Articles

Should I Use Verbal Cues for Dog Agility?

How important are verbal cues in dog agility? Find out in this article that explains how your dog perceives verbal cues on the agility field.

Five Ways to Crush It at Your Next Dog Agility Seminar

Going to a dog agility training seminar? Check out these five tips to maximize your return on investment!

Read This Before Deciding on Your Agility Dog’s Contact Performance

Which contact performance, running or stopped, is right for your team? The answer might surprise you.

Is Your Agility Dog a Pinto or a Ferrari?

If you’ve moved up from a slow or moderately-fast agility dog to a speed racer, here’s some advice to make your life easier.

Dog Training Safety: Why You Need an Experienced Instructor

An experienced instructor for agility, tricks, conditioning, and other dog sports can save you headaches and heartaches in the future.

Dog Training: The Thomas Edison Approach

Approach dog training like the inventor Thomas Edison, and have fun experimenting with new training methods when your dog is stuck.

5 Reasons to Teach Your Dog Tricks

Teaching your dog “tricks” – including basic obedience behaviors – is critical to having a dog you can live with. However, training your dog brings a wealth of other benefits as well.

Yes, Sit and Down Are Tricks

As dog trainers, we sometimes forget that not everyone is familiar with the terms we use. To the average pet owner, “trick” means jump through a hoop or fetch the newspaper. In truth, every behavior we teach, from sit, to walking on a leash, to fetching a drink from the fridge, is just a trick.

Dog Training: Don’t Become an Environmental Cue

When you are training a behavior, don’t make yourself part of the environmental cues for performance. If you always ask for a down with the dog directly in front of you, or always stop next to the contact zone on the dog walk, your dog will rely on your position as part of the environmental cues for the behavior.

5 Mistakes People Make Training Their Agility Dog

Don’t make these mistakes with your dog agility training!

Training a Place, Side, or Middle Cue Makes Agility Easier

When setting up for an exercise or at the start line for an agility run, the first thing we need is for the dog to be facing the same direction we are. Simplify your life by training a completely solid heel, side, or “between” (between your legs) cue. This ends the struggle to position and reposition your dog and lets you spend more time on the exercise and less getting set up.