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Starting @ Home Agility So I ordered a set off Amazon, still waiting for it to come in and I'm wondering, how did you all start off? I'm going to go check our bookstore this weekend to see if there is a book on it, but I know that Yorkies can be pretty special on everything :D Rizzo is highly food motivated, so that should be easy enough, my only problem is that he gets so excited about getting a treat that he'll just start doing everything that I taught him hoping to get the treat, a simple "sit" will turn into him sitting, then going into down, then popping back into sit, then a beg, and then a bow, lol. This is after playing outside with him for 30+ minutes of just running, fetching, playing with kitties...He's only 10 months old so it makes sense, but man is he hyper. I figure agility will be a great way to mix obedience training with exercise but do you all think I should exercise him first then start training, or just use the agility as exercise? Either way, after watching the videos I'm pretty excited, and I think this'll be something that Rizzo will love. :thumbup: |
Yay! I'm sooooo glad to hear it. Rizzo sounds like he'd be perfect for it. I know Jackson is having a ball in our classes. We kinda of started at home but honestly didn't really do much practice. I bought a set of weave poles and he learned the concept of those pretty quickly (I guided him thru with a leash). I also bought a little hoop jump so he learned how to jump through that. He had also been exposed to a-frames and dog walks, etc, at this dog park near my dads house but we didn't go too often. But now that we're in classes every Saturday, I really want to purchase some good equipment or atleast make some so we can practice what we learned at home! As for exercising beforehand, I think it all depends on the dog. At first, I thought I maybe should have taken Jackson on a walk first because in the first class, he was sooo ready to just get off that 6ft leash and run, but now that we've done 3 classes, I like him being READY to work. I also don't feed him any breakfast or treats the morning we do agility so he's hungry for treats! I can't wait to see/hear how Rizzo does! :) |
I think it might be a little harder to train obstacles by yourself than if you had help, but it's not impossible. Using targets might really help. Like training the tunnel, at first shorten it, put a treat on a target (a rubbermaid lid makes a good target) and go to the other end and let your Rizzo run to the target, through the tunnel. I taught Lizzy the jumps by using my hallway. To get to the treat, she had to do the jump. I'd throw the cookie past the jump and she went after, over the jump. After I felt she understood what the jump was, I took it outside. As you progress, and Rizzo has learned all the obstacles, then the learning focus switches to the handler and dog as a team. Front crosses, rear crosses, and things like obstacle vs handler focus. Getting the dog to work away from you vs coming in to you, and things like training 180's, stuff like that. It's so much fun, and always a challenge. I love it! :doghop: |
I really wish I could find an agility school around here, but the one that seemed promising doesn't have an english speaking instructor :( The only school around here that I have found that speaks english does the "protection dog training" I'm really not sure that Rizzo would qualify for that :P Very good pointers, I will definitely put them to good use :D Thank you both |
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