Preparing for Your First Dog Agility Competition
You have been working with your dog for months teaching him various dog agility tricks. He’s been jumping through hoops, running through tunnels, and can make it through a maze in seemingly record time. All of your friends and family are amazed as how well your dog performs the dog agility tricks. Now you have decided to enter him into a dog agility competition. Are you sure that the judges will be as impressed as your friends and family? There are a number of things that you can do as you begin to prepare for your first dog agility competition.
A dog agility competition is a great way to show off your dog. It is also a way to receive recognition, not only for your dog’s obedience and ability to learn, but also for you as a trainer as well. If your displays dog agility above and beyond that of the other dogs in the competition you are sure to walk away with the reward. All you have to do it make sure that your dog is prepared for the dog agility competition.
Prepare for the dog agility competition by having your dog run through some obstacles. Start off with some dog agility tricks are not as difficult as the ones that will be done at the competition. Reward your dog for each dog agility obstacle that he makes it through. Rewards help to reinforce the behavior and let the dog know that he is doing the right thing. Once your dog has successfully completed one kind of dog agility technique have him go through one that is a little more difficult. Increase the difficulty of the obstacles as your dog completes them successfully. You might even consider making some of the obstacles even more difficult than those that will be in the dog agility competition. This way you can be sure that your dog will make it through those that are in the competition.
Since the dog agility competition will be in a place that is unfamiliar to the dog, it is a good to have the dog practice in different settings. This will get him used to doing the dog agility obstacles in an unfamiliar setting. If you do this, your dog will not freeze up when he gets to the dog agility competition.
Once you have done the basics of the training and you are sure the dog can successfully run a course similar to one that will be used in the dog agility competition, do a practice run. The practice run should be done in a place that the dog has never been before. Set up a course with about 15 different obstacles for the dog to run through. This setup will be very similar to the one that will be at the dog agility competition. Have the dog run through this course one time. If he does it successfully, then give him a reward. You can consider yourself ready for the dog agility competition. On the other hand, if the dog makes a few mistakes, you will need to do some more dog agility practice before the competition.
