Mr.McNabs Agility Training Log

Agility training is great because as the title says it can be for any person and any dog. Just like all sports though there are still the same cliques and people with the view of things can only be taught one particular way. My goal with any dog of my own that I am training or a friends dog I am helping them out with is to let them reach their full potential by teaching them in a way that makes sense to them. My Aussie Jake (3yrs) is very focused and eager to learn. My Lab Erika (almost 7yrs) who is a ball of energy, miss social, and just wants to play. So I adapt my training to make things easier for them to learn.

Here are a couple great trainers I am currently following for agility training advice:

Sylvia Trykman (excellent running contacts teaching) www.lolabuland.com
Kathy Keats ( the foundation for all my training) www.theagilitycoach.com
Susan Garret (really nice blog full of lots of info) www.susangarrettdogagility.com

And I am constantly googling dog agility blog online to see who else I can look to for training advice and be inspired by.

Today we worked on our turns and go’s . Using a target and my vacuum. I had him do his 180degree turn, with the verbal cue, around the vacuum and sent him to his target with a verbal “go target” I did this to get him use to going around a obstacle 180 degree away from me and used the target as my next obstacle, since the room I was working in was to small for a jump 8x10’. Saturday I hope to use this with 2 jumps at the agility facility.

So once again I have been neglecting this blog. My apologies. Since my last write up Jake and I have achieved our Advanced agility Dog of Canada Title! We got this by getting 3 clean runs at the advanced level in Standard courses.

Also since then we have successfully moved up into the masters level in everything but jumpers. We seem to love knocking a single bar in our jumpers run (usually due to a poor rear cross on my part or cueing to sharply).

Soo that’s a brief update…

Now onto my training plans:

Firstly I have set some goals for 2012, goal settting is important in order to measure your training. It’s a fine line when you are setting goals because you don’t want to make them to easy that it’s not a challenge to achieve but you also don’t want to make them so hard that they may not be achievable.. So here our my goals for 2012:

1. Increase yards per second.
2. Have consistent and clean rear crosses
3. Increase constancy in turns (right and left)
4. Qualify for Nationals
5. Build distance on all contacts
6. Increase quickness in cues and run to win not just for the clean run.

There they are… All are doable but now it’s up to me to follow through on them..

Another thing I have started doing is keeping better records of our runs on my agility app on my iPad this will help me file courses and also to remember place on courses that give us trouble..I have also started having someone record my runs so I can see my handling errors… Which there are a lot… They aren’t all pretty… But that’s how you learn… I really want to be a smooth and flowing hander…

To prepare myself better for regionals I plan on practicing twice a week from now till regionals at the end of May. Pending the results there will decided if I am it up or not. Living 45minaway from my training facility and having limited access times is going to make planning and preparing my weeks in advanced crucial so then I can maximize practice time.

Till next time.

Hey Everyone! I have decided to train Jake to do running contacts (A-frame and dog walk). Any suggestions? I have started by using the Sylvia trkman standards for training it and have had good success with it so far.
We started with a plank flat on the ground with his frisbee 5m away from the end of it and I worked on sending him to it from all directions and both sides this has worked well for his dog walk performance but I am trying to figure out the best way to train this type of contact for the A-Frame… Suggestions?