When to start training dog agility
An Introduction to Dog Agility!
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now let's hear from Trevor and his dog
Daisy hi my name is Trevor Smith I'm
with the doggie dojo and my dog's name
is Daisy Daisy is an eight year old
border collie
I've been training dogs since I was six
years old and I started with Daisy about
three years ago and we are going to show
you guys some fun agility today dog
agility is a really fun dog sport that
you get to lead your dog through a
series of obstacles like jumps tunnels
weaves and more Daisy me have worked a
long time getting her masters standard
title and agility which is the highest
level of agility in American Kennel Club
today is gonna be really fun because we
get to show you a few obstacles that you
can even play in your own backyard Zach
I hope you're ready cuz days is about to
show you some awesome agility skills dog
agility is a fantastic way to bond with
your dog I mean lots of dogs love
running around but we can all agree that
it's no fun running around town to try
to find the right dog food and get your
dog's food automatically delivered from
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description below agility is one of
those things you can do for fun in your
backyard or you can compete but it's
also a great trust building exercise
what's the first thing you want to show
us today well we're probably gonna go
with one of the more difficult items
first which is the wheat poles I think
we poles are one of the most impressive
obstacles and all of dog agility we nice
look at her who's actually a correct way
and wrong way to send him in they always
have to enter with their left shoulder
how do you typically reward her and
motivate her to want to do something
like this so log Julie dogs do very well
in toys it does tap into that play which
is what they're doing with you on the
field is playing with you
so I got Daisy a little squeezy tennis
ball and you can see she's so motivated
to play looks like you're having a good
time to dress I am it's a blast of the
agility how did you go about teaching
this to her
one really cool way teach it's called
channel ways you can actually make a
little channel here what actually
sometimes people will even do is have
their dog stay on one side and then call
them to the other or
I'm theory but you just take a treat
Neelu oh but see how easy that was for
her to do as she gets better at it you
actually squeeze them closer and closer
together until they're back to straight
line Wow clever weave there you go good
job that's what you want you don't want
them just to kind of meander through
slowly like this you kind of want them
to slalom all the way through the wheat
bowls this is such a great skill to
teach because skills like this really
helped to build serious mental focus
Daisy is a total pro so next we've got
the tunnel I mean this is a staple in
dog agility now this one actually looks
pretty easy but when you first start to
teach this to many dogs they find it to
be quite intimidating has up in your
experience yeah for some dogs you mean
quite scary because it's dark and then
other dogs they just love it so much and
sometimes you get what's called tunnel
suck and the dog will accidentally go
off course into a tunnel because it's a
really fun school to do why don't you
show us how you went about teaching this
today see as a beginner you want to go
and stretch it out to a straight line so
they can see you on the other side so
you'd have your friend take your dog
over onto this side it's important when
you're teaching this not to block the
end of the tunnel so don't sit right in
front of the tunnel but off to the side
and then just peek your head in and call
your dog Daisy yeah and it's a lot
easier to call them to you than it is to
send them away from you having your dog
come to you makes it as easy as possible
because whenever you're teaching
anything new to your dog you want to
make it as easy as possible in the
beginning sometimes you may have to make
it a little shorter at first and then
lengthen it over time as your dog gets
to know it better and better you'll call
it tunnel and then you can actually come
onto this side over here Daisy and just
tell them tunnel and then run next to
them and in praise them good job so now
that we've got it straight it's time to
curve it so the reason that you want to
curve it slowly is so that you if they
don't see the light at the end of the
tunnel so exactly it can be really kind
of hard for them to understand we're
gonna start our on the cur side over
here Daisy
ready and then leave and once they get
really good at that side being curved
then you curve the other side and now
you kind of got like a noodle shape now
and you always want to run on the inside
of the curve that way you can beat your
dog to the other side tell ya you get
much faster than we are yes they are in
the beginning stages you may want to use
like a tennis ball again or a treat and
reward them on the other side and you
can
with the tennis ball you can easily toss
tunnel the ball here it is she's has
such a great time right now and that's
the critical part about when you try to
teach these obstacles don't be afraid to
reward them a ton when you're first
teaching him because then it builds
value for the obstacle itself
I love seizing opportunities like this
to build trust with a dog and clearly
you guys have an incredible amount of
mutual trust in one another dog sports
are a great way to build confidence with
a lot of dogs fewer things are as
exciting as watching a dog get some big
air it looks a lot easier I mean
teaching them to not touch the bar I
mean that's tough that is tough
important to have a bar that can get
knocked down to safety is always the
most important thing with anything we do
with our dogs but especially with dog
sports so when they jump over you really
don't want them doing what's called a
bunny hop where they just sit and they
go from a standstill and pop over you
want to take a nice little Coast kind of
a gazelle just leaping over the jump why
don't you show us how you went about
teaching this with her yeah and then
you're gonna show us how all of this
looks when you put it together we'll
just put it on eight inches for Daisy
down here what we'll do is we'll get
Daisy's favorite toy here okay
and we're gonna go ahead and put it on
the other side of the jump we're really
far out what you want to make sure to do
is whatever your dog's body length is
you want two of those so the dog can
jump finish and then get the toy and of
course when your dog jumps over this low
hurdle for the first time you celebrate
like they just cleared a six-foot jump
when you're having fun
your dogs gonna have fun too and anytime
your dog kind of goes up to here and
kind of stutter steps or was having
difficulty with it yeah just put it back
down to another level you can turn your
dog off to an obstacle real quick yeah
if they're not having a great experience
you can actually toss the toy over the
jump Oh she'll cheat sometimes huh oh
there we go
that's why it's so important to have a
jump that falls down exactly yeah once
your dog has learned how to do it
straight on you can actually start
teaching how to jump it at an angle with
the figure eight exercise Daisy HUP oh
look at this guys
oh that's a big yes smart girl that is
terrific now we're gonna set up our own
version of a mini agility course and see
what Daisy can do don't
oh here - oh nice check that one that an
angle
look at that be sure to check out
Trevor's YouTube channel he's got some
really great content over there I'll
have a link in the description and have
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book - that was awesome trevor you did
so great today we'll see you guys in the
next video
