Dog agility training, Old Mill Dogs Jan 2017 training

Here is a little of the fun we have been having in January - starring 3 of our dogs, Molly, Tilly and Fly

The course shown in the video is here

We have been working on wing wraps all month so after a deceptively easy start it gets a bit twisty

As ever there are many ways to run this - one change that flowed very nicely was a front cross after 16 to avoid the off course jump, turning the dog right over 17 which gave a nice flow into 18

If you do run this feel free to share

If you are interested in training your agility dog I totally recommend the control unleashed book, click the image below to check it out on Amazon 

A beginner level long thin agility course with video

Sunday at the stables we did this nice fast course

A nice one for speed and confidence, you can pretty much do to 12 on your left hand, front cross the landing of 12 and do the rest on your right hand


I have included a video of the lovely Molly running this course. Molly hasnt competed yet but she is a little superstar. Yes she skipped one weave pole :)

I didnt run this one as myself and Ben were just back from a show and we were both pretty worn out (but the little superstar got another first place)





I hope if you run this you enjoy it, and feel free to share any videos of you running it

Adjust the spacing as you need as wider or closer spacings each have their own challenges

Myths about positive trainers #2 Treat training makes dogs fat

Reeeealy??

Fat is caused by consuming more energy than you burn

Its as simple as that.

So yes if you give your dogs lots of treats and dont reduce their meals or exercise them more then your dog will gain weight.

But many pet owners give their dog some kind of treat, I know lots of people who will give their dog a dentistick or boneo or something in the evening to keep them occupied. This is WAY more than my dogs get for training, I give my dogs lots of treats when training that is true - but - they are tiny treats. For example something the size of a cocktail sausage gives my dogs up to about 25 treats or I use tiny slivers of dried liver 1/2 the size of my pinky nail.

Mental exercise uses energy as well - so learning things IS exercise

Also if you train your dog to walk nicely with you or be happy in different situations then you are able to take them more places and walk them for longer walks so they are less likely to get overweight.

Myth busted - overfeeding/under exercising dogs makes them fat

Old Mill Dogs

Last year I posted that I had had to stop teaching at the agility club I had helped set up and had been teaching at for 2 years.
I was very sad to leave and determined to do something as I had loved my teaching so much.

Well a bit of hard work and some really great friends and family and we have just started up a new project

Old Mill Dogs

This is a very exciting new project, not only will we be continuing with the agility training but my partner in crime has some exciting different skills so we are adding dog walking and other dog training - gundog training, obedience, tricks

And to top it all our brand new training ground is totaly secure

Here is my friends dog Blue, he was so excited when we put the jumps in the ground that he sat in the middle and wouldnt move

Classes are starting TOMORROW (gulp) but we will be starting several more beginners agility classes over the spring and summer so contact me or pop over to the website for details

How to untrain the recall

A great recall is something that just makes me smile - when your dogs drops everything and races to be beside you with a great big happy grin.
Unfortunately it is way too easy to untrain that recall - just about every day I see people untraining their recal.
4 favourite ways to untrain a dogs recall
1. Call them back to you when they are in a situation you haven't fully trained for so you know full well they will not come back
2. Call them then then chase after them to try and catch them
3. Punish them when you finally catch up with them
4. Only call them back when you want to stick them on the lead and go home

So what could we do different in each situation?
1. If you know they wont come back don't call them, accept they are running off at that point and then work on training their recall more. Remember dogs learn to associate words with what they are doing at the time - if they are running away then they may even learn that 'Bracken CO-OME' means run away as fast as possible

2. Dogs LOVE LOVE LOVE chase games - what great fun they can start a chase game by running away when you are calling. Running away is a better option (if its safe) and you can train a really solid chase recall (I will go over it in a later post) or if you feel you need to go after them better to walk slowly and walk round them rather than directly at them

3. So common because people thing the dogs were running away to be bad. This is simply not the case, if a dog doesn't do something it is because you haven't trained it properly. You want your dog to REALLY want to be around you, if you punish them when you reach them what you are actually doing is making your dog LESS likely to want to be around you - better to make a fuss of them when you catch up with them - make yourself fun to be around

4. Taking away a dogs freedom is actually punishing, if a walk consists of you letting them off the lead and pretty much ignoring them till its time to get them on the lead again then your recall isn't going to be all that interesting. Much better that on a walk you call them back several times, sometimes to give them a nice treat, to play a game, to show them something interesting you have found. You can even call them too you, clip the lead on, give them a few treats then unclip them again.