Just starting Agility
- Thread starter Zeke123
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*gasping in disbelief* 
A reasonable level of obedience is really all that's needed before starting agility. Not the formal stuff, but your dog should be at the stage where he'll be listening to your commands amidst excitement and distractions. LOL - and agility can be pretty exciting for dogs
Since agility is an offleash sport, the most important command = the recall
A reasonable level of obedience is really all that's needed before starting agility. Not the formal stuff, but your dog should be at the stage where he'll be listening to your commands amidst excitement and distractions. LOL - and agility can be pretty exciting for dogs
Since agility is an offleash sport, the most important command = the recall I took a basic obediance class before I started my agility classes. I think the comands that are most important are stay/waite and recall. However, my beginner class started out with everything on leash, so you probably have some time to work on perfecting these things before you have to do anything off leash. In our first agility class, Shelby was did better with the obediance than most of the other dogs and that is not saying much (there were several times some owners tried to do something off leash and ended up with a dog running and running around the course, with an owner following going "come, come").
Brittain
Boxer Booster
I would like to put my two cents in here: I have a boxer AND lab (well, shepherd cross) and they both do agility. What I found most important (aside from the recalling of course) was the attention.
If you clicker train, use a piece of food and hold it way out, at arms length. Then, bring it toward your forehead. When it's there, and your dog will obviously be looking at it, click immediately. Eventually, and after a few more steps, you can incorporate a cue... "look", etc.
I've found that if you make them look at you everytime something distracting is going on, eventually they look at you BECAUSE something distracting is going on! This will make it EXTREMELY easy when off-leash training comes around, because you'll know they aren't likely to go running after that loose dog who's dashing around madly. They just watch you.
Hope this helps!
rachel.
If you clicker train, use a piece of food and hold it way out, at arms length. Then, bring it toward your forehead. When it's there, and your dog will obviously be looking at it, click immediately. Eventually, and after a few more steps, you can incorporate a cue... "look", etc.
I've found that if you make them look at you everytime something distracting is going on, eventually they look at you BECAUSE something distracting is going on! This will make it EXTREMELY easy when off-leash training comes around, because you'll know they aren't likely to go running after that loose dog who's dashing around madly. They just watch you.
Hope this helps!
rachel.
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