, almost! At the beginning of class he was insisting on using his feet and only his feet, but by the end he was pecking away with his nose! It was amazing to watch him figure out what got him food. (We went with Yummy Chummies again this week, they smell like fish food, and he loves them.)

  From there, on to the A-frame and Dogwalk! He was bypassing the contact zoners on both ends gleefully at first, but then he got the swing of things. He went through- often taking the zoner with him! For big dogs, I think I will really suggest either using a large wire zoner or a NADAC Hoop. Quick took it with him more often than not. He did launch himself from near the top of the A-frame on his first go. The look of bliss on his face was amusing. After that he behaved himself! He did beautifully on the dogwalk, and has even started going ahead if I hang back telling him to go. I’m very vocal. It will be a challenge if I ever try to run mute.

  The class started working on shadow handling. Quick and I had a little bit of a leg up there, since we’d worked on it in his first class, but the instructor says he swings out a little too much and we need to work on that. We will! Swinging butts are unacceptable.

  I’m going to miss classes. Quick will too, he gets so excited to go play agility. I hope to be able to attend some in a few months, but we will see how it all works out. This is by no means the end of our agility journey!

  Tags: agility beginners

• 27Aug

  Changing Sides

  Dog Agility Training No Comments

  Q. I have tried to tighten my Springer Spaniel’s turns by doing front crosses. Yes, the turns are tighter, but Sassy ends up knocking the pole. Where am I going wrong?

  A. Knocked poles are a sign of a badly timed maneuver or incorrectly positioned handler. Moreover, it indicates that the maneuver chosen was not necessarily the best one for the job. There are three types of crosses that enable a handler to change sides and turn his dog. Practice them so that you can execute all with equal comfort, but, more importantly, learn to recognize which cross will be most effective in specific handling situations…

  Continue reading »

  Tags: agility training

• 26Aug

  Celebrating National Dog Day

  Inspirational No Comments

  It’s National Dog Day!  Celebrate the day with your dog and all dogs that love their humans.  Give your buddy his favorite treat for free, and let him run a course of JUST his favorites today, like tunnels- they deserve it!

  We’re on Facebook!  Go here and ‘like’ us for a chance to win an Agility in a Bag! Stick around and share with us about your dog, too, we’d love to see pictures and hear stories. Keep an eye out for Facebook only specials and content, too!

  He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.
  – Author Unknown

  
  

  Tags: dog fame, Inspirational

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