• 31May

  Wild Water Obstacles

  Dog Agility Equipment No Comments

  Water obstacles can take your agility fun in the sun to a wacky new level. There are plenty of cool options to try, from the challenging hydro hoop to the refreshing doggie drencher! Our office Labrador Hershey loves the water obstacles.

  Teaching your dog to enjoy a water obstacle is easy! Start out with the obstacle dry and teach your dog to navigate it. Then turn the water on very low so your dog can see it – encourage them to investigate it! Ask your dog if they’ll do it, and go from there! Reward their performance and interactions, and have fun.
  

  
• 29May

  Turning Around in Chutes

  Dog Agility Equipment, Dog Agility Training 3 Comments

  I need some help with my dog going through the chute. She goes through the tunnel easily, but the chute is scary to her and she turns around coming out the entrance. Any quick solutions?

  Thank you,
  An eager agility student

  Chutes can be very scary! It might help your dog for you to shorten the chute for practice – you can use binder clips to pin it up.

  Another tip is to have a helper hold the chute open for you, so your dog can see through to the end, like a tunnel. Then call your dog through the chute. After a few successful runs, have the helper start dropping the chute on the dog’s back so they get accustomed to the fabric touching their back. Work your way along until the dog charges through without the fabric needing to be held at all. This is especially important if you practice on a heavy competition chute, since they let less light through and require more effort to push through.

  Always call your dog straight through the chute – run to the end and call from there, because calling from an angle can cause tangles.

  Make chutes a high-reward obstacle, with lots and lots of cookies. I wouldn’t practice this obstacle to death – keep your sessions short and have one or two sessions a day if possible. Keep it up, you’ll get there!

   

  

  Tags: agility obstacles, agility training

• 26May

  Summer Savings!

  Dog Agility Equipment No Comments

  Are you ready for summer? Let us help you get set up! This Memorial Day weekend, Affordable Agility is having a big blowout sale!  Get ready for summer Agility!

  
• 24May

  Night Time Safety

  Interesting and Funny No Comments

  Remember to wear flashing lights when you go out at night with your dog, both to find your dog more easily and also to be visible to cars.

  

  Tags: dog safety & health

• 21May

  Why Weave?

  Dog Agility Equipment, Dog Agility Training No Comments

  Why are there so many methods to teach your dog to weave?

  Everyone learns differently! The same is true of our dogs.  Some dogs are motivated by lettuce, others only really get excited by liver bits (yes, you can condition them to enjoy a wider variety, but sometimes working with your dogs natural preferences works out best!) So some dogs do fabulously learning to weave in 2×2’s, and others do better in channels, or slanting weave poles.  Or maybe it’s the trainer who understands one better than the other, and so the dog learns more quickly and thoroughly using one method over the other.  So long as your end result is the same – wicked fast, happy weaves – the methodology for getting there doesn’t matter quite so much.

  If a particular style of weaving just isn’t working for you and your dog after you’ve given it a good try, ask your trainer if you can try another method.  If you use stick in the ground weaves, it’s easy to change between methods!  Just change the layout of your weaves and you’re good to go.

  

  Tags: agility obstacles, agility training, weave poles

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