1) proprieception work (knowing where your limbs are) can be done using eggball or disc work or wobble board and/or basket work
See my website for the basics:
http://emilywhisper.webs.com/corework.htm
* EGGBALL: You can do this on an eggball (sold by Clean Run and by Adrenaline Dog Sports and many more). With a small dog you could probably get away with a regular human ball.
* BALANCE DISC: I use discs a lot with my pups too. No need to hold it and the goals are (1) All 4 paws on the disc and balance in a stand position (2) front paws only and hind end rotates around the disc (3) hind end on ball and front end rotates around disc. (google “FitPAWS® Balance Disc” to see the discs). Now no cheating and luring your dog on it. The dog should be shaped to do all this stuff.
* WOBBLE BOARDS: are awesome. They teach the dog to be on a wobbly surface like the teeter. No luring, let the dog investigate it and click and treat/tug for it. Eventually the dog will be on it making it bang around before you click. Easiest I’ve ever seen has a small piece of wood (3x3) centered and nailed into a bigger piece (24x24).
* BASKET WORK: goal is for your dog to get all 4 paws at once into the tinyest basket ever. All done by marking what you like, no luring, no touching dog. My 24” tall Malinois can get into a Tupperware 6x8”, my 16” ACD a basket 4x4”. It’s great core work and a good challenge!
All this stuff teaches them where their feet are and provides a great core workout so their stomach and back muscles are strong to avoid injury.
2) basic OB
* teach sit, down, stand with distractions
* I teach a command for “watch me” as well
* I teach all my basic OB before my dogs do any real agility or flyball so that I don’t struggle with it while I teach something new
* Make sure you add a release word like “break” or “ok” or “yes” so that your dog knows when they can move from a sit or down or stand. Otherwise they are getting up whenever they want.
* I’ll teach a heel command based on circle work below
3) It’s yer choice (yes, spelled that way)
* Susan Garrett game
* teaches the dog to only take things when you release them with “take it”
* put food in your hand, if dog gets near, close hand. Dog backs off, open hand. At first, it may be they moved away for a nano-second before you release them with “take it”
* then make it harder and harder gradually
* put food on floor and cover it with hand if needed
* do it with toys too, training bag (only opens when dog backs off)
* I don’t teach “leave it” so much as I teach “it’s yer choice”
4) nose touch for agility – this one is so individual that I’d say find a trainer you like and stick to it. I use Susan Garrett’s method which is taught without equipment.
5) Nose touch for flyball – I train my boxturn using a stick that the dogs learn to nosetouch the tip of. So touch the end of the stick and get a game of tug. But this all depends how you train a boxturn!
6) Nose touch for OB – I train a lot of things like jumping straight ahead in OB, down when recalling and go out using a nose touch on a Tupperware lid.
7) foundation flatwork
In agility the dog has to know how to do obstacles but what about all the running in between! Doing small and large circles with dog on the inside and outside teaches them to stay with you on the side you want. Dog on leash, start running circles around something. Don’t let dog get ahead of you (I bring the collar back into heel position). Dog can’t cross in front of you nor cross behind you as those are no-no’s in agility!
By the time your dog sees a sequence, it will have an awesome understanding on where they should be.
By the way, no straight lines!
When you go into a straight line, throw a toy well ahead of you and accelerate into it (dog should drive ahead of you when you are going straight)
8) crate games
http://www.clickerdogs.com/crate_games.php
This single DVD is probably the #1 DVD I recommend. It’s simply awesome. Teaches dogs so much self-control. You can order it from a few different places.
9) ball drive and retrieves for flyball, agility rewards
10) tug drive with "out"
11) teeter games/bang games to desentize to the noise and movement
* wedge the teeter so that one edge is only a few inches off the floor. When your dog investigates it, click and treat. Eventually your dog will be running full force towards the low edge to make it bang. Don’t do a tonne of this. Start to bring it up slightly. Depending on how to train a contact, things will progress in different ways from here.
12) teach the agility table
* I teach it with automatic down since I trial with AAC but you could do a sit too
* use click and treat, no luring needed. 1-dog touches it 2-dog hops up 3-dog tries a behaviour like sit 4-dog downs…
* I teach this before anything else in agility to make sure they LOVE it. I’ll get to the point where I play tug with them on the table (they have to stay in a down – took a while to teach my Malinois puppy this one) and I try to pull them off.
* result is a pup who drives to the table and drops into a down happily
13) Jump Grids
* Susan Salo has a great puppy DVD for proper jump grids using bumps for pups (available on Clean Run)
* This explains grids using jump bumps and what height is ok for the age of the pup.
* She also has a few DVD set for training/retraining jumping which is awesome
This is a start of stuff I teach (learned from Susan Garrett and many others) my pups before age 18 months.
My current pup is 16 months and has been cleared to jump (x-rays show everything is solid) but I still work on all this stuff with him. When we do add obstacles in, all the pieces will fall into place!
Any questions, just ask Sometimes what you think is clear is only mud to others!!!
Fontaine d'Or Emily RPT, FMCh, TFE, HITs, BH (HIT), CD
Whisper FDCh-S
Fontaine d'Or Hang on Tight
About preparing the pro athlete dog!
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