agility training with the doggie?

[myplasticegg]

Has anyone here taken a stab at this?

 

I have a 2.5 year old border collie that I got from the Humane Society at the end of October. I am still working with her on her obedience and general manners. As soon as she learns her name and will come back to me without much fuss I want to try some agility training with her.

 

Any ideas on where to start? I'm more or less looking for a flow chart for an order in which to learn the obstacles as well as some diagrams to make said obstacles.

 

Thanks, Shane.

 

PS, what kind of dag(s) to you have??

[tannji]

I have no idea how much training experience you have with dogs.... but I would not actually begin Agility training until the Obedience training is fairly far along. The nature of the Agility trials and training means that your dog needs to understand and practice complete focus on the handler (you) and do this not only willingly, but enthusiastically. The best and possibly only time to instill this focus or attentiveness is while they are learning obedience, and some dogs, to be honest, are capable of obedience championships, but failing at focusing for an extended amount of time on their handler. You can see what I am talking about when you watch your next event. The dog is almost always watching the handler, to the point where they only look away briefly to see where to go. Advanced dogs may spend less time looking at the handler as they learn to anticipate the end of one obstacle as the point to take their cue from the handler for their next direction.

Border Collies are potentially very good agility dogs, as are many others in the working dog class. Small Terriers, Belgians, Shelties, basically high energy, high intelligence dogs are what you are looking for. Extremes in size are avoided generally.

I haven't built obstacles in a long time, and didn't generally work from a plan, but I am sure that there are special interest site out there that would have plans available.

Generally, once your dog is advanced enough to participate in a trial, you don't really follow a diagram for a course lay-out. Part of the challenge is demonstrating your dog's ability to take their cue from you as to where to go next. If the dog thinks they already know, you run the risk of losing points to errors, and this goes both ways! I feel bad, but it can be funny watching a handler who just realized they sent their dog the wrong way.... = )

As corny as it may sound, the key to the entire experience is having fun with the dog. If the dog is eager to please, and learns that you like running around as much as they do, the sky is the limit. If it is just an exercise to be graded for you, it will lose it's luster for the dog as well.

Good luck to you and your dog!

[myplasticegg]

I'm not looking to compete, rather just have fun with doggie and burn off some energy. If I can get her to work through some of the obstacles, even better!

 

Looks like we have a long way to go... I'm only useful when it comes to food, treats, and petting.

 

Thanks for the reply, Shane

[tannji]

Food, treats, and petting!! Great place to start! You have something she wants, now start using them as rewards for desired behavior! Some trainers use a little trick to start their dog along the path of paying attention during obedience work.... keep the next treat between your lips. If the treat comes from your face, and listening to your face gets them a treat... ever hear of Pavlov's dog? = )

[JMortensen]

I had a friend in CA who bred shelties and had a whole agility setup in her back yard. It was almost all PVC pipe and looked like it would have required a couple hours to assemble, if that. She had hurdles, weaving poles, a tire jump (used a dirt bike front tire wrapped in duct tape hung on a PVC frame), a ramp up to a platform and back down, and a teeter-totter. The teeter-totter and ramp weren't PVC, but everything else was. I took my border collie mix over there a couple times and she loved it. Couldn't get her to do the weaving poles, but I didn't really work with her on it, it was just something to do when we were over there really.

 

The other one that I think is really cool for border collies is flyball. Might be harder to set that up in the back yard, but it suits their personalities pretty well.