Crucial Keys to Agility Greatness

From Susan Garrett's blog:

'The Three Crucial Keys to Agility Greatness'

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

So you want to know what I view as the three most important things in creating a great agility dog? Foundation, foundation, foundation.'

From Dave Munnings: 'The more I learn and the more I teach, the more I realise the importance of foundation.'

From the Olympic British Cycling coaches:  'the ethos has been to make small gains in all areas, which result in major gains in performance... the devilishly fast times are in the detail.'  

Thinking back to the competitions over the summer, the kind of questions I am asking myself now are; are my contacts fast and accurate enough? Is my wait rock solid and my dog driving out at full speed when I release? Is my dog driving as fast as possible round the course? Are my dogs' weaves reliable no matter where I am? Is my distance handling and verbal cueing up to scratch? do my dogs' understand what obstacle I want them to take next? Are my turns tight enough? Is my dog knocking too many poles? Have I got the right balance of drive and control? Does my dog come to me when I call rather than take what is in front of it? Does it drive on when I am lagging behind?

With these thoughts permeating through my mind, I thought I would offer five more one hour workshop dates on Sunday mornings, offering an opportunity to focus on some essential skills. These will include:

Building more drive and motivation in your dog (speed workshop)

Creating more self control in your dog

body awareness (co-ordination and balance)

jumping skills (grids and turns workshops)

weave skills (for dogs just learning to weave, and also advanced weave skills for experienced dogs)

contacts, speed and proofing

distance control

obstacle discrimination

handling choices

In December there will be a day to practise Olympia style courses, and a charity event (courses, games, cake stall etc. - thank you to everyone who has already offered to help!)