Dog Agility Training - A Fun Sport

If you want to have a lot of fun and at the same time vastly improve the obedience and skills of your dog, then the sport of Agility has lots to offer. Going to a dog agility competition also makes a great day out for the whole family. What is Agility Agility is a sport where the dogs are directed by their handlers around an obstacle course. Both speed and accuracy are taken into account. The handlers are not allowed to touch the dogs who are off-leash. No food or toys are allowed.

Train your dog in basic obedience! Click here.

The course for the competition is set by an agility judge. He chooses the layout himself, laying out a series of obstacles on an area of land which is around thirty meters square. There is a definite order which the dog must go around the course.

Before the competition starts, the handlers are allowed to go around the course once with their dog. To assist in this a course map is often provided to the handlers.

A standard course time is set and faults or penalties are given for every second over this time and for mistakes in navigating the course, such as knocking down a bar in a jump.

There are a whole variety of possible obstacles such as walkways the dog has to go over, tunnels he has to pass through, going over a seesaw, weaving through a series of vertical poles, jumping over a horizontal bar and so on.

Watch the video below to get a good idea of what's involved in Agility.

Agility began in the United Kingdom in the 1978 as a demonstration at Crufts  and quickly spread around the world. Nowadays Agility competitions are held world-wide. There are now various sanctioning bodies around the world.

If you’ve already done basic obedience training with your dog, that’s a great start. If you’ve taught him some dog tricks, that will also help. If you haven’t, you should start with some basic obedience training.

For a good guide to the basics which also teaches some tricks, I strongly recommend Dove Cresswell’s Puppy Training and Dog Training Online. Dove herself trains dog up to Masters level in Agility.

Once, you’ve covered the basic obedience training, it's probably best to find a club where you can get help training your dog for agility.