How can I train my dog in agility at home?
Friday, September 10th, 2010 at
5:08 pm
So, I recently discovered that my dog who’s around a year old would be perfect for agility.
I don’t want to enroll in classes and I would like to do the training myself. What do I need, what are some tips, what do I teach it, and how?
Tagged with: Agility • Home • train
Filed under: Dog Agility Training
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Lots of doggy treats and lots of patients.
You will need some equipment. Some can be made at home if you are handy. Some will have to bought like the tunnel. Whatever you do make sure that your equipment is safe and sturdy for the dog. There are several methods around in training agility. You would be better off purchasing some books and DVD’s as some parts can be quite involved. It’s too bad that you don’t want to enroll in a class as that would be a good way to get your feet wet. Below is a website to get you started.
You can buy or build equipment to use at home. Just do a search for “agility equipment” or “homemade agility equipment”. However, you really should take classes first. An inexperienced person training a dog for agility can end up actually causing the dog to get hurt which could permanently cause them to be unable or unwilling to compete. You could also teach the dog quite a few bad habits that will cause it to do poorly at trials and you’d end up spending more on classes to fix that than you would if you took classes to learn it correctly the first time. The investment into the classes will be worth it for you and your dog to learn to do well in trials as well as aiding in teaching you the various rules to each venue (which there are plenty of and they all have different rules).
Also, you may want to have your vet take some x-rays of your dog’s joints before starting to make sure they’re good. Just looking at the dog won’t tell you a thing. If the joints are good, any event is fairly safe. If they’re not, the vet may recommend you stick to certain types of agility such as events that have no jumping. Good luck!
You should make paths/obstacle course with dog treats. you should also put him on a treadmill
If you have any desire to compete, ever, you should take classes. Can you do it yourself, yes, can you cause a lot of bad habits, yes. Little things that may not seem like a big deal now, because this is your first agility dog, may become a huge deal if you try to trial. You can also cause your dog to be injured if certain things are not taught correctly. Start with a lot of obedience training. check out Clean Run. They have books and videos on everything to do with agility, trials and training.