• 18Mar

  Fast and Furious Feet

  Dog Agility Equipment 1 Comment

  

  Pam and Hershey Practicing Paw-Work

  Dogs are four legged, but sometimes they forget. They aren’t really conscious of their back half, and are startled when it is shut into a door, or their feet slip. Agility dogs need to be foot aware! Ladders and Cavalettis help a dog realize they have four feet, as repeatedly walking over things that require them to lift all their feet makes the dog think about how they’re walking. If they learn to think about their feet, they’ll think about it when they’re on a dogwalk or see-saw. When they are thinking on their feet, they’ll be more confident on all obstacles, and their speed will increase.

  Training these can be difficult- some dogs hate them- or it can be easy- some dogs love them! Patience and practice will make your dog a fire-footed furball! For more information on training your dog to use a ladder, click here and here.

  

  Tags: agility training

• 16Mar

  Time to Get Ready!

  Dog Agility Competing, Dog Agility Equipment No Comments

  The worst of the cabin fever is upon us! Don’t give in, get going on getting everything all prepped for April, which will be open season on agility (at least for those of us in the colder areas!) the rest of you are already rarin’ to go!

  Check your gear. Over the winter you may have lost, misplaced, misused, or broken some of your equipment. Take special care to examine your contact equipment if it is inside. If it’s outside, it has to wait for the snow to all melt! If you’ve broken or completely lost things, decide what to replace. Retape bars and poles now, too!  If tape is hanging off it could get caught in your dogs fur and give an unpleasant tug, and also, it looks tacky.  Remove the tape completely and apply new tape.

  Start getting in gear Walk your dog outside as much as possible, or get them to exercise by fetching up and down a hallway or in an indoor area. You need to get in shape, too! It’s no fun to not be able to catch up to your dog, or to be too out of breath to give commands.  Practice with a single jump inside if it’s still too wet out, and get outside when the weathers’ fine.

  Evaluate your course Now is a great time to add to your course! The earlier you can get your equipment onto your course and your dog working with it, the sooner he’ll be blazing through it! 

  Rearrange your course  If you’ve been using the same course over and over, you are not challenging yourself or your dog enough.  Snake a tunnel through your dogwalk or A-frame, set up a four-square of jumps, or split your twelve pole weave set into two sets of six, or from two sets of six into a twelve set.

  Up your upping Get back into mental shape by teaching your dog a new trick or four. Anything you can think of to get your dogs’ brain in gear and his focus on you is great, and if it’ll help them out in agility, so much the better!  I like the ’spin’ trick, and the ‘jump into arms’ trick, personally.

  Plan your practice Set aside a few minutes a day for training your dog.  Many dogs do best with five to ten minute sessions of training with play on both ends of the session instead of a half an hour session with play in the middle of it.  Remember to end on a positive note.  You don’t want to work your dog to exhaustion and take the fun out of things! finish with a perfect obstacle- and if he can’t give you that, then end with a perfect sit or trick!

  Check out the competitions you want to attend, and sign up! Don’t be closed out because you procrastinated too long.

  What other things do you do to ready yourself for the upcoming agility season?

  

  Tags: agility competing, agility training

• 23Feb

  Light at the end of the…. chute?

  Dog Agility Equipment 1 Comment

  If, like many of us, you’re usually training your dog on your own, it can be hard to get them used to the chute.  They can’t see the end ! it’s scary! it’s dark! 

  To help your dog get used to chutes and tunnels, try putting another tunnel or barrel into the exit end of the chute to hold it open.  Your dog can see through! it’s a miracle!  Slowly faze it out after your dog gets the idea of running all the way through.

  This tip is especially good for very small dogs, and young dogs, or anybody doing agility on their own.

  

  Tags: agility beginners, agility obstacles

• 15Feb

  Zoning a Zooming Contact

  Dog Agility Equipment, Dog Agility Training No Comments
  Contact zoners are a wonderful contact reinforcer. Too many times dogs are disqualified at trials because they’ve missed a contact from going too fast off the end. Enter the Contact Zoner! It works by providing a visual ‘uhoh, can’t jump, I’d hit that’ cue.  Simply place the zoner at the bottom of the obstacle, and run the obstacle as usual. It forces your dog to go to the end of the contact- A-frame, Dogwalk, or Seesaw- to go through it.  Train slowly and treat often, and you will be well on your way to contact mastery. If he ever misses a contact again, simply bring it back as a gentle reminder.  Remember to use treats and lots and lots of praise for a good contact. 

  Using zoners is a form of conditioning that teaches a dog by limiting his choices- a two on two off which according to Clean Run magazines’ research may place too much stress on the hindquarters of the dog isn’t necessary with a zoner.  Your dog learns that it can’t jump off, so it simply runs through.  Think of it as a childproof lock that you can eventually remove from your cupboard, yet your child no longer even bothers trying to get in (until they do, which is why it is important to have the zoner in use sometimes.)

  Note: Do not use these for the upside of an A-frame.  Big dogs need to leap up the A-frame to get enough running power, and it is not necessary that they touch the contact zone on the upside anyway.  But you can use them for Teeters & Dogwalks, as it can help with dogs that approach from the side.

  

  Tags: agility obstacles, agility training

• 09Feb

  Good for a Burmese Mountain Dog?

  Dog Agility Equipment No Comments

  We get a lot of questions at Affordable Agility about what equipment is best for an individual dog.  One such question was what type of equipment a Burmese Mountain dog (pictured at right- isn’t he lovely?) should use.  This is a hard question to answer.  Generally, when it comes to the larger breeds (especially the bulkier/big boned breeds), they do very well with competition equipment.  This is especially the case if you want to encourage speed, or if you are at all serious in the sport, no matter your dog size!   Many dogs can get by on lighter equipment,  but Burmese Mountain dogs are more ‘lumbering’ dogs… give them sturdy equipment!  

  You may especially want to consider keeping your larger breed on 24″ weave spacing.  Most vets agree that the bigger the dog, the harder the closer spacing is on their backs! 

   

   

   

  

  Tags: agility safety, dog products

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