INTRODUCTION TO AGILITY

Prerequisites: Dogs must have successfully completed Beginning Obedience and one or more of the following: Rally Novice, Sub Novice Obedience, CGC, Teamwork, or Tricks, or consent of the instructor. Dogs must be nine months of age or older.

Introduction to Agility is designed to bridge the gap between the obedience classes that are taught indoors, and Beginner Agility that is taught outdoors.


The goal of the class is to prepare the team to begin training for dog agility. Intro to Agility will focus on teaching handlers how to communicate with their dogs. Objectives include developing foundational skills such as stay, down, sit, come, impulse control, and come to hand with environmental changes and distractions. Dogs will be taught how to target and to walk on planks, stay on pause tables, etc. Handlers will be expected to practice exercises during the week outside of class. Most exercises will be taught outdoors and on leash. Performance of agility equipment is not taught in this class.

Students may repeat Intro to Agility more than once to fully develop the needed skills.

 

Handlers and dogs must demonstrate proficiency in the following skills in order to move up from Intro to Agility to Beginner Agility:

• Dog and handler show proficiency in skills such as good behavior on lead, sit, down, and stay.
• Dog has a reliable recall.
• Dog can walk/run for short distances on either side of the handler.
• Dog can be sent to a target on the ground (nose touch or paw touch).
• Dog can do nose touches to either hand.
• Dog can get on a tippy board with all four paws and remain on the board in a sit or stand.
• Dog can walk a flat plank (all four feet remain on the plank). Crates are optional for this class. Contact your instructor for more information.

Enrollment is limited to 10 teams.

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