• 24Aug

  Broad Jump Confessional

  Dog Agility Training No Comments

  Dear Professor K. Nyne,

  I have a confession. When I got to my first competition I saw that they had a Broad Jump in the ring. I panicked. I know you are not supposed to bring any equipment or practice on trial grounds (except for the single bar jump they provide for warm-ups), but I realized my dog was unprepared for this unusual jump! So I did something I shouldn’t have. I snuck around in the back hedgerows of the trial and found a square flat piece of wood and binge-trained my poor dog right there!”

  - An Agility Student

  Oh my, don’t do this again! You could have been disqualified. I understand why you felt unprepared though, as the Broad Jump is often neglected in agility class training. Instead, you need to get a set for home and practice all you want. You’ll compete with confidence, and your dog will feel less pressured too. Continue reading »

  Tags: agility competing, agility obstacles, agility training

• 23Aug

  Whatcha Got?

  Interesting and Funny 2 Comments

  This is a question I ask almost every day, regarding my co-workers lunches.  They ask me what I have, too.  It’s human nature to see what everyone’s eating!

  My dogs are the same way.  If I give Quick a biscuit, and Nova a liver treat, there’s a definite ‘whatcha got?’ look exchanged.  And jealousy. I avoid this scenario at any cost!  They start milling around me, wagging their entire bodies and pressing up against me like 80lb cats.  It’s not as fun as it sounds.  Especially when they start bouncing.

  What’ve you got?  What kind of food do you feed your dog?  These days it seems everyone has an opinion on what’s the best thing to feed dogs, and I for one am lost!  I feed a high-quality kibble, and my dogs do fine.  I give freeze-dried treats, or real-food treats like apple, potato, or cheese. What do you think is best? Do you like raw food? (if you feed raw, tell me how you feel about the new Delta therapy dog ruling, please? I don’t understand.) Dehydrated? Are you like me and spend hours researching kibbles that are best for your dogs?

  Tags: controversial, dog products, dog safety & health

• 20Aug

  Proofing Weaves

  Dog Agility Competing, Dog Agility Training No Comments

  This is a great video, and a great idea.  This would be easy to set up using  stick in the ground weaves.

  Tags: agility competing, agility obstacles, agility training, videos

• 17Aug

  Side to Side

  Dog Agility Training, Dog Training (General) No Comments

  You have two hands- remember you have two sides!

  Work your dog off both sides at every level of training. That way in a trial situation it will not be startling to your dog when you switch sides. Practice walking at your side on and off leash from both sides. Personally I have found that ‘heel’ for left and ‘side’ for right work beautifully for my dogs. I also tilt my head to where I want them to be as an additional cue.  From there, work your way up to sending over jumps and through tunnels from both sides.  After you have that down pat, try send aheads from either side! Soon you’ll have an ambidextrous dog!

  Tags: agility training, dog training

• 16Aug

  Quick Go Lightly

  Dog Agility Training 5 Comments

  Tonight was one of those nights that just make you love Agility. It was fast, it was fun, and other than nearly having a potty incident on the course, it was flawless.

  A Hoop was brought out for us to play with. They’re much harder to teach than I’d thought, and just as fun as I’d known they would be! Quick’s so big he keeps breaking the hoop apart. Someone is going to have tire issues, I think… I sure hope not!

  After we played with the hoop, Quick was introduced to his first half-height A-frame. He was fearless, charging up and running down, spinning himself around, and leaping over the apex. He scampered up and down, demanding his cookies.

  Speaking of cookies, thank God for an understanding trainer! My cat had broken into my dog bag without me knowing, and eaten all the treats! I didn’t realize it until we started class and it was too late to do anything but throw myself on the mercy of my trainer, who laughed and sent me inside to fetch treats. Crisis averted! I’m thinking of trying out a new treat, Quick’s not bored with his Zuke’s and liver, but I am. Any suggestions?

  After the A-frame, we worked on a lowered dogwalk! Again, Quick surprised me. I hate dogwalks. They scare me. I can’t let that show as he works on them, but honestly I just want to hold on to him every minute he’s on it. What if he falls off and hurts himself? He’s got good landing skills if he jumps, but what if he falls? Yes, I’m a worrywart. Thankfully, Quick is not- not about heights, anyway! He loved the dogwalk, but he’s already getting a bad habit of ditching the down plank halfway down. We’ll be working on that next week, I’m telling you!

  The class discussed who could learn running contacts, who could learn two on, two off, and what four on the floor was. I’m not sure, I’d like Quick to have running contacts, especially after reading that Clean Run article about how it can be hard on their shoulders, but I also am not sure he’ll ever get an effective running contact. We’ll see!

  I took my camera to class to get pictures of him being cute, but I totally forgot to take pictures! I’ll try to remember next week.

  Tags: agility beginners, agility training

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