• 27Dec

  Contact Training

  Dog Agility Training No Comments

  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

• 19Dec

  Reader Question:

  Dog Agility Training 2 Comments

  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.

  

  Tags: agility competing, agility training

• 14Dec

  The Last Hurdle

  Dog Agility Training 7 Comments

  Q. This is my first season competing with my collie, Taggie.  I’ve been told he has lots of potential and will go far if only he would jump the last hurdle. Instead of going over it, he turns back to me. Whatever I do, he won’t take the last fence! It’s the only thing stopping me from getting a clean run.  Do you have any advice?

  A. How very frustrating for you!

  Why the last fence?

  • Associations are made in a split second. Tag may have knocked his toe on landing after the last hurdle – ouch! He may have seen a helper throw a leash as he took off and assumed it was aimed at him – ouch! Is it a surprise that Tag is suspicious of the last fence?

  • All those dogs ringside are in a frenzy to get at the equipment. Taggie questions the wisdom of jumping the last fence and landing in the middle of them.

  • It is possible that Taggie is anticipating the praise he receives at the end of a round and is preempting you. He turns back to his handler too early for congratulations on a job well done (but not finished).

  Mental Imagery You and Taggie are both very apprehensive about the last fence and reinforce each other’s anxiety. Picture another fence after the last one and continue to work Taggie over it.  Pretend the finish line is not where the judge has set it.  This should help you avoid tensing up as you approach the final hurdle.

  All the Hurdles are the Same By becoming last-fence-obsessed, you may be unwittingly rubber-stamping Taggie’s behavior. Act at the last fence just like you do at fences number one, two, and three. It’s possible that your dog believes that all the extra attention he gets at the last fence is his reward for refusing it.

  Lower the Jump Make it as easy as possible for Taggie to jump the last hurdle so that you can praise him for his performance. Start with the fence at mini height. As the fence is raised, and your dog continues to jump it, both of you will relax and cease to think of the last hurdle as your biggest obstacle.

  Go on Teach your dog the “go on” command. Teach him to go over a fence to a target or toy. The reward and praise is delivered after the fence, not before it. And the spectators who cheer Tag to the end of his run will be shouting ‘go on’ too! Your command to send Tag down the home stretch will be reinforced by the crowd.

  Have a break it’s amazing. Some problems disappear as suddenly as they appear for no discernible reason. Have a week or two off and see what happens. You may be pleasantly surprised.

  Don’t let this problem dominate your dog agility training. The last fence is only 1/20^th of the course. Keep practicing other agility exercises. If you get a hang-up about the last fence, so will your dog.

  

  Tags: agility competing, agility training

• 12Dec

  Slow Weaver?

  Dog Agility Equipment, Dog Agility Training 1 Comment

  How can I make my dog like running weave poles? My dog does them well, but is so slow!

  Weaves are difficult for dogs. I suggest rewarding the weaves heavily when you do them. Does your dog do them perfectly? if so, she might be bored and a week off of weave training could help. Start afresh and make the weaves a happy, fast place, not a stressful experience. Don’t overdrill them, keep the rewards changing – sometimes a ball, sometimes food, sometimes a different favorite obstacle and then rewards.

  

  Tags: agility training

• 30Nov

  Help Deciding

  Dog Agility Equipment No Comments

  How do you decide what to buy? What to borrow? What to just do in class?

  This is a hard question, and different for every agility learner.

  Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you choose what you want to buy, borrow, or practice in class.

  Does my dog have difficulty with this? If so, why? Would more interaction with the obstacle help? If so, it might be beneficial to purchase one. If your dog has issues with wrapping jumps, it would probably benefit from at home practice. Weaves especially need to be practiced at home, in my experience.

  Do I have room? Chances are, you can’t fit an entire dogwalk in your back yard. There are ways around that, using benches or a contact trainer to help your dog learn contact behavior, and steady footing on planks.

  Is it something my dog enjoys? I think it’s a good idea to have an obstacle your dog absolutely adores on hand, to use as a reward, or just for a quick five minute practice pick me up. It’s a lot of fun to be able to go outside (or in the basement or barn or wherever) and do a five minute tunnel training day. The dogs get so excited!

  

  Tags: agility beginners, agility obstacles, agility training

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