How to teach a dog agility

July 11, 2013

 

ri chair patio

Riley enjoys relaxing, but would prefer to be active.

Smart dogs need something to do. Yes, they do. If, like us,  you have a very smart dog, you know that regular activities just don’t keep his attention. And a bored dog gets in trouble, right?

Riley is an ideal candidate for agility training. He’s smart, learns quickly (sometimes, so quickly that we don’t even teach him, he learns himself) and he’s treat-motivated.  At the same time, he doesn’t always respond, as you’ll see, so on the “recall” skills, not so good.  It’s unlikely he’ll ever be obedient enough to compete. But no harm in letting him do agility training just for fun, right?

We finally got around to getting and making some agility training tools. The first is a kids’ play tunnel.  We shared several five-minute training sessions with him the first day and he loved it. Here’s a video of  Day 1 of training–he caught on instantly, and I mean, instantly.

And enthusiastically. Because if there are treats associated with anything, count Riley in.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree on that.

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