This week in class we talked about why agility is so hard. The answer is: so many moving parts! You need to be good at 3 dimensional spaces, you are moving, the dog is moving FAST and that is BEFORE you get to the dog training aspect. I see a lot of people take a few classes and then BAM!, they enter a trial. The fallout is that the dog gets frustrated, the human gets frustrated and the wheels fall off. 

Nowadays you CAN enter a trial for training purposes, most venues have some sort of training in the ring available. My wish is that more people would use that opportunity to get a feel for what a trial is like, make sure their dog is successful and continue to train!

Agility training never stops! There are always skills you can brush up on, solidify, generalize, etc.

My current agility dogs are 5, 4 and 1 year old. The two older dogs spent a ton of time training in the ring. I had to completely remove BeadyEye from competition while I created a positive conditioned emotional response to the “GO” sound from the timer box. I think we were at that task for about 6 months, then I went to a baby dog trial that would allow us to skip the “GO” sound at first. We added it back in slowly and now BeadyEye hears the “GO” sound and he knows it’s agility time! 

I also spent a ton of time entering trials where I could make my own courses (for safety and training purposes), even if I couldn’t run with a toy. It’s so important to make every run a happy experience for you and your dog, otherwise why are you doing agility?

At Journey Agility & Dog Training we can help you set attainable goals that are FUN! WOOT!