Comments on: Agility Ladder Contest

By: Patricia

Patricia — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:42:10 +0000

My ACD and I take agility lessons, and I’ve been wanting to try a ladder for hind-quarter awareness. She is not comfortable with stairs, she actually rushes stairs almost frantically, and although she loves agility, she is not confident on contact equipment. I’m going to use a ladder to make her aware of using each leg separately, in hopes of building confidence.

By: DEBI

DEBI — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:24:30 +0000

I’m very new to agility. I started with my male 4yr old Sheltie Bernie. He is way too fast. I think this will teach him some control. I will also have my 3yr old Yogi use it. She has no self confidence at all. She will be starting some obedience training in 2 weeks.then hoprfully she will do agilty also.

By: dinahprincedaly

dinahprincedaly — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:02:42 +0000

When Stella was a puppy she was climbing the stairs from the back yard and must have changed her mind about going up or just lost her footing, but she fell down the stairs and landed on the concrete in the back yard. Even now that she is 18 months old, there are stairs that make her hesitate and some she won’t do. She is not crazy about heights and doesn’t like anything that moves under her feet, even slightly, like those metal doors on the sidewalk in front of every store here in Brooklyn. Needless to say, in our agility classes, she is not at all sure about the dogwalk and won’t even walk across the teeter when it is flat on the ground no matter how much she wants a piece of steak. We have been making some headway on the Wobble Board, Santa brought us from you for Xmas. And on walks around the neighborhood and in the park, I ask her to jump up and balance on benches and low walls and rocks and along fallen logs. I have been thinking that hind end work could really help build her confidence, so sometimes I take her for walks where there is a lot of fallen wood to step over. I don’t know if any of that helps as the wood is so randomly spaced and I actually have been thinking a ladder would be wonderful for her. Something we can work on anytime right in our back yard. It is such a shame she has this little phobia because she is so quick and willing and smart–—best dog in the world as far as we’re concerned. I do think she can and will conquer it if we can just work on getting her hind end in gear.

By: matildasmom

matildasmom — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:30:01 +0000

The ladder was the first exercise we did in our agility class. At home after that first week I got out my aluminum extension ladder to practice with Matilda. I’m thinking now I could add this piece of equipment to my backyard agility collection as another obstacle to which I could send Matilda. It wouldn’t be one she’d find on any other course, but it would be good practice to improve rear body awareness and self-confidence for the dog walk.