Would agility training teach my dog to jump the garden wall?
Posted: April 11th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Common Questions | Tags: Agility, garden, Jump, teach, Training, wall, would | 9 Comments »I have a border collie and when i bought one the general advice was to have a 9ft fence around the garden which i though was rediculous at the time so i disregarded it.
I saw someone else with a border collie and they had a 6 ft mesh fence and it looked horrible!
I have a 3ft wall around my house and my dog will at most stand up against it, but never even attempted to scale it even with people and dogs on the other side (which he loves) and i’m fairly sure that he could easily if he tried.
Anyway, he’s getting to the age to start agility but i am scared that he is going to realise that he can jump and climb and once he realises that, that i won’t be able to let him out into the garden.
Any agility dog owners with similar circumstances?
Thanks
The answer is that a habitat of the Sweden or Tokelau Dog is usually humid and polar, not varying from your illustrative Aruba Dog’s habitat
I wouldn’t trust a 3ft fence to keep any medium/large dog contained. Increase the height of your fence.
I’ve increased my 6ft fence to 9ft with lattice panels.
No-one can predict that your dog will never try and jump over a 3ft high wall.
3ft is nothing to a dog and if you do agility with him, then yes he is much more likely to jump over the wall.
I say this because I taught my gsd to jump a 3ft high hurdle and to scale 6 ft upright wooden board scale because it was part of the test in working trials. After that if a dog walked by the 5 barred garden gate of my house he would jump over it to get to the dog. I had to put a wire barrier on top of the gate to stop this behaviour.
Ps: I have 6 ft high deer fence round my garden now.
It does not look awful and I have planted climbing plants
next to it that disguise it and it looks nice in summer with
all the foliage up it.
It would be wise to heighten your wall if you intend teaching him to jump.
My first bc would scale a 6 ft wooden fence and hang off the top watching people go by and if she was especially hyper that day would pace back and forth on top of the fence like a cat.
With your other training you need to define appropriate behaviors and times that the dog can practice agility, typically only with a command and not on his own. This hopefully will be imprinted during the lead up training and puppyhood definition of boundaries which is sounds like your dog has if he is not already bouncing over a 3 foot wall (most bcs would not need to scale 3ft). Your dog is smart enough to know he could get over that wall in a heart beat without agility practice. Personally think the benefits of energy outlet and relationship building outweigh those possible risks.
btw, is the dog enclosed in the 6ft mesh garden fence or primarily behind the 3ft wall?
Agree with all the other answers, and quite honestly am amazed that he hasn’t yet jumped over a 3 ft wall. Also agree that I do hope you don’t trust him out on his own behind a 3 ft as unless there is something wrong with him, which isn’t likely, then NO WAY could he not jump that.
I think you should go ahead with the agility anyway, and then increase the height of the fence as well. I can’t imagine this dog NEVER trying to get over it.
Agility gives your dog a rule structure, relationship with you, mental stimulation, and physical exercise so that he shouldn’t feel the need to escape. Any BC worth the name can figure out how to escape a 3 foot fence, whether or not they attend classes. Go to classes!
We have a 3 1/2 foot fence. My Border Collie and my daughter’s Lab have never thought of jumping over the fence, and they both are competition agility dogs.
Yours….well I can’t say….
I don’t know that I would trust a 3′ fence, but that has nothing to do with agility. Border collies are good at jumping high. My neighbors have a 6′ fence, and their border collies are able to jump over it if they really want to get out. We’ve found them out several times and have had to return them. Luckily, they’re obedient enough not to go far.
I think it’s fine for your dog to be out with a 3′ fence, but I personally would not leave him out there alone when you’re not home.
As for agility, it really doesn’t teach them to jump higher or anything, your dog would probably jump 20″, which is lower than your fence. Dogs already know how to jump, agility is just teaching them to do it on command.
If anything, agility would probably help the scenario. Since I’ve started doing agility with my dog, he’s been much more obedient, and never tries to run off. We could leave him outside the front door and he wouldn’t go anywhere. He knows not to do things without a command. When we were taking classes, I was worried that teaching “table” would make him think it was okay to jump on the coffee table, but it didn’t. He would never do that unless I told him too.
Getting your dog to its full capacity is not always easy. As a dog lover I know how that fells. I got my relief from that felling 2 weeks after I discovered this Professional Dog Training Guide, it answers it all.