Handler Novice Agility

I'll be honest, I can't even recall what we did in our first agility class. The one thing I found that helped with distraction........

wear him out before class. LOL. I figured that would be my piece of advice. I put Koji in daycare to wear him out before class. I recall during our initial classes, he was so hyper and distracted, nothing would bring him back. A day of daycare and ohmigod, so much easier to work with.

Seems like you've got the basics. The only other basics I'd start Toffee on is things like the wobble board. Get him? her? used to off balance things. Heck, clicking to shape them to stand on a non-solid box is good enough too. Koji used to be deathly afraid if something wasn't solid. Now, he'll get on a box, even if he's about to fall through.

If you think there will be down time and Toffee isn't so great at down time, bring a Kong or something. I used to train, but we would see Koji shut down too fast. Even for easy things. It's better now, cuz he konws what he's doing, mostly.

Good luck. I'm so excited to hear how class went.
 
corbinam said:
One other thing I remember from our intro class was "nose". It's a lot like targeting, but teaches the dog to follow your hand.
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We do a lot of this too and the dogs just love it as a game in itself. We call it follow and they have to follow my pointed hand as I switch directions, turn, run, stop. But we started it off by teaching targeting the hand. Its actually good for keeping their sheepdog minds alert, teaches them to follow my hand on a course and stay out of the heeling position.
 
Sit, down, come, and stay will all be very useful. If you're interested in getting ahead of the game, you may look into a book called Flatwork on cleanrun.com, as it will give you things you can start doing now to prepare you for what you'll be doing on course. Most of agility is after all what goes on between the obstacles.
 
HopeShelties said:
Most of agility is after all what goes on between the obstacles.
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I love that, must tell my instructors because I am sure they will appreciate it! Its so true and I didnt realise how important it was until I started running courses. When I was in beginners classes I couldnt see the point of flat work. Now I do flat work any chance I can.
 
Oh wow
THANKS GUYS
My head is kinda spinning right now, I feel like such a noob :) But then I really am!
I bought a book somebody recommended from here, is called Click and Train your Dog, by Mary Ray. It has lot of info about starting agility that I will pay closer attention to...

I really liked your help with the watch me' I will DEFINITELY try those tips!!

Seriously this all is more for me than for the dog, since I never even been to an agility course myself!! I honestly never know how you guys keep it straight which obstacles is next and how to position your dog, etc etc... It's scaring me a little, LOL
BUT I think it will be great fun for me and for Toffee :)
 
Toffee's Mom said:
Seriously this all is more for me than for the dog, since I never even been to an agility course myself!! I honestly never know how you guys keep it straight which obstacles is next and how to position your dog, etc etc... It's scaring me a little, LOL
BUT I think it will be great fun for me and for Toffee :)
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Practice. That's all it is, practice. You'll be amazed what your brain is capable of remembering when you are focused on a task; its an amazing machine.

I was scared to DEATH the first time I went to a trial; the thread about it from May of last year is probably buried in the forum somewhere.

Setting all the technique and skills aside, the ONLY thing you really need is the enthusiasm to have fun with your dog no matter what happens. If you aren't having a good time and enjoying yourself, then don't force yourself or Toffee to continue. We constantly call our dogs 'brats' or 'little <blank>' during training but its always with a smile, a laugh, and a light happy tone of voice.
 
OKAY
the time has finally come... we are going to our first class on Saturday, I am tickled pink!:yes::o
Thanks for ALL of your advice already, I have been paying attention to everything each of you has said!!!!

Plan is to WALK there, which will take a good half an hour, so that should get him focused and tired. I have taught him target and watch me, and it now works better with toy reward than food. I have also focused to get him crazy about tug of war rope toy, because a ball isn't going to work the best with him in a class setting, because if it gets outta my hand, into another dogs space, Toffee will be making an issue out of it, since we are working on his resource possessiveness as well.

His down stay isn't very solid, but the wait is better!? God knows what I am doing wrong, LOL
Also OMG he's never been in a class setting, how am I NOT going to make him nervous, since I bloody well am?? LOL
 
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Toffee's Mom said:
RIGHT, BREATHE
thanks!
Serenity now

You know.. there is a reason why I love silly Shelties.. that anxiety has to come from somewhere, you know LOL
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Whenever I'm getting too serious or think I'm doing so well, my dogs let me know to lighten up.

Last week in agility class Diva decided jumps were so last week.:rolleyes2: This was her. OMG there a dog walk-run to it. I turn to bring her back. OMG there's the A frame-zoom I turn again. OMG the teeter-zoom,bang Nice teeter right, what you say, over there. Flys to the box. I 'll just sit on the box. I'm a good dog. Right.:biggrin2: All I wanted her to do was take 2 jumps right in front of me and all she wanted was contacts. She was running back and forth across the field by passing all the jumps on the way. I swear this dog did an Open course last week. Sigh.
 
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