If you have an energetic healthy dog that would enjoy an engaging form of exercise, dog agility can be the perfect fit. While not all agility dogs end up competing, many do, and competition can be a lot of fun. However, we encourage you to avoid these five common mistakes handlers often make while training with pet agility equipment.
- Don’t Schedule Long Training Sessions
Dogs are like small children in some ways, and they have very short attention spans. A 15-minute or 20-minute training session is ample for most dogs. If you spend any more time than that using dog agility equipment, your furry friend can become too tired or lose focus and the training session won’t be nearly as effective. It’s better to plan a short training session where you focus on reviewing learned skills and then training one new skill. - Don’t Teach Multiple Skills At Once
Too often a handler will fill their backyard with a plethora of pet agility equipment and start teaching their dog multiple skills at once. For some dogs, this strategy might work, but typically it’s a better strategy to teach one piece of equipment at a time and gradually add new pieces of dog agility equipment to your home course.
Dogs, just like humans, will develop muscle memory and they won’t forget how to jump or run through a tunnel just because you have started teaching the dog agility teeter or weave poles. We recommend that you start each day with a few runs through dog agility equipment you’ve already taught and then focus the rest of your training session on new skills.
For instance, if you’ve already taught the agility tunnel and the tire jump, and want to teach the dog walk, spend a few minutes zipping through the tunnel and jumping through the tire jump. Then focus the remainder of your time teaching your dog the correct way to enter, walk across and exit the dog walk. For the next few days, stick with this schedule. Your dog will quickly learn how to navigate the dog walk without losing any memory of how to handle the tunnel and tire jump.
- Don’t Forget The Warm-Up
Just like humans, dogs need to warm up before they start their daily training sessions. Take a quick, brisk walk around the block and help them stretch their muscles before using pet agility equipment. A good warm-up can prevent injuries, so it is essential that you spend a few minutes getting those muscles warm.
After using the dog agility equipment, don’t forget to take a few minutes to cool down and stretch. This can prevent muscle aches and allows some time to slowly bring down the blood pressure and heart rate. Cooling down can be as simple as a short walk and then some limb stretches. Warm-up and cool-down are essential parts of any workout, for dogs and humans, so take some time to complete these tasks before and after every training session.
- Be Weather Smart
Dogs cannot maintain their body temperature as easily or efficiently as humans, so keep the outside temperature in mind before you head outside for training. During the summer months, schedule all exercise for the early morning or the early evenings when the air temperature and ground temperature are low. It also can be smart to limit training sessions during hot weather. To be honest, once the temperatures hit about 75 degrees, it can be easy for dogs to overheat, especially on a sunny day.
Be sure to always keep a dish of water in easy reach, and it can be smart to work in a shady area if possible. You could even set up a kiddie pool next to the course and let your dog enjoy a cool dip after your training session.
But it’s not just the heat of summer that can be a problem. When the temperatures dip below the 50s, this can be a danger to some dog breeds and anything below 40 degrees can be dangerous for just about all dogs, especially small to medium-sized dogs.
At Carlson Agility, our selection of pet agility equipment includes a full selection of mini agility equipment. While this equipment is meant for small breeds, a few of these pieces of equipment can be a great option for indoor training for dogs of all sizes. You can plop down some mats and set up a small course in your basement or garage or even just move around some furniture and add a piece or two of dog agility equipment in your family room.
- Focus On The Fun Of Using Pet Agility Equipment
One of the most important pieces of advice we can give new handlers is to have fun! Agility is fun. It’s a crazy, wild dog sport and dogs love it but don’t take it too seriously. Sure, it’s exciting to win an agility competition, but any experienced handler will tell you that there’s never any guarantee that a dog will have a clean, perfect run on any given day.
Even dogs that are seasoned experts sometimes have a huge flop when they hit the agility course. But don’t take our word for it. Just head to YouTube or TikTok and search for dog agility and you will find as many videos of unsuccessful runs as successful runs and both videos are such fun to watch. There’s just nothing cuter than watching an agility dog suddenly become distracted on an agility course and decide that they just don’t want to go through those weave poles, or skip several dog jumps. Of course, it’s also fun to watch them zip through the course perfectly at high speed.
What we are getting at is that agility is just plain fun and that’s what it is meant to be. We are having fun with our furry companions, and there’s not much better in the world than spending time with our dog best friends. They provide unconditional love for us, so handlers should provide unconditional love and patience during training.
Any time you feel yourself getting impatient with training, just stop. Give your dog some pets and love and head inside for a treat and some cuddle time. There are always going to be great training days and not-so-great training days, so just don’t worry about the days where things don’t go well because tomorrow provides you with a whole new opportunity to teach those agility skills.
Get Started With Pet Agility Equipment!
Just about any energetic breed of dog will enjoy agility training, and if you want to get started, we have every piece of dog agility equipment you might need. All of our equipment is handmade using the best quality components and it’s just like the pet agility equipment you’d find on any dog agility course. If you have any questions about our agility equipment, don’t hesitate to send us an email at any time.
