Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Dog Agility For Puppies

By Cheng Bernhardt


Everyone loves a puppy and for good reason. They are sweet and soft and it's such fun to watch them explore their new world. The downside is that they can get into a bit of mischief from time to time and they are always on the go. To keep them focused, improve obedience and provide an outlet for their natural puppy energy, consider trying out agility training.

Even if you don't think competition is for you, your puppy is sure to enjoy learning agility skills, and it provides a great, challenging source of exercise for almost all healthy dogs. Most owners typically stick with walks and toys as source of exercise, and while this is highly beneficial, dogs also love a good, fun challenge and agility training provides highly stimulating exercise.

Because your puppy will need to learn to stay and sit and be still on command anyway, it is good to start out by learning how to do the pause table. On a course, dogs must take a break from jumping and running about to sit on this table for a pre-determined length of time. Your puppy can combine obedience training with agility training on this apparatus for double the benefit. As you might know, when you are on a real agility course in competition, treats and other incentives are not allowed. However, when you are working with a puppy, a little treat is a great way to help them learn a new skill. Eventually just a bit of praise will be enough, but in those early days, keep some tiny treats handy.

Toys are always a source of fun for your puppy, and these also can increase a dog's overall level of obedience. When playing a gentle game of tug with a tug toy, you want to teach the dog how to tug, but also they need to learn to let go when you give a specific command. Fetching a ball or stuffed animal is always fun, but if your puppy learns to bring it straight back to you and drop it at your side, that's even better. This builds obedience and trust, which makes it so much easier to teach agility skills to your puppy.

Puppies love to hop around and jump, and while these are certainly important agility skills, a puppy shouldn't start out with full-size jumps. You can begin by lowering a jump or using a mini-sized jump. Have them learn to just go over the jump at their own pace and then head to the pause table, teaching them to transition from one obstacle to the next. The actual level of jumping skill is not particularly important at this stage; it's all about teaching them to follow a series of directions. When you have a puppy that will move easily from a jump to the table, you can add another jump about three feet or so away from the first jump and work on that series.

Of course, once you've learned some jumps and the pause table, you can add even more agility equipment to the mix. Carlson Agility sells mini equipment ideally suited to puppies, smaller breeds and timid dogs that are just starting out with agility training. You can purchase mini teeters, mini pause tables, mini dog walks, mini a-frames and a miniature chute and barrel, as well as mini jumps. These also are great because their smaller size makes them fit into your backyard much more easily.




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