Training tips for agility dog walk?
Posted: April 5th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Common Questions | Tags: Agility, Tips, Training, Walk | 4 Comments »My dad and I will be finished building the dogwalk today. I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on training. Thank You!
P.S. FEEL FREE to ask QUESTIONS about my dog walk.
Is your dog walk adjustable?
If so, start with it as low to the ground as possible.
Just get your dog to walk across it. Leave out the contacts for now and focus on making your dog comfortable walking across the boards.
As he becomes more comfortable, raise the walk a little bit.
Once you have raised it to a noticeable incline, you may start with the contact zones.
I would not raise it to full height until your dog is 100% comfortable with it at the lower heights – same goes with the other contact equip. as well
You do not want your dog to jump off/fall off the side at full height, it can cause major damage
If it’s what I think it is, and your dog refuses to go up the ramp, you need three people: two for each side and one with treats and encouragement. All you do is move each leg one at a time. When all four legs have been moved, the third person should give a treat and see if it will take a step or two on its own.
Our agility trainer here is on the world team and she insists a dog needs to know “sit”, “stay”, “come”,”down”, and “here (in other words look at me) before doing any agility training. Make sure to train the dogwalk low to the ground so when you dog steps off it, or slides off it, it doesn’t scare him. Do not jump a young dog, under the age of 10 months any higher than 4 inches. A large breed should be even older before jumping higher. Agility can be very harmful to your dog if you don’t know how to train it properly. The fast turns and twists, along with the jumps can throw a shoulder out of place, even a disc in the back, and cause a dog with loose cartilage to rip it. As much fun as agility is for you and your dog , make sure you train wisely and safely, and not guess about how to do it.
You have good advice about starting the dogwalk lowered and slowly raising it up to full height for your dog.
The other important thing you need to do is to decide what your contact zone criteria is going to be. Do you want your dog to stop, with all 4 feet still on the board? Two feet on, two feet off at the bottom? A running contact? Or maybe you want the dog to come 4 feet off the contact and stop there?
When you train your contacts, decide your criteria and stick with it. I personally do the 2 on, 2 off method with my dogs. There is no wrong way to do your contacts. The only wrong thing you can do is not have a criteria for them and stick with it in training.