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Winter Dog Agility Training
Yes, its cold outside, but don't stop your dog's agility
training. Depending on where you live, there might be snow on
the ground from November through March, but thats no reason to
give up your agility training. Bring your training indoors,
right at your own home.
Get creative with your training locations. Do you have a
hallway, basement, or garage? Then you have a place to train!
Before it snows and your equipment is frozen to the ground,
store some in your garage, shed, basement, or put a tarp over
it. Bring in one piece of equipment at a time, and begin your
indoor training.
We do a lot of indoor training with a Pause Table. In fact, we
keep one in our living room for both obedience training and
agility training all the time. The Pause Table is a great
obstacle for developing your obedience behaviors and teaching
agility directional commands Don't forget to work on your
contacts. It's easy by having a Contact Trainer indoors. A
3-Piece Contact Trainer offers you versatility; you have an
A-frame side, the Pause Table, and a Dog-walk plank. Practicing
your two feet on and two feet off is convenient and quick when
you have indoor contacts, only a few minutes a day to steady
your dog's behavior.
Indoor jumping must be approached carefully. If you don't have
indoor matting, don't jump. You don't want your dog jumping on
concrete or wood floors. But you can use the uprights or posts
to practice your handling. Use your Sit-stay or Down-stay and
practice your lines or dogs path with no jump bars.
Weaves can be practice indoors. Are you training with a
weave-chute or straight line weaves? Five minutes a day of weave
training through out the winter will have your dog weaving
smoothly by springtime. You can practice weave entries and weave
sends or weave recalls.
There is also a variety of mini agility equipment that can be
purchased, and don't require the same space as standard
equipment. There are mini-teeters, mini-dog walks, and
mini-A-frames. These are great obstacles for puppy training or
indoor winter training.
So, during the cold winter months, don't give up on your agility
training. Whether you are starting a young pup, working a novice
dog, or an experienced titled dog there is always something that
you can do indoors with your agility training.
About the author:
Brad Carlson is a Dog Trainer at Agility by Carlson. For more
training details, visit our website at
http://www.carlson-agility.com/
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