dog training | blogility

When I first started doing agility, a local instructor told me “train like you show, show like you train”. Take that mantra and apply it to everything you do to prepare yourself and your dog for your agility career. Because dogs don’t generalize, the more you can recreate that trial environment when you train, the better prepared you will be when you step into the ring. There are many things you can do to train smarter for agility trials.

Of the three main agility venues, only AKC allows collars, and that collar can’t have hanging tags. Train in the collar you are going to show in, train with the leash you are going to show with. Go the line of your handling sequence in agility class with that leash on and go through the process of taking it off and throwing it off to the side. Trust me, those steps affect some dogs! I have seen dogs take off after their leash, it’s a toy right? (except in NADAC, no tugging on the leash allowed, have you practiced that??) I have also seen the handler project stress to the dog as they remove the leash because they are not used to grappling with a slip lead, handler gets in a hurry, dog gets stressed, not a good situation at the start line. And speaking of leashes, have you practiced putting it on after the run? Some dogs need to practice the ritual of coming to the handler, getting caught and having the leash put on. Don’t lose that first Q because your dog runs out of the ring (in AKC) or grabs the leash and has a big tug fest (NADAC). I know handlers who have taught their dogs to target the leash, to keep an over aroused dog from jumping up and taking them out with excitement (can’t do this in NADAC).

In a typical AKC or USDAA course there are approximately 15 – 17 obstacles per a 100 by 100 square foot area (give or take). That’s an average of 16 obstacles per 10,000 square feet. How big is your training facility? If you are training in a 60 by 60 square foot facility, you should be using 6 obstacles or so. There should be a distance of 15 – 18 ft (AKC) to 20 ft (USDAA) between obstacles (possibly more for NADAC or USDAA snooker). More obstacles does not equal a better training situation. Cramming too many obstacles into too small of a space does not replicate the trial experience and is potentially unsafe. Off course options should be a minimum of 13 ft (AKC) away. That includes the dog walk legs, side of the chute, etc. Setting up a short, meaningful handling sequence that allows for reinforcement when the dog is correct makes way better “train like you show, show like you train” sense. If obstacles are crammed into a too small space, dogs don’t get a chance to open up and make choices based on handler movement. You may find that when you go to a trial, you can’t get to where you need to go and your dog is busy taking the next obstacle in their path instead of paying attention to the handler.

On the topic of obstacles, look around at your training facility, do the jumps have wings? Fifty percent of an AKC course and the majority of an USDAA course must have wings. If you do NADAC, none of the jumps have wings. It makes a difference, visually to both the handler and the dog to run a course of winged jumps vs non-winged jumps. Set the course to mimic what you are going to trial on. Are the contacts at your training facility slatted? Rubberized? AKC and USDAA have a slatted a-frame and dog walk, NADAC is slat-less. Have you looked at the surface of the contacts you train on? Although I am not a fan of slats, it does affect a dog to do a slat-less dog walk when they are used to a slatted dog walk, some dogs get confused and think it is the teeter (the teeter is the only slat-less contact obstacle in AKC and USDAA). Also, be aware that the length of the yellow contact zone is different in AKC and USDAA for both the dog walk and the teeter.

Reinforcing and rewarding behaviors is a key part of dog training but can’t be done in the agility ring. It is important to fade rewards in preparation for trials. Leave the food hidden somewhere and run to it after a successful sequence. Have a friend hold and throw a toy. Stop rewarding every contact (don’t want to go through an extinction behavior on the dog walk because suddenly you are not rewarding the 2O/2O), use verbal praise, change the number of obstacles you do before reward (don’t just do more and more, jump around from 2 to 6 to 3 to 14, etc). Verbal markers are allowed in the agility ring, you take your voice into the ring with you, so if you have been training with a clicker, consider switching to ‘yes’ as your marker. You can mark contacts, weaves, tight turns, etc on the agility course.

I could go on and on with different scenarios. Dogs don’t generalize! You need to teach them to handle the environment they will encounter in a trial situation. Have you had a judge stand in the ring while you train? The judge will RUN next to the dog walk in USDAA, in FAST, Snooker and Gamblers the judge is calling out numbers, and don’t forget the leash runner, pole setters and other ring crew. At some big venues, music is played while you walk the course, the crowd might cheer very loudly, and people might be standing ringside or reaching over the ring barrier. The more situations you can expose your dog to as you are training, the more situations they will be able to handle as you are trialing. Be smart! “Train like you show, show like you train!”

As I continue to help people with their dogs, I do believe, as humans, we tend to LUMP and SKIP steps that our dogs are not ready to LUMP or SKIP.

The Dr. Karen Overall Relaxation Protocol is an awesome tool to help your dog deal with stressful and stimulating situations.

This “mat” behavior, as we call it, needs to be proofed beyond all doubts. Generalized, tested, etc. AND THEN YOU NEED TO USE IT! Please do not show up to any class, trial, training, etc without your mat. It is a tool. Your dog may need it for the rest of their life. And just when you think your dog “gets it”, they don’t. You need to proof more. You need to take it to a trial and see if your dog can do it within sight of the ring. You need to take it to class and use it instead of your start line, or as an obstacle. You need to take it to a busy, crowded area. You need to throw treats and toys around it. You need to do it at night, during the day, in the rain, and in the sun. And you need to do it with other dogs or kids or people working near it. And, and, and.

IF and WHEN you find that your dog is not coping or functioning you have over stepped your training. WE want to do agility. BUT what if our dogs aren’t ready? What is the point of being able to do 20 obstacles if your dog can’t function around other dogs or people?????? Is it better to train more agility at that point? Work handling? Or help your dog cope with different situations? I say that it is better to help your dog cope. Deal with stress. IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW FAST YOUR DOG IS OR HOW AWESOME YOUR HANDLING IS if your dog can’t function around other dogs, or step to the start line and stay focused.

Anecdote: I paid for and attended multiple sessions of an obedience class with Hunda when I lived in Little Rock, CA. The class cost was $20 per class for 1 session of 10 classes ($200 total) and was 1 hour away in Lancaster. I did multiple sessions. Hunda couldn’t function inside the fenced portion of the class. I think we went inside once or twice. Mostly we did short behavior chains outside of sight of the ring. He was so overly stimulated that we couldn’t go near the other dogs. I worked and worked and worked, and some days he was ready to go near the gate, loose leash waking all the way (don’t think your instructor doesn’t notice when clients let their dogs pull 😦 this is a VERY sad comment on our dog training skills and your relationship with your dog), and if Hunda could let me open the gate and step inside without spazzing out we would go in, do a behavior and leave. That’s it. Very rarely we actually worked on LLW or something more complicated within the ring. He just couldn’t do it. BUT it really helped him with self control and stress. And I learned to recognize when he could and couldn’t work. And I took that with me to the agility ring. If Hunda could bark on command and do a trick on the start line I had a dog, if he couldn’t he was too stressed and we would leave the ring. And even if he did bark on command and do a trick, we would do 2 – 3 obstacles and leave having fun, being happy, focused on me and not stressed and visiting the ring help or judge. It was very $$$$$$$$$$$$ and worth every penny to do 6 months of trials without actually running a full course. My first actual Q with Hunda, as well as his Novice titles, mean WAAAAAYYYY more to me than going to South Africa with Ho because I had to work so hard for them!

So sit back and think about your goals with your dogs. And keep their stress and your relationship in mind when you start choosing agility over calmness, agility over relaxation, agility over teamwork, etc. Which is more important? Agility or your relationship with your dog? The sad part is, I am seeing A LOT of clients choose agility because agility is fun for the human and dog training is hard.

I leave you with some quotes:

Someone once said to me, “It doesn’t matter how fast your dog is if your dog drops a bar”

I say, “It doesn’t matter how fast your dog is if you can’t function at an agility trial, do a start line stay, etc”

I love my Hunda Looney Tunes, he teaches me soooo much! Our teamwork together has taken us many places! Granted, my goals with him (like the AKC Invitational) had to CHANGE significantly as our training progressed (he will never be able to attend due to running in Performance at 8″) BUT that first agility title hangs on my wall, right next to our CD title, HUGE accomplishments that we both worked very hard for. And this year, Hunda placed 3rd in JWW at Westminster! You never know where your dog training journey will take you (and that’s why my business is called Journey Agility)!!! Hunda just turned 7, Happy Birthday Looney Tunes and here’s to many more journey’s together!