YOU CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR DOG’S NATURAL TENDENCY TO PLAY for doing dog agility training. Agility training is excellent fitness training for your dog. It creates a closer bond between you and your dog, if you handle the training. Here are some tips you must consider, should you decide to handle dog agility training.

How Prepared Are You to Handle Dog Agility Training?

You can learn dog agility training, and bypass dog agility training classes. But you must have the time, patience, and commitment for this activity. Prepare yourself by learning the techniques of dog agility training from books, articles, and videos available on the internet.

Preparing Your Dog for Agility Training

Before starting agility training, you must assess your dog in terms of its age, physical health, and mental readiness.

Unlike other forms of training, agility training is not suitable for puppies, although you can start baby agility training with your puppy by actually playing with it. Your dog is ready for real training only upon reaching juvenile or adult age.

Consult your veterinarian to see if your dog is physically fit for this kind of training. Dog agility training is very strenuous for the dog.

Aside from physical fitness, is your dog psychologically ready for this type of training? Do not force training on your dog if it is not willing. Your dog must see training as play.

If your dog passes all these requirements, prepare it for training through some kinds of physical and mental conditioning. Engage your dog in some kind of physical exercise. Take care that you feed it with the proper food. Mentally condition it by providing its play area with toy facsimiles of some of the obstacles he will be seeing in an actual agility course.

Training Your Dog for Agility

There are two kinds of dog training for agility: control and obstacle.

Control training is none other than the usual obedience training. The purpose of this type of training is to control the dog’s behavior when training for agility. The most important obedience commands include recall (Come), directional (Left, Right), and action (Jump) commands, expressed verbally and by hand signals. Mastery of these commands is requisite to obstacle training.

Obstacle training involves the use of contact obstacle, tunnels, and jumps. Start with smaller versions, progressing later to higher versions of the obstacles. The key to training is enticement. You entice your dog to do a particular act by luring it to food or favorite item, such as toy.

Any successful attempt should always be rewarded and given praise. Upon performance, utter a phrase of command. Do not say these commands to make your dog do a thing it is hesitant to do. The principle here is association.

Here are some examples of basic performances you can train your dog for:

· Jumping over obstacles, low first then increasing height over time.
· Climbing A-frame, see-saw, and ladder.
· Crawling through a tunnel.
· Jumping through a hoop, such as a tire.

Just remember to separate control training from obstacle training. Do not mingle them to avoid confusing your dog. Control-train your dog first before obstacle training.

What to Do after Successful Agility Training at Home

If you are going to compete, it is best to bring your dog agility training to the next level. Enroll your dog in a dog agility training class, where it can meet other dogs for socialization. These schools have the expertise and necessary equipment for professionally training your dog for agility competition.

Whether you enroll your dog in a class or not, you will have to expose your dog to an actual agility course. They may be standalone courses, or part of a training facility that teaches agility. This is necessary if your dog is to progress in this sport.

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