Teach Independence During Dog Agility Training

Video Transcript

" Hi! I am Elise Paffrath with Breeze Thru Agility. I am talking about beginner agility training today on behalf of Expert Village.com. I want to talk a little bit about dogs learning to perform obstacles independently of the handler. When we first start, we have our dogs near us, on leash, teaching them how to do the obstacles. But you want to lay a really solid foundation of training, so that you, the handler do not have to be part of the performance of the obstacle. I like to do that by teaching the dogs completely independent obstacle performance and that is a long process and not something you are going to accomplish in your first session of agility. I like to use targets, so the dog has something to go ahead to after they perform the obstacle. I am going to show you how Sprite can do weaves, tunnel and jump and go to a target at the end, because I have taught her how to independently do the obstacles. I will hang behind and she is comfortable going ahead. Sprite!, Okay!, Go ahead!, Go!,. shoot!, Okay!, Jump!, Ah! Ah!, You messed up!, Ready!, Go!,. shoot!, Go ahead!, Touch!, Good girl! Ahead!, Ahead!, Chute!, Go ahead!, Jump!, Touch!, Good girl! So you teach the dog go ahead and be rewarded after the obstacle that way they don’t depend on you every step of the way to show them what to do. Obstacle performance when you are learning it, is really, really important that they may need you, but as they get more advanced you are going to want the dog to be able go ahead of you and perform the obstacle on course by themselves."