Thursday, December 26, 2013

Rainy Day Fun For Your Agility Dog

By Cheng Bernhardt


Most dogs look forward to working on an agility course. They love the high level of exercise and all of the fun and praise that goes along with doing a good job. However, sometimes the weather simply doesn't cooperate with a dog's need to get out there and run around. When bad weather happens, don't let it keep you from enjoying some fun indoor agility training with your special animal companion. Here are some easy ways to bring agility training inside.

If you have room in a basement or garage, you can set up quite a few agility obstacles inside so that you will always be ready to go, no matter what type of weather you are experiencing. You can keep a pause table, an A-frame, a teeter-totter, a tunnel or chute and a couple of jumps inside so that workouts can happen at any time. Of course, not everyone has space for this, but there are still many options for indoor training.

When the rain hits, bring your pause table into the living room and spend some time practicing with your dog on this apparatus. While dogs really love dashing through weaves and tunnels and running up and down A-frames, the pause table is extremely important and is a key part of obedience training. The dog must learn to stay and sit on the table for at least five seconds, and a rainy day is the perfect time to practice this important skill.

Other equipment that can be fun on a rainy day would be the teeter-totter or an A-frame. This is actually a great way to introduce these apparatus to your dog. Sometimes dogs are bit unsure about climbing up the A-frame, or the teeter-totter makes them slightly nervous. Start out with a low incline and work your way up to the height that will be set during contests.

The A-frame and the teeter are part of a group known as contact obstacles. The dog walk is another type of contact obstacle. You might find it difficult to fit the A-frame in your living room and certainly the dog walk might be too big. However, a contact trainer is a good option that sort of combines the skills of the A-frame or dog walk along with a pause table. Some contact trainers have just two ramps and no pause table, but you can purchase a three-piece contact trainer that will allow you to work on pause activities, as well as walking up and down ramps.

While you can make your own agility equipment, this can be quite difficult, and there are actually several online shops that specialize in selling agility equipment, such as Carlson-Agility.com. You can find everything you need from agility dog jumps to dog agility tunnels, dog walks, A-frames and much more.




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