Article by Melanie McClure

Musical canine freestyle is a fun way to train your dog. I got started in training dogs when I got my first two Australian shepherds. I enjoyed teaching them basic obedience, but then I wanted to know what more could I teach my smart dogs. Teaching basic obedience was easy and fun and I wanted something more advanced I could teach them at such a young age. I also needed something I could teach from the comfort of our own home. I thought about agility training, but my dogs needed to be over the age of one to really get into that and it requires a special field with special equipment.

Then, I finally discovered musical canine freestyle. It combines the best of obedience, agility and trick training and adds in some musical creativity and dance! My dogs loved it from the start. Musical canine freestyle is a dog sport in which you do heelwork to music and add in all sorts of creative and basic tricks like sit, lay, spin, jumps, leg weaves, and circle around, etc. The choreography of the routine is up to you to create and has very few restrictions. You get to chose what moves work well for you and your dog and select music that compliments your dogs’ movement so it looks like he is dancing to the music.

Clicker training is the fastest and easiest way to train your dog to dance. Trainers have found they can teach their dogs in a matter of minutes and weeks what it used to take months and years to teach using clicker training methods. Clicker training is a positive reward based training method. When training your dog to dance never give any punishments or use negative reinforcement. You want your dog to look and be happy about his training time. Learning tricks and cool moves is always an optional thing for your dog to do. Some moves and tricks might be hard for him to do and may not be well suited for your dog. Listen to your dog and if you think that something is not right for him, move on to something else. Remember many moves and tricks can tax your dog’s body so be sure they are age appropriate and stop when you

Tagged with: Clicker • Dance • train • Training

Filed under: Dog Clicker Training

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