Dog Agility Training A Great Way To Tap Your Dogs Skills

Dog agility training is an excellent way to tap into your dog's natural strengths. You can utilize your dog's speed, flexibility, energy, and hunting instincts and more. It's a way for dogs to maintain their inherent abilities that they would have used in the wild to track down their food, protect their lairs and make their way across difficult and varying terrain.



What is dog agility training?



Dog agility training involves a special course that forces your dog to use certain skills, such as jumping, zig-zagging, climbing and running. It is a team effort involving dog and owner, although the dog does most of the heavy work. It is a special form of training that is suitable for the working and hunting breeds specifically. Dogs must make their way through the course in a set period of time. The faster dog wins.



The agility trials are professionally judged and rewarded with ribbons, cups and other prizes. It's more than training - it's a fun sport that is gaining in popularity.



What it takes to participate



To participate, puppies must be at least 9 months of age. Retirement from the competitions is generally around 8 years of age, but it depends on the dog's overall health and fitness levels.



All dog breeds are admitted, but its best if your dog has the personality to participate. Some dogs would rather relax while others have energy to spare. The more energy your dog has, the more suited he is to dog agility training because it requires significant output in both energy and speed.



Dogs that consistently obey the sit, stay, down and heel commands are ready to compete, however they must trust their owner. Otherwise, they will be reluctant to do some of the challenges like running through a tunnel or balancing across a narrow beam.



Benefits of Dog Agility Training



It enhances your dog's inherent abilities, the skills it wants to use. Your dog will become more alert, vigorous and confident. Your dog's problem-solving abilities will improve. It will reinforce the bond between you and your dog and perfect the communication skills between you.



It will put physical demands on your dog that will improve coordination, endurance and fitness levels as well as your dog's behavior in other areas of life.



How much training is required to enter agility competitions?



For most dogs, 6-9 months of daily training is necessary to prepare them for the more rigorous exercises in agility competitions. You can help your dog prepare by encouraging fun games like go fetch, tug of war and catch. This helps to build and strengthen muscles that will be needed for agility work. It will also show your dog that this type of work can be fun. Graduate to similar exercises such as jumping across distances and over obstacles, and running through increasingly longer tunnels. In time, your dog will come to trust your requests and look forward to these exercises.



There is so much more to dog agility training, but these steps will get you started and help you determine whether or not you and your dog are suited to this type of work.



Take time to visit the dog agility competitions near you. Watch the process and the types of challenges that dogs face. See how well they do and imagine your dog participating. This will give you a first-hand look at how they are run.



Talk to the participants, organizers and judges and they will be happy to answer your questions about dog agility training and competitions.
For more great dog training tips and resources to help you train your dog, or puppy, visit How To Train A Dog Review Site at http://DogsTrainingMadeEasy.com

Dog Pack Behavior How To Introduce More Members To The Pack

Dog owners looking to add more pets to their family need to keep in mind dog pack behavior. Knowing how it works will help significantly in how well your new friend accepts his new position. It will minimize or eliminate problems.



Dogs have personalities that predict where they fit into the pack. Some dogs are leaders while others are content to follow. Actually, dogs are not unlike humans in that regard.



You might know what can happen when you put two bosses with dominant personalities into a room. Each will "fight" to be the leader. That's also how dogs act when two of a kind are expected to get along when, in fact, their natural tendency is to fight for supremacy.



This can lead to a disastrous situation when trying to introduce a new member into your home. Even one dog in your household is enough to form the pack. That existing dog sees (or should see) you as the pack leader with him being second in line. It's based on the pecking order. Usually, the strongest and most wilful dogs take the top levels while weaker, smaller and less aggressive dogs fall into the lower levels.



All levels have their own hierarchy with increasingly more submissive dogs being on the bottom.



When a new dog enters the scene, it must interject itself into the pack and learn the hierarchy. It must fight for its rightful place within that pack. This means coming face to face with others and attempting to take over one of those spots. Easy-going dogs will fit in nicely, especially those that are dog-friendly.



Dominant dogs, on the other hand, can get into serious fights.



There are different levels of dominant dogs. The top dog will always be the most dominant and often is the bigger dog. When confronted by another dominant dog, it will determine how much of a threat it is and proceed as necessary.



Some dogs will simply back down after a few episodes of dominant behavior, but others will never give up and will fight to the death. If this is evident, there's nothing you can do but keep them separated or get rid of one dog.



Find out the behavior of your new dog before bringing it home. Is it submissive, dominant, disinterested, friendly or aggressive toward other dogs? Be sure to choose a dog that will accept your current dog more readily. Often, choosing the opposite sex will be sufficient, but do look at her personality too.



Dog pack behavior is the perfect example of how everything has its rightful place. By having a good understanding of your own dog and choosing wisely you can end up with a family where dog pack behavior is not a problem for you or your pets.
For more great dog training tips and resources to help you train your dog, or puppy, visit How To Train A Dog Review Site at http://DogsTrainingMadeEasy.com