I just started trailing in agility with my 2 english springer spaniels. ?

Question

One starts out good then starts smelling the ground and wanders away. I need help to keep her focused. Indoors she does better. The other one is confirmation and has his title. he is new to agility. he does everything right but is slow. Help!

Answer 1

1.  On the "slow" dog:

--you need to move and run.  Dogs (especially novices) tend to move at the speed you do (or if they run slow on the dog-walk or course you run with them and then they slow up).  Push it--run harder.

--work on courses to build speed:  put a line of jumps together and practice racing your dog to the end.

--have your dog work on speed every week.  Maybe it's chasing after a ball to fetch it.  Maybe it's interval training.

--keep training sessions short.  Longer sessions encourage a dog to "pace" it and cuts speed.

--build confidence.  A dog that is uncertain or less confident will run slower.

--look at building "drive."  YOu can do this lots of ways:  find rewards (a tennis ball?  playing tug?  high value food?) that drive your dog crazy.  HAve a consistent warmup before you run.  Don't have do-overs:  if your dog runs past a jump just keep going (to build confidence and momentum).  Practice on flowing courses that give your dog a chance to build speed.

2.  For the sniffer in the family:

--Read the Deb Jones "In-Focus" series, very good books that look at exactly this.

--Don't work on the entire course.  Just do 2-3 obstacles, click and reward and quit for a few minutes and then repeat.  Do not give your dog a chance to rehearse bad behavior.

--Be clear about why your dog is sniffing.  It may be due to a really good scent.  Or it may be due to stress (my dog sniffs when stressed).  Look at other behavior to judge this (check out Sarah Kalnaij "The Language of Dogs" for more details).

--work on the dog focusing on you.  When you take walks, every time the dog looks at you, click and treat.

--work on recalls and refocusing.

--work on drive (see the above hints for dog #1).

Most folks don't realize that every dog is unique with it's own personality.  Your two definitely prove this.  Don't assume that the training regime that works well for one dog fits the other.  You've got two different pooches and you'll need to solve the problems with each differently.

Answer 2

I wish I had a a springer spaniel.

Answer 3

The above poster had some good suggestions.  Here's another one for the sniffer.  My agility dog does this also,  My trainer suggested that every time she did this for me to run in the opposite direction and hide from her view.  When she looked up and couldn't find me she would panic and run to find me.  This method has improved her sniffing issue a lot.  

She was also leaving and sniffing whenever either she or I messed up on an obstacle.  She was reading my frustration even though I never corrected her for it.  Now I keep things happy and try not to let her know when I am frustrated. LOL.

My Trainer pointed this out to me also.

Answer 4

Patience is always needed in agility training. Lots and lots of patience. <VBG>

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