Agility

Agility is a display of advanced interaction between dog and handler that requires a lot of practice. The goal is to finish an obstacle course with obstacles such as jumps, tunnels, balance obstacles and slalom, and this needs to be done with accuracy and in short time. The fact that the contestants don't get to see the course until the competition makes it extra hard. They then only have 8 minutes to walk and learn the course. 

As an agility coach you get to see many equipages grow and take the next step forward. You get to see the joy between handler and dog and push the equipage to succeeding with things they never thought possible. This fuels me and I feel pure happiness standing on the side and helping both beginners and advanced', says Ulrika Pettersson, agility coach and founder of Up and Run Agility.

When she meets a new equipage with a will to start training agility, she emphases the importance of the dog learning every separate obstacle before starting to assemble them into longer combinations. Regardless of the level of training, like activation or competition, they use small tracks and that makes it important for the dog to have learned all the obstacles before trying.

Here are some advice from Ulrika if you want to start doing Agility:

- Find out what treat your dog likes the most. Is it candy or a toy? A treat should be something the dog thinks is worth working for.

- Train the dog into understanding what a treat means. Do this by running together with the dog towards the treat that you placed out to make it exciting and fun.

- Practice body control with your dog. Take a walk in the woods and practice jumping up on rocks, crossing over logs and rocks and balancing on different things to teach the dog to have control over its body and paws.