# Can you help me with basic agility?



## Golden Leo (Dec 3, 2008)

Hi!
I was wondering of you would be so kind to help me with agility. I live in area where we don't have any dog sports, I would have to travel 4-5 hours, several days a week to get to nearest classes. And I have puppy that is very agile and would love to work with him.
If anyone has some free time to teach me how to work with him. I guess I could improvise some agility items in the backyard.
Thank you in advance...


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

There are a lot of ways to do agility, so I will just tell you how we started out but I'm not saying it's the only or best way, it's just what we did and it seems to work really well.
The very first thing we did was introduce the dogs to the idea of a "target", which is something they will always head for when they are running a course or going over obstacles. We used the lid of a margarine tub, or a very small paper plate, etc. The idea is to get the puppy to always touch his nose to that target whenever he sees it, and the command is "go touch". 
Just introduce it first in your hand, holding a piece of food or treat on the target and tell him to "go touch". As soon as he touches it with his nose, he gets the treat. They learn real fast to put their nose on the target. Then start moving the target around and having him touch it in the air with his nose, making a real fun game out of it. Every time he touches it, a treat and lots of praise. Next you progress to putting it on the floor and telling him to touch it. Same deal with the treats and praise. Soon you will be able to put it anywhere, tell him to go touch it, and he will go out and touch it with his nose. (although my goofball retrieves it, but that's another story). 
The way our instructors teach, that's the biggest thing they will ever learn in agility. It gives them something to focus on.
Along with that, we taught the commands "GO" and "COME". Of course come is easy, and you will find that GO becomes very easy with the target! 
We also introduced the basic obstacles, which are the jumps, tunnels, pause table, tire jump, dog walk, teeter, A-frame and weave poles. When first introducing them, it was just a matter of getting the dog used to them. For example, the jumps are either just about 4 inches high, or even just lay the pole on the ground and have him step over it. The dog walk is laid flat, you can just use a board, and have him practice walking along it. It's amazing how many dogs don't know where their back end is...for that, lay an extension ladder flat on the ground and have him walk between the rungs. It teaches them where their back legs are. 
Here's where the target comes in...you put it at the end of what you want him to do, for example, the tunnel, and you say, "GO TOUCH"! He sees the target at the other end, knows that it means he's supposed to go put his nose on it, and thru the tunnel he goes to collect his treat. Otherwise, how do you convince a dog to "go thru the tunnel"? Same with walking a plank, or walking a ladder, the target is at the other end and it gives them a focus for where they're heading. 
Most important thing in agility is that the dog is NEVER wrong. It's just ooops, silly boy, you weren't right, let's try that again. You don't correct a dog when doing agility (just saying how it's taught around here), you just have them try again. Agility is sooo much fun for dogs, you don't want them to ever be worried about being right or wrong.
You can build the jumps and the tire swing out of PVC pipes real easily and very inexpensively. 
Another exercise we did a lot of when we first started out was having the dog do figure 8's around the jump upright poles so they get used to sometimes having to come right back to you from doing a jump. You at first lure him with a treat around each pole in the figure 8, giving commands as you do (I used GO JUMP for the one side when he's moving away from me and then COME JUMP for the other when he's heading toward me). Soon he will do it just with the commands without having the food lure anymore. 
A quick note, you can use toy lures instead if you prefer.
Once he's familiar with targets, the obstacles, and doing the figure 8's, you can start to put a little course together for him. For example, just put 2 jumps in a row about 12-15 feet apart. (a few inches high, I know he's quite young!). You start out running it next to him, telling him, JUMP, JUMP, and then nice reward at the end. Then you can try putting him on a stay before the first jump, and walking to the other end, hold the target for him to see and tell him "COME JUMP JUMP". The next step is to put the target at the end with a treat on it, but you stay back behind the first jump and tell him "JUMP JUMP GO TOUCH!!" He will look for the target, and will go flying over the jumps without you there! Of course, work on calling him back to you after that second jump. A lot of trainers use a tug toy or similar for that, so he's real happy to come back to you.
Start putting the jumps not quite in a line. Use 3 jumps. Your imagination is your only limit.
Start putting the walk board (which later becomes a dog walk) in between 2 jumps and have him "JUMP, GO WALK, JUMP, GO TOUCH" (target at the end of your course). Most dogs love tunnels, so try to use the tunnel.
Whew, there's tons more, I probably forgot to include about 90% but that ought to give you a few ideas to get you started. There are a lot of people on the forum that are AWESOME in agility and have some really advanced titles, I'm sure they'll give you advice too.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

*home made equipment*

There's some pretty good information here if you pick thru it:

http://www.australian-shepherd-lovers.com/free-agility-plans.html


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## AmbikaGR (Dec 31, 2007)

How old is the pup? If under 15 months or so you do not want to jump her more than maybe 8 inches and don't do weave poles. Very hard on joints and spine of young dogs.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

our agility trainer had the jump pole flat on the ground until these big guys are 15-18 months old (she has berners so she's real in tune), the weave poles WIDE open (so they just walk thru but get used to entering and exiting the poles), and very important, always sit when pausing at the end of the A-frame and the dog-walk on the contact to keep the pressure off their shoulders and elbows. We call it "bottom", which means my dog has to put his bottom down on the bottom of the obstacle!




AmbikaGR said:


> How old is the pup? If under 15 months or so you do not want to jump her more than maybe 8 inches and don't do weave poles. Very hard on joints and spine of young dogs.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

Check out www.cyberagility.com. It's an online agility "class" with Helix Fairweather who is a well known clicker trainer.


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## MurphyTeller (Sep 28, 2008)

I second the recommendation of Helix. She came out east a few years ago and we did a seminar with her. Nice lady who has a strong ability to teach some basic agility concepts over the internet...that being said, you can probably get some good things to train, but a lot of agility is handler stuff. I know you're in an area where there aren't a lot of dog sports, but I'd HIGHLY suggest that you get in contact with the instructors that are 4-5 hours away and try to get into a seminar...The other thing with trying to do it yourself is a lack of equipment and being able to teach your dog (or puppy) to do them safely. There's a lot of "rookie" mistakes that can be avoided if you are getting some regular hands and eyes on your training...

Where are you located? There might be forum members out there - and there might be other people like yourself who are training agility and have some equipment but aren't formally teaching...maybe they could help you get started or several of you could bring an instructor to your location and split a few lessons..The other suggestion is to contact your local golden club (or as local as you can) and see where they have members who do agility. With all of the venues out there now I can't imagine that you'd really be 4+ hours from an agility nut 

Erica


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## Golden Leo (Dec 3, 2008)

Wow! hotel4dogs thank you so much for the effort!! We'll start with target as soon as we can! You explained it wonderful!
Ambika, Pavo will be tomorrow 5 months old. I am planning to go easy on him, I guess we'll both learn very slowly.  
FQ thank you for the link... I will go trough it! 
MT  I live in Croatia, that is not bad since we have really good agility team. BUT I live in the "worst" part of Croatia. My country has been hit by a war 15 years ago (the part I live in was hit the worst) and we are 15 years behind other parts of country. So closest trainers are in our capital, that is 4 hours away. In my part of country people usualy breed german shepherds and here we don't have GR breeders (at least not Real breeders- I call these "weekend breeders"- they go for easy money so they make as many litters they can no matter on health or anything). So closest GR club is in Zagreb, the capital. 
I will try to get in contact with some of the trainers, so I'll see what they'll say


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