Some important skills to have are a good sit, down, wait and recall (you need to get a good distance away from your dog and only have your dog come when you ask), and try walking then running in circles with your dog on your left and right and with the dog on the inside and outside of the circle. This last I only just learnt about and it's an awesome technique for getting your dog to pay attention to you and be aware of where your body is. I do a couple of minutes of this on a walk with my Dixie dog.
I've never bought any official agility equipment! for jumps all you need is a couple of little pVC flower pots and a piece of pvc pipe. (how old are your guys? if they're under 18months only let them jump a couple of inches. check the kennel clubs rules about the heights of jumps. (they're different in the US to NZ)
buy a small bicycle tyre to train the hoop. To start you only need to hold it. I eventually built a frame out of PVC piping.
For the tunnel you can usually pick up play tunnels for kids really cheaply and for the collapsible tunnel (chute) start with a sheet or towel. I eventually bought a cheap plastic tarp for $2 to use.
For the weave I use plastic garden stakes with a pvc pipe over it. U just want to train using two poles to start. Dog always enters with the first pole close to their left shoulder - never reward entering the wrong way. try and get them to curve around the second pole as if they were preparing for a third pole, but not turning backwards to the first pole. practice that until your dog will enter with you standing just about anywhere and then add the third pole. there are way better instructions out on the net for teaching this method and our club has found that this is by far the best method. makes for a really fast accurate entry into the weaves and with little dogs with little legs the faster the weave the better!
Sorry for the long post. I hope to hear more about your agility success! |