If you’ve been thinking about dog agility and whether or not your furry pal is a great match for it, maybe it’s time to take the plunge and get started. At Carlson Agility, we can help you with all of the agility dog supplies you might need, and provide you with a myriad of tips and information.
Dog Sports: What Are Your Options?
There are dozens of different types of dog sports out there for pooches and their owners to enjoy. Here’s a quick look at the different types of competitions you and your pet might enjoy.
Disc Dog Competitions
Also known as Frisbee dog competitions, this is a lot of fun for those high-energy breeds such as border collies and Australian shepherds, but other breeds can participate, such as whippets and even golden retrievers. This can be a great source of exercise, even if you never compete, and can be a great way to burn off some energy if you have a dog that really needs a lot of exercise and stimulation.
Rally Obedience
Do you have a dog that seems to quickly pick up new skills, especially obedience skills? This dog might be a perfect fit for Rally Obedience. For this sport, dogs follow their handler around a course. But there’s no jumping or leaping or obstacles like you’d find on an agility course.
During these competitions, dogs demonstrate proficiency in navigating a course that contains up to 20 different signs. At each sign, the dog has to complete a specific task, such as making a right turn, making a turn and sitting, halting or moving in and out of a series of orange cones.
Setting up a rally dog course in your backyard and learning some of the skills needed for these types of competitions actually can be an excellent way to dive into agility, as you will be building trust and obedience skills. This can be an especially great option for puppies, as some of them are too young to use full-size dog agility equipment, but they can have fun following you around and gaining obedience skills.
Nosework
This dog sport capitalizes on the canine’s remarkable sense of smell, and it’s pretty amazing to watch the dog’s compete. This also is sometimes called Scent Work, and basically, during a competition, dogs will search for specific scents, typically anise, clove or birch.
The scent might be hidden in a single box among a pile of boxes or perhaps a dog will search through a vehicle to find a scent or search inside a room. This is exactly the type of training a police dog or search dog might undergo to help law enforcement find missing people, drugs or other items.
While our main focus here at Carlson Agility is on providing agility dog supplies, we do have some high-quality nosework equipment and training gear, such as nosework canisters and detection training scent wheels.
Dog Agility
We’ve saved the best for last! Of course, dog agility is our personal favorite dog sport, because it’s just plain fun and it’s one of the most inclusive dog sports. Just about any healthy dog can have a great time learning agility skills. Dog agility is open to purebred dogs, mixed breed dogs, deaf dogs and senior dogs.
Even if you never set foot on a competition course, using dog agility equipment provides you dog with an amazing source of exercise. Additionally, it strengthens the bond between dog and owner and even helps improve obedience.
If you have a dog struggling with obedience or a bored dog that’s constantly digging in the yard or clawing furniture or destroying your shoes, perhaps you dog simply needs to expend some energy and burn off some steam. So, why not try agility?
Is Your Dog Right For Agility?
In general, most healthy dogs can enjoy agility training. While you often see the border collie zipping around on an agility course, this is by no means the only breed that can be successful with agility. In fact, more than 200 breeds as well as mixed-breed dogs have participated in this canine sport, according to the North American Dog Agility Council.
Of course, there are those dogs that really enjoy a few gentle walks and spending a day perched upon a cushion relaxing. And, there are those breeds, such as those with flatter faces, might not be a great fit for agility due to breathing difficulty.
But if you have a healthy, energetic dog, typically agility training can be a great activity for you and your furry friend. Even a senior dog with no real health issues can enjoy agility. Keep in mind that you don’t have to compete to gain many benefits from agility; it can simply be a great outlet for your canine companion.
Joining an agility club or taking an agility class can be a great way to determine if your dog will enjoy agility. Agility clubs also can be a great place to get to know other handlers and get your feet wet (and paws) with the sport, in general.
How To Get Started
In many cases, you can simply purchase a piece of agility equipment or an agility starter kit and dive right in. You might start with something simple such as the pause table or perhaps a single jump or even a tunnel and then as your dog gains proficiency, you can add more equipment. Here’s a quick look at the types of obstacles your dog will need to learn.
The Pause Table – On this obstacle, dogs will hop up on the table and sit and lay down for a number of seconds before moving on to the next obstacle. While this isn’t a dog’s favorite, it’s a piece of equipment that you’ll find on every agility course and it’s a great place to teach basic obedience skills and work on distance training.
What is distance training? We are glad you asked. During competitions, you typically have to lead your dog through a course off-leash and at a distance, so eventually you will need your dog to stay on task without a leash and with you at a set distance away.
The A-Frame – With the A-frame, the dog simply walks up to the point of the A and then down again, being careful to enter and exit the obstacle at the right points. You will notice that our A-frames have a yellow bottom section and a blue top section.
Dogs often get pretty excited while zipping about on the agility course and sometimes will leap onto an obstacle a bit too high, and this can deduct points off their score. Dogs must touch the bottom portion of the obstacle in order to earn all of the possible points and exit touching the bottom portion, and we’ve color coded the two sections to help handlers know precisely where the dog’s paws much touch.
The Dog Walk – The dog walk is narrow and contains two angled planks and one elevated flat plank. Some dogs get a bit nervous about being off the ground, especially given the narrow width of the planks, but you can gently coax your dog across using a leash (and perhaps some treats) until he or she gains confidence.
The Teeter – The A-frame, dog walk and teeter are all known as contact equipment, because, well, your dog is meant to come into contact with these obstacles. The teeter can be a challenging obstacle to teach because of the movement, so it can be wise to have two handlers present at first so that you dog has someone they trust on either side.
You can start out by gently leading your dog up the teeter and then gently moving the teeter and gently helping lead your dog down until they no longer feel insecure about the motion. You also can use a training tool such as a wobble board to help your dog get used to standing on something that is moving. The wobble board also can help dogs improve their overall balance.
Weaves – There’s nothing quite like watching a dog zip through the weaves, but moving from the beginning stage to the point where your dog is proficient can be a challenge. In fact, most handlers will tell you that this is the most difficult piece of equipment to teach.
There are many different methods to consider, and learning several methods can give you an edge as a handler, because every dog is unique and it’s never certain which approach will be the right fit for your pooch.
One of our favorite methods, is to simply start out by teaching just two weaves and gradually moving to four weaves and then to six and so on. We also have some handy guide wires that you can use to help your dog understand how to enter and move through the weaves.
Tunnels & Chutes – These are a lot of fun, but not all dog agility organizations use the collapsible chute, so check with your preferred organization before purchasing the chute. All courses will include a tunnel, so this is a good place to start and you can always add the chute later if needed.
With the tunnel, we recommend simply having a handler at each end of the tunnel so that the dog sees a friendly face on the other end. If the dog is still hesitant, a little treat can be a great incentive. It usually doesn’t take dogs long to get over their tunnel trepidation.
Jumps, Jumps & More Jumps – On any given dog agility course, there will be a variety of dog agility equipment, but the majority of the obstacles will be different types of jumps. You’ll definitely see a tire jump, but you also might find single, double and trip jumps and perhaps even very unique jumps, such as a window jump. We definitely have every type of jump you might need here at Carlson Agility.
While agility is amazing and fun, it does require some patience and some days inevitably will be just like this . . .
Our Agility Dog Supplies
No matter what type of agility dog supplies you might need, we have them at Carlson Agility. Our selection includes all types of jumps, as well as weaves, teeters, tunnels, collapsible chutes, A-frames, dog walks, pause tables and some handy training tools.
We even offer a full selection of mini dog agility equipment, ideal for smaller breeds and puppy training. Mini equipment also can be great for indoor training on those rainy, hot or snowy days.
