Happy New Year, soon! I thought I’d share a video as the last post of the year – this video has a lot of dogs of many sizes and speeds running a really awesome looking course! Hope you enjoy! And remember in the new year, agility is about fun and how you and your dog work together.
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30Dec
Tags: videos
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27Dec
Contact training is a necessary step in agility, both for your dogs’ safety and your sanity. Stopping on a contact can give you enough time to catch up, lead out, or find where you are on course! Training contact stops should be fun and rewarding for your dog, using a target to learn the behavior, and then fading the target. Pay attention to your dogs. Dogs may learn this behavior at different rates. It’s important not to bore them by drilling them in contacts, and it’s also important they feel that contacts are fun.REMEMBER: keep sessions very, very short, 1-2 minutes at most, since dogs burn out quickly on targets.
- Shape the dog to target with his nose or paw, whichever you prefer. Many handlers prefer the nose since it seems clearer to the dog that they MUST stop. Reward repetitive touches, or ‘holding’ the touch. Build value for touching enthusiastically!
- Practice targeting on stairs, and then fade the target itself, thus leaving your dog with a nose touch to ground behavior. Use any stairs you can, in different settings. Keep sessions short and highly rewarding.
- Begin practicing the targeting on contact behavior, again beginning with the target so your dog ‘gets it’, and then fading the target, leaving the dog with a nose touch to ground. Keep sessions short and highly rewarding! If at any time your dog’s behavior deteriorates, go back a bit in training, and work your way back up. Never take a good contact stop for granted.
- After the dogs are used to contact training, start them on proofing – so they know to stick it no matter WHAT you do!
If you prefer not to train a 2on2off for any reason, these contact zoners will help your dog learn not to ‘fly off’,
Tags: agility training
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23Dec
Wow, these dogs are well-trained! That’s a lot of work and effort in this movie, I laughed until I cried! enjoy! Merry Christmas, everybody!
Tags: videos
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22Dec
Christmas is the time of giving and cheer, and we love to share it with our pets! However, many items this time of year can prove hazardous to animal health, so please, keep a watch out for dangerous items and situations!- Decorations – light cords, real pine trees, tinsel, poinsettias, chocolates, and mistletoe are all ‘new’ things in the house that a pet will want to explore. Keep the animals safe by securing decorations and keeping the pets contained and away from open flames and electrical cords.
- Food – holiday food is notoriously sweet and fatty! Keep treats to pets to a minimum, and food stored safely away from them. Even the best dog will steal a turkey if it’s left within reach.
- Stress – with so many people in ‘their’ house, or being in a new place, your pet may stress out. Provide them with a safe place to go to – a quiet room, a crate, or an elevated cat tree.
- Open Doors – This time of year we are always opening the door to welcome in family, unload the car, or take the packages from Affordable Agility off the stoop. Be careful that your pet doesn’t make a break for the great outdoors!
- Gifts - sometimes we wrap delicious food and put it under the tree. If your dog or cat is half as smart as you think they are, they probably think it’s a game to unwrap!
Tags: dog safety & health
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19Dec
Q. My dogs is brilliant on training nights at the club. We can do quite advanced stuff, yet we are still in the beginners for competitions. We attended a competition yesterday and she behaved like a dog that didn’t know what agility was about! She ran up to the Judge for some attention, she ran out of the ring to see someone she knew, and she was s-l-o-w!How do I transfer her wonderful skills at training to a competition?
A. I think your dog just needs a bit more time to learn to work at trials – this is super common for beginner dogs! They get a little bit stressed because of the new atmosphere and their handlers’ jitters, and so they seem to ‘forget’ how to do agility, or go very slowly, or leave the ring altogether. Some things that might help you and your dog are (you can use all, or some, and please let me know if you think of any others! this is a pretty common problem.
- fun runs - go to a trial that offers ‘fun runs’, where you can bring a toy into the ring, or even treats, maybe – ask before you do treats!
- Enter one run at a competition, if possible. This will spare your dog the stresses of crating AND running.
- Bring your dog along (with permission from the trial hosts) and just crate and walk them at the trial. That will get them used to the atmosphere and crating and coming out with lots and lots of dogs!
- Train at another center, if possible, a few times
- Rent a ring with friends and stage your own trial! I like this one, since it allows you to have some of the atmosphere but in a super controlled way.
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