How much time do you practice?

[Speed]

I'm Brand Spankin' new to this forum and new to agility. My dog and I have had 4 beginner agility classes and we're hooked. He's not afraind of any of the equipement so far and is doing well. I'm sure we will continue with intermediate class.

My question is how much time per day and how many days per week do you work your dog on agility equipment? I realize every dog is different but I was wonder if people work 1-2x/week or daily and do you play around and work some agility in to play time? Or do you focus for an hour?

I found a dog agility tunnel on clearance and am about to build some jumps. We have access to a dog park with agility equipment too so we will have the 'tools'.

Thank you,

Lois

 

[RedHotDobe]

Rumor and I do agility right now purely for fun, so I use it as part of her play time. There are days I don't do it, but if the equipment is sitting out, she usually takes it upon her self to run through if we haven't used it in a while.

So, I guess we're always just playing around.

 

[tessa_s212]

Back when I was more serious and focused on agility training, I'd train every day for 10-15 minutes. Short, fun, yet enough to make progress.

If I wanted to practice for longer sessions at a time, then I'd cut it back to only a fwe times a week.

You don't want the dog getting burnt out, but you want to practice enough to make progress. And as you already guess, that does vary with each dog.

 

[Dekka]

I do a lot of flat work during the week (even though I own my own field (I give lessons) I find its not the obstacles that are hard, its the getting from one obstacle to another at speed . For your veiwing pleasure (and my shame hahaha) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXKjU8qhM90&NR=1 She was quite novice back in march at least when it came to trialing. I goofed, I should have done a little bit of a reverse flow pivot before the first tunnel, and a chop before the 3rd. Its these little details that can make or break a run. (my excuse is I am used to running her father who is much more experienced, doesn't need any babysitting, and in short is a completely diff dog to run.)

 

[adojrts]

I agree obstacle training is such a small part of agility training.....that said I only train or recommend to my students that the max of obstacle work be 3 times a week. Ideally one day of obstacle training (15 min max) next day flat handling skills and ALWAYS PLAY and do focus work.
Its great that you are hooked, agility can be very addicting and sooooooooo much fun. But a word of warning.........I have had students get some equipment while they are in the beginning stages of learning. And they have created problems that we now have to fix in class, some of these problems can be very long lasting and difficult to fix. To give a few of the most common..............lack of control (not enough focus work or foundation skills), unrealistic expectations for the level of training that they have had (big one), Luring (Don't lure), over training (another big one). Any one of these or a combo of them can have some long term effects, which often has the dog and the handler frustrated. When the handler gets frustrated the dog often believes that they have done something wrong, then the dog gets the zoomies, sniffs or just shuts down and wont move.
First rules of agility............make it fun, make it realistic, make it short.
If you have to drag your dog away from training its the correct amount of time. If the dog wants to leave............training is too unrealistic, too long and not fun.
If you are serious about agility and competing........then get a subscription to Clean Run also get your hands on Greg Derretts DVD's Foundation Skills.
Great Dog, Shame About the Handler and he now has a 3rd one out. I don't know the name of it, but I am sure it is worth having.
www.cleanrun.com

Good luck
Lynn

 

[agilityretrievers]

We do agility 5 days a week. Usually that's 2 days of trialing, 1 day of class (an hour long), and 2 days of obstacle training in the backyard (5 minutes for the 8-year-old, 10-15 for the 4-year-old). The days before and after trials are breaks for both dogs, and the older one usually doesn't do much the day before class either. If we don't have a trial we usually go hiking/swimming.

Definitely be careful about keeping sessions short and fun. Also know how to tell that your dog is tired of running today. A lot of beginning people think that their dog must be having fun because he's still doing the obstacles they tell him to and his tail might wag every once in a while. He shouldn't just be wagging his tail, he should be bouncing around, running at top speed, and wanting to keep running after the training is over.

 

[BostonBanker]

I normally get to practice on all the equipment twice a week - once in class and once at our club practice. I have weaves at home that we work on two or three more days a week - usually less than three minutes of work each time.

Other than that, it's some flat work and lately, some targeting (why oh why didn't I just do contacts right the first time??), and a lot of just keeping her fit.

 

[Speed]

Thank you to all! I want to make sure I don't start off with the wrong routine. We've been working in targeting at home, have a 1-hr class.

I need to read about flat training. We mainly have fun hiking and mtn biking in cooler weather. We only get to practice about 10-15 minutes a few days/week and practice Rally and work with the target.

Sounds like we have a good routine and need not rush things.

My dog's name is Speed. We adopted him at 7 mos old. He strongly resembles and seems to have a lot of traits of the Portuguese Water Dog. On day 3 of having him, my husband leaned over to pet him. The dog rolled over and peed all over the place. My husband said "He's peed! Hey let's call him Speed I think he looks like he's going to be fast!"

So his name has double meaning.

 

[Dekka]

haha that is funny. Welcome, and warning...agility (and this forum) are very addictive.

 

[mrose_s]

I train with buster 10-30 minutes a day, or more if he's still having fun. I try to do that atleast 6 days a week but i'll admit, i;ve been very slack. I'm still adjusting to the cold whther (and by adjusting i mean not going outside)

i suppose i could drag the folded a frame inside for contacts, he loves practicing that, i think its his favourite

sometimes its hard to get buster into it, but once he is he's so fast and so happy. lol.

plus when i'm out walking i'll find anything to practice with him. He's already motivated when we're outside so he's easy to send him out in front to jump something

but hey, we don't even compete yet. I just wana go sign up to a beginners class one day and have him blow them all out of the water. lol

 

[CelticxConnections]

When I work with Gimli I work him for about 15 minutes a day, tops. I am also in 4H so we have a big course set up which we can run our dogs on, when we go up there its for about an hour. Of course there is waitting to run and such in that time.

My puppy is still only doing flat work, generaly we work on that for five minutes or so about 5 times a day.

 

[milos_mommy]

especially if the dog enjoys and knows how to navigate the equipment, then i wouldn't say it's necessary to work on the equipment more than twice a week, even once if you're just doing it for fun. But definately practice groundwork every day, just incorporate it into everything the dog does. Always keep a toy or snack on hand to reward a recall (and ALWAYS reward the recall), and just work crosses into your walks, etc.