VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 13:13:44 08/15/09 Sat
Author: Sharon B
Subject: Re: Starting with Agility
In reply to: Urs 's message, "Re: Starting with Agility" on 08:02:01 08/13/09 Thu

Urs, you definitely should try it. I have fun with it.

My first Beginners Class required that the dog have some obedience work already finished, nothing formal, but sit, stay, down, etc. The obstacles were set very low to encourage and engage the dog without letting them have a bad experience. For instance, the "jumps" were about 4 inches high (10 cm) for a large dog, lower for the smaller dogs. Ha-ha. All of the dogs in the class could step over them without having to jump, but it was a learning experience for the dog since they have to go walk over them and not around them. She learned the over command and how to listen and focus on me. The dog walk was literally set on the ground -- it wasn't elevated at all for the first few weeks in our Beginners class. The dogs just tried to learn that they needed to walk "on" it instead of next to it. Azaan easily straddled it in the beginning! Then she would walk on it with her left legs on the dog walk and the right legs on the ground! It took a few tries before she understood that she was supposed to walk with all 4 legs on the blasted dog walk! But again, it wasn't elevated at all -- just laying on the ground. After it was on the ground for several weeks, they finally elevated it to about 12 inches (30 cm) off the ground. By that point the dogs understand what they are supposed to do. After walking on the low dog walk for the entire Beginners Class, when we went to the Intermediate Class all of the dogs easily walked the large dog walk without even giving it a second thought.

Just make sure that any classes you join start with very low, easy obstacles. The point of Agility is not about the obstacles, but about getting the dog to have fun while learning to engage with its handler. Azaan loved it from the very beginning, and she has learned so much from it. She was getting bored with straight obedience training, and I needed an outlet to continue with engaging with her while keeping her mind occupied. Agility fit the bill.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.