Dogs have taught us more than 100 rules, that most of them naturally follow. As a part of this course, we’ll share many of these rules with you! Below you'll find some rules that Janita referred to in her analysis for course 3, as well as the in the training session with the demo dogs.

Most (large) dogs land slicing jumps near the back wing

Learn to see where your dog lands after a backside jump, so you can choose your own position in the best way to support what needs to happen after landing.

 

Don’t be a moose

Make sure that the line you want your dog to take after landing or exiting the previous obstacle is empty for your dog to take. If you’re standing in your dog’s path, you are like a moose on the road. Your dog’s options are:

• slowing down
• knocking the bar
• crashing into you
• going to a wrong obstacle that he can see, or
• do an S-curve around you.

 

If you use verbal cues, talk to your dog

If you tell your dog to “sit”, “be quiet” or “come here” at home, you’ll watch your dog and talk to him. Do the same in agility: anything you say or do, say or do it for your dog by watching him and being connected with him.

If the dog needs to follow verbal cues, he should hear them approximately 7 m / 20 ft before performing an obstacle.

While it’s natural for dogs to follow motion, it’s easier for them to listen to verbal cues when the handler is standing still, walking or moving slowly.

 

S-curves on contact obstacles make it more difficult for the dogs to perform them

The more lead changes are required from the dog before, during and after a contact obstacle, the bigger a risk of the dog slipping or falling. These lead changes also increase the possibility of missed down contacts with running contacts.

 

An experienced dog can do a lead change based on the obstacle he has in front of him

If the dog has much higher obstacle focus than handler focus, he commits to the obstacles more easily and can choose the lead leg based on the next obstacle rather than the side that the handler is on. If the tunnel, weaves or contact obstacles are the dog's favourite obstacle, he "wants" to go there and easily chooses the lead leg by himself to be able do so. This type of dog doesn't need that much help with lead changes, he does them himself to be able to perform any obstacle he sees in front of him. See some examples.

 

After every obstacle your dog asks you a question, “what’s next?” - don’t make him ask twice

Your dog is your teammate, and you have to constantly communicate with them.

There is no game in the world where team members are not keeping an eye on what their teammates are doing. Can you imagine soccer players just running around the field without watching what other players are doing? If there are only separate individuals on the field, it's not a team anymore!

When running agility, imagine your dog having a question mark above his head after every obstacle, looking at you and asking: "What should I do next?" To make it as easy as possible for your dog to find the next obstacle, you should be ready to answer his questions right when he needs the information.

 

If the dog needs to do two lead changes between two obstacles, expect problems and help your dog with your handling

S-shaped lines in the course are often challenging for dogs, and they need extra attention from the handler.

Generally, when the dog performs S-shaped lines in the course, it requires back-to-back lead changes. Less strides between obstacles also means less time to make necessary lead changes for the dog, so the shorter the distance with an S-curve is, the more difficult it will be for the dog to approach the next obstacle on the correct lead. It’s important for the handler to notice these spots on the course to be able to choose the best position and help their dog clear the challenge and prepare to enter the obstacle safely.

Keep in mind that also unnecessary turns towards you create an S-curve for the dog.

 

Try to be in the best possible position in the critical places of the course

Critical points of the course are points where you really need to be, to be able to “survive” through the course: if you are not there, it’s really difficult for your dog to find the correct obstacle. To get to these points, you often need to leave the previous sequence early, and that is a skill you can learn and get better at!

Every step, meter and feet count. It’s not how fast you run, it’s how early you can leave!

 

When you use a reward to help the dog, pay attention also to the handling: the reward should be a result of following your handling

When teaching a missing skill for the dog, if you just place a reward on the dog’s line and let him run to it, you are not teaching him anything yet. Every time you use a pre placed reward, make sure that you do your handling the way you want to be able to do later. The reward will be an immediate result of following your handling.

When you want to teach your dog to go forward after a tunnel for example, make sure you say your verbal cue before the tunnel also when you are practicing with a pre placed reward. This way your dog will learn to think “when I hear the word forward, I’ll run as fast as I can!”

 

Your dog needs to see your handling cue on the correct time to be able to react to it

The dog cannot take information from you when he is on the air, he needs to have his paws on the ground and see you. The same goes for tunnels: it sounds obvious that the dog cannot see you while he’s in a tunnel, but if you are not connected with your dog, you might not realise he didn’t actually see your handling move.

 

Whenever the exit of the tunnel points in a different direction than where the dog needs to go next, do a Tunnel Brake