home agility

ange165 · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 6:20 pm Post subject: home agility

I'm wanting to start agility with Ruby because it looks like a barrel of fun!
Problem is the nearest agility club to us is almost two hours away Confused

There is one local club which are thinking of getting up and running but are having trouble with insurance..
I thought if I was able to do some basic stuff at home with her I'd be able to get a head start with it seeing as I have enough space.
Does any agility fans have any advice for me to start from home? or any good resources I can track down to buy?

anne · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 6:23 pm Post subject:

Join the Grayjumpers group on yahoogroups, they should have all sorts of ideas for you!

ange165 · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 6:31 pm Post subject:

great site thanks!! Smile

WeiMe · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 3:05 am Post subject:

I built all of my own agility equipment. I have a table, weaves, teeter and jumps (bar and tire). I also bought a tunnel online. With these I can set up a pretty good course to practice. I just searched online and found the plans.

Another great resource is www.cleanrun.com. They put out a magazine that is great. It has a section called backyard dogs that maps out a practice course and gives you several different ways to run it.

Most agility training starts without any equipment other than a toy or treat. This is called flatwork. Flatwork teaches the basics of agility like training the dog to follow your hand. It also teaches the different types of crosses (front, rear and blind) and commands like out and go. Cleanrun magazine will often have articles on training these types of things. The website also carries multiple training videos and books.

afromaiko · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:04 pm Post subject:

We are very lucky, we live next to an off leash park and the council has built a dog agility playground there. It's got the weave poles, hurdles, ramps, tunnel, hoop etc!

Mika is a natural, she often does them without us telling her. The other people down there are amazed when she just decides to run around and jump over and through stuff by herself while they are standing there trying to encourage their stubborn dog along Laughing

The only problem she has is with the hurdles, they are placed a bit too close together for a large dog. As soon as she jumps one the next is right at her chest.

If we want her to do the whole course properly someone just runs around next to her giving encouragement.

I made a temporary hoop to jump through in our back yard the other day. It was an old mountain bike tyre strung up between a step ladder. Mika was a bit hesitant to start with, but got used to it quickly and was jumping back and forth.