Agility (its a problem)

[JRTLover]

Okay my jack russell is afraid of heights. He dosent like going on the seesaw the dog walk and through the tunnels ANY HEPLING TIPS will be much appreciated:confused: :confused:

[Karen]

You need to let him know this is safe territory. Lots of love and affection and reassurances when he's on one ...

Or switch to "dirt dog" agility - which involves underground work, which maybe he'll like better!

[JRTLover]

he dosent like dirt dog agility iv tried it all ready w/ him but he just didnt like it i guess its 'cause he was in an inclosed space??

[Crikit]

The most important part of doing agility with your dog is not to force it to do the equipment. It has to make up it's mind to do it.

With the teeter, quite often it isn't the height but the noise. What we've recently started doing with training dogs to do the teeter in classes is to get the dog to put it's to front paws on the end of the teeter that's in the air and letting them push it down. When the teeter bangs give the dog a treat and praise them so they start to associate the noise with something good. Also when first starting with the teeter don't let the dog tip it on it's own, tip it for very slowly and gentle till the dog figures out that it moves.

For the bridge or dog walk as it's also called, try having the dog start on the downside contact, and walk them down holding on to their collar, but let them decide how fast they move. Each time they go over it move them slowly up the downside so they have more distance to walk. After the downside move them to the middle of the dog walk and walk with them from there. Then move from the middle of the walk to the start. If the dog is out of control stop and make them wait and as soon as they calm down move forward again. Remember though it is very important that a different command is given for the teeter and the bridge, it will eventually help the dog distinguish between the two.

One other thing that is useful for contact equipment such as bridges and a-frames is to teach the dog to stop on the bottom with two paws on and two paws off. Just use a target with the dog at the bottom of the contact zone making sure that the dog has it's back two paws still on the equipment and give it a command, if the dog runs all the way off place it's back two paws back on the contact.

The Tunnel is easy, just start with it compacted together, get someone to hold the dog at one end you go to the other and call it through. Each time through the tunnel make it a little longer, when the tunnel is at it's full length try putting little bends in it. By that time you should be able to run with your dog beside the tunnel, but you still might want to make sure that there is someone guarding the other end so they can't pop out the end you sent them in and try to go around it.

As for the building problem it does take dogs a certain amount of time to get used to running in certain types of ground and envronment. Just keep it positive when you go to the building.

and finally a rule to remember, when the handler stops the dog stops in other words the handler sets the pace not the other way around.

Hope this helps.

[Cincy'sMom]

Tracy has given you great ideas to help your JRT with agility and I don't have anything to add, except that our dogs were both afriad of the see-saw and after taking agility classes they are doing much better!

Goodluck!

[Dixieland Dancer]

If it is a height issue, most of the equipment can be lowered to inches above the ground. You can ask your class instructor if they feel this is worth looking into. I know the class we went to had a baby teeter, baby A-frame, and plain boards about 1 or 2 inches from the ground just for this purpose.

Your instructor should not have an issue with lowering the equipment if it is what the dog needs. You may have to go to a seperate class to lower the equipment if the class doesn't already have "baby" equipment available though.

Don't force the dog but have lots of praise and very special treats available and help him through his fears. He will pick up on your anxiety that he is not doing well so you need to be upbeat and patient. Try not to show any frustration. How you handle this will help him too.

If your JRT doesn't respond to agility at this point then perhaps you need to look at another venue of training such as obedience, rally obedience or flyball. JRT's excel at most of these sports.

[JRTLover]

Thanx all of you for your help Rusty (my JRT) i think will be much appriciative since he can go on "baby" things now but he still HATES the see-saw and i dont think he will ever be able to do those weav poles
:)

[Crikit]

Take it from me weave poles take forever to learn, a friend of mine who's an instructor says it's because it's not a natural movement for a dog...after all in the wild you don't see a lot of things in a tight row to weave in and out of.

There's actually a couple of different ways to teach weaves as well. There's the channel system where you make a channel with the weave pole a let the dog run through the middle and then slowly decrease the channel. You have to have a certain type of pole to do that. Then there is the wire or gate method, that's where you have the weave poles set straight and you gate each side so the dog has to follow a specific path, the wires work the exact same way except that the dog has a chance to jump over the wires.

If you decide to use the gate method with Rusty which I might recommend you do remember to always have the entrance on the left side of the poles. Then have gates runing from pole 1 to 3 on and three to 5 on one side and from pole 2 to 4 and 4 to 6 on the other, making sure that the exit is also on the left. In competition the dog never enters or exits weaves from the right. Also when you're first starting don't approach the poles at angle, approach them straight on and help the dog find the entrance. Approaching poles from an angle is a very advanced move not only for the dog but the handler, when they approach at an angle the dog can't see the rest of the poles so they don't really know that they are there, while approaching head on the dog can see all the poles and also can find the entrance.

Just keep training and keep positive and I'm sure Rusty will become an awesome agility dog. Take it from someone who knows it can take an awful long time just get one piece of equipment down and even then the dog might still have issues but as long as you keep at it they will eventually get over it.