Introduction to Dog Agility Training

If you’re interested in agility training your dog, you’ve no doubt already seen some agility competitions on television. For the uninitiated, however, you can think of dog agility as a sport much like horse show-jumping. The goal of the sport is to have the dog run an obstacle course consisting of various heights and types of hurdles.

You’ll likely want to hire a professional trainer if you intend to train your dog for competition, but you can also begin training at home on your own with the basics.

First, however, you need to make sure your dog is ready for the training. Agility training should not begin until the dog is at least 1 to 1-1/2 years old. This is to prevent early injury to growing bones.

Also, you’ll want to take your dog or puppy to obedience training before you begin, as it will be nearly impossible to agility-train if your dog isn’t trained to obey regular commands.

Now, when you’re ready to begin some light training at home, you can start with regular ‘ball games’ that require your dog to jump. This will give you a good idea of your dog’s natural abilities.

Next, you can construct ‘training hurdles’ to use in the backyard or at your local park. These can be constructed cheaply and easily out of PVC pipe, and you can find plenty of diagrams online if you need help making one. 

The top bar of any hurdle you construct should be affixed in such a way as to fall off if the dog’s legs make contact with it in order to avoid injury. Keep in mind, too, that there is a wide variety of hurdle types used in competition, including: A-frames, see-saws, pipe tunnels, tire hoops and more.

The actual training method involved in getting your dog to jump the obstacles is too involved to cover here in sufficient detail. However, the key component to overall training is to make it fun for both you and your dog, because you both must work as a team during formal competitions.

For additional information on dog agility training, contact the United States Dog Agility Association at (214)231-9700 or the National Club of Dog Agility at (913)537-7022.