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. ]]> http://www.agilityfusion.com/2010/03/fast-and-furious-feet/feed/ http://www.agilityfusion.com/2010/03/happy-saint-patricks-day/ http://www.agilityfusion.com/2010/03/happy-saint-patricks-day/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:18:36 +0000 AgilityFusion http://www.agilityfusion.com/?p=3873 Happy St. Patrick’s day! In honor of the day, we’re having a sale at Affordable Agility!

Get going on restocking your course for the summer, and enjoy your corned beef, soda bread, and cabbage! (Don’t let your dog have any beer, though…)

It’s only a three-day sale, so get going to Affordable Agility for your pot of gold at the end of the chute!

See the Irish Wolfhound going over that jump? Isn’t it beautiful?

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?

1. First, remember to run with your dog! Especially important for those of you with unmotivated dogs, make it a game of chase and use that happy voice.

2. Sometimes its best to NOT do a lead out, again, run with your dog. Some of our dogs need support on that first jump to get them geared up for a better run.

3. Also, remember to say your dog’s name in the tunnel so they know where you are before they come out, you can shave sometimes more than a full second by doing this, especially in the chute

4. On the table… be aware of where your next obstacle is and sit or down your dog facing the next obstacle.

5. On the table, for the big dogs, sometimes it is faster to sit and then down your dog, and be sure to give them room to down.

6. Know what your weak areas are, does your dog do the teeter slowly, or the dogwalk slowly, then make up time between the obstacles by getting your speed back up.

7. Walk that fine line between building speed and not rushing the dog! You need to know your dog, but you must remember to avoid rushing the dog and causing dropped bars.

Keep these tips in mind as you walk your courses and plan for them during your run. Every second counts. I’ve personally not qualified by one tenth of a second, so I do work on making up time on the courses. And you should too.

~Thanks to Linda Freed at http://agilityteamair.wordpress.com/ for the above entry~