Does anyone do dog agility, I have some questions?

Question

I have a 7 month old Sheltie. She is super smart and a real sweatheart. She does very well in obedience and looks like she'll be great at agility as well. We have taken our fourth class. She loves the tunnels and hurdles and even the A frame. However, she's really scared of the teeter totter because it's narrow and obviously moves. She also doesn't like the dog walk because it's narrow and she can't see what's ahead. I put her on top of the walk and lure her slowly across with treats. Does it sometimes take a while for dogs to get used to this equipment? She won't pass the class unless she can do everything. Also, how do you teach a dog to "weave"? What equipment does the very first level of competitive agility use? Also, she's scared of the tire jump if it's not secured. Any advice? I don't want to give up 'cause she's so quick and eager to learn and please. I think she'll be awesome at agility. Alot of her apprehensiveness might be 'cause I'm new at agility too!

Answer 1

I hope your instructor is not starting you on full-height equipment. That is not safe and can really put some dogs off agility.

There are two possibilities when starting to teach the teeter. One is to have a plank laid across a low pivot point (like a broom handle. I stand across the middle of the high end of the board, one foot on each side, facing the high end. At first I click/treat the dog for touching the plank, then for putting his foot on it and making it move. Then I encourage them to go across the plank, and click them when it bangs on the ground. Once they're happy with this I start raising the plank a bit so it moves more and bangs harder.

Another thing you can use is a Buja Board
http://www.peak.org/~helix/Agility/bujaboard.html
It's basically a square board with a ball underneath, you click and treat the dog for playing on it and making it move and bang.

Once the dog is not worried about the movement, we start bringing her along a low teeter with a pause table under the high end (the pivot of the teeter is set at the same height at the table), stopping her at her pivot point so she learns to drop the teeter properly. They get a click/treat when the teeter drops, and again when they finish it proplerly (most people teach a two feet on, two feet off (2o2o) contact, but because I have basset hounds which are long-backed I teach a running contact). The table is so that the teeter doesn't drop the full distance. There is no reward for coming off the side, only the end. Once she is confident at that height we take the table away, then start raising the teeter.

For the dog walk we start with a simple plank across two cement blocks. Once the dog is going across this confidently we add the ramps at the end of the blocks, then do a low-level dog-walk and gradually raise it as to dog builds confidence.

When we started learning the weave, we started with only two poles and simply had the dog do the correct entrance and then come back across the second pole. I would click for a correct entrance, she would naturally come back around the second pole for her treat. Once she could do a correct enterance every time we added two more poles and clicked/treated every crossing. I would lure her across if necessary, click and she would come back across the next one for her treat. Then I would try to get her to do all four with one click (click the second set of two). Once she was confident with the four poles, we added two more, etc...

BTW, at 7 months your puppy should not be jumping more than a couple of inches.

Have fun!

Answer 2

Try using a buja board to get the dog used to something moving underneath her: http://www.peak.org/~helix/Agility/bujaboard.html At first, just have the dog walk across it. Once accustomed to that, ask for a sit and/or a down on the board, like a pause table.
Put something underneath the end of the teeter like a milk crate so that it doesn't tip all the way to the ground at first. I used bits of cheese whiz to take the dog step by step and slowly at first so the tip doesn't come too fast and the dog can discover the pivot point.
Rather than putting her on top of the dog walk, put her halfway down the off ramp and let her run down, toward a target baited with food. As she gains confidence, gradually start her farther and farther back until she's doing the whole obstacle.
I taught weaves with a food target as well, and bent the poles over at an angle to "guide" her course. Keep a lead on and let your dog pull you through the weaves. If she misses one, restrain with the leash and help her find the correct way. Gradually add more poles (I started with 3) and when you have 6 poles start straightenig them. Don't let her get the food on the tarhet unless she's done the weaves correctly. Stay on leash until the dog is 100%.
Check AKC's website for agility rules and requirements for obstacles. http://www.akc.org/rules/index.cfm Check websites for other organizations that offer agility competition, they each have slightly different requirements.

Answer 3

You already have some good posts answering your questions, but I wanted to comment on her age as well.

I would not allow pups that young into an agility class, they can go into pre-agility that is geared towards youngsters. I REALLY hope you are not doing the obstacles (especially the A-frame) full height, nor jumps more than a couple inches. This is REALLY hard on the puppies structure (she is still growing) and could cause soundness problems later on.

Your instructor should know the answers to your questions, they should have already been addressed in class.

Answer 4

you may take any dogs to agility training... The jumps are not that top to a labrador, my dogs's are pit bulls so a sprint smaller than a lab and that they do purely effective. Labs are a working breed, they could have the means to artwork devoid of falling to products no remember if that's a healthful dogs. in case you're nervous related to the leaping have the vet x-ray your canines hips and elbows to make confident it would not have any joint subject concerns (which you're able to do for any dogs game). attempt taking an intro to agility classification in case you have already got a lab, jumps in our intro classification have been on no account better than 6 inches extreme, and you get to coaching all of the tunnels, chutes, ramps, and so on.... it relatively is various relaxing.

Answer 5

Sounds like your little girl is still very much a puppy, and since she's so eager to please, she'll eventually do what you're asking of her, it's just going to take her a bit more time to gain confidence on the dog walk and the teeter. I have two shelties, and all three of us love agility. Sadly, I didn't make time to fit that into our schedule last summer, and I can sure see the difference in my dogs without having that challenge/job in their lives. I need to get back at it again.

One of my girls loves the teeter, she's fearless, and just flies over the thing, so my challenge with her is to get her to slow down. My other one, not so keen on it as it does move. For her, I left the teeter alone. You're right, both pieces of apparatus are narrow and have that initial first slope up. I stayed away from the teeter until she was totally confident on the the dog walk. I suspect that if you keep going on the teeter, which is really what your puppy is scared of, I think, then she'll remain scared of the dog walk. Focus on the one that doesn't move first, let her get used to the width of it and that this one is safe, at least then you'll just have the one piece of equipment to help her get past.

Do remember, it's supposed to be fun time with your dog too, so if there's something she doesn't really enjoy much of, why not focus on those pieces that she does enjoy and introduce one "bad" one to her at a time and praise the heck out of her when she does it. Leave the others for another time. It sounds like you're well on your way to having her do the dog walk with luring her across with treats. Perhaps you can pull out a special treat for her to have at the end of the walk, or a larger portion of treat? Sounds like you love your little girl very much, as I do, and you'll have years of agility ahead of you, you can take the initial class again if you have to, right?

Weaving - both of mine learned differently to weave. For one, I used food to lure her to go around the off side of the poles, coming toward me was no problem, and every time she either moved away from or toward me, I said 'weave'. For my other little girl, the class I was in had "guides" in place around the weave poles, so it was obvious to the dogs what they had to do, so she learned with those guides. She was too focussed on the food to figure out what she was doing when I tried that way with her.

As I said further up, you're doing this to have fun with your girl dog. She'll get it eventually, she's just little yet. Focus on the fun stuff with her, and she'll meet you with the rest when she's ready and confident enough. Hope that helps.

Answer 6

She will be able to learn all that stuff eventually but she is only 7 months old . A pup is going through adolescence at that age and can lack confidence just keep working with her till she is more confident ,It just might take a few months to get more mentally secure in her abilities. I won't go over every thing else that was already covered. Good luck and have fun!