Q&A: How much should I be practicing to compete in AKC and UKC obedience and agility?
Question by jessica: How much should I be practicing to compete in AKC and UKC obedience and agility?
My Sheltie is now a year and a half and I’d like to start competing with her in a month or two. Do you think 15 min. 2x a day for obedience is enough plus a private lesson with a trainer atleast every other week is good? There is also an “Open Obedience” at a nearby dog training club where you can practice like you are at a show. Would that be helpful? I’d say her biggest problem (like most dogs) is heeling. She only looks at me about half of the time instead of the whole time and she isn’t close enough to me. I’m taking an agilty class once a week and can go to a club and $ 75 for 6. Isn’t there some way to make something similar to practice with? Thanks for any info. She is ready to compete now but I want to try to place and not just qualify!
Best answer:
Answer by monty
enjoy your dog. don`t try to gain fame through your dogs ability.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Shadow's Melon
22 Oct, 2011
Ah yes, heeling is the hard one to get down. My dog has issues with focus too (not watching me). I am using a clicker to mark and reward my dog for looking at me. This will encourage my dog to pay more attention to me.
Yes, the correction match can be very helpful. I am going to do my second one this coming weekend. It’s just like a regular trial, judges and all, and it’s a great way to get ring experience without the cost of doing it at a real trial (matches are much cheaper). I would definitely pursue some matches.
Sounds like you are doing a fair amount of daily training with your dog, but don’t hesitate to step it up if your dog can handle it. Mine can go and go and repeat and repeat and working for 30 minutes straight with her is no big deal, she loves it. So it depends on what your dog can manage to stay focused for duration.
You can easily make agility jumps at home out of pvc pipe, but other equipment, such as dog walk and a frame are harder to make. But if you do make some jumps, you can still practice having your dog go out ahead of you and such, which is worth practicing.
Nice to see someone else on here going for proper training and performance events. Good luck!
rjn529
22 Oct, 2011
I’m glad to hear you are serious about showing the dog – that’s great!
I would definitely go to as many classes as are available and that your financial situation will allow. the more, different, places your dog gets to, the less she will be distracted in the show ring.
Shows can be very noisy, with a lot of different dogs and events, perhaps loud speakers, and a whole lot for the dog to look at. If the Open Obedience class works with distractions during class, then it’s a definite must do.
You can also work the dog basic commands in parks or parking lots towards the back where the cars are not prevalent. This will give the dog other distractions, and heeling can be focused on.
Just remember to praise her whenever she is right. Shelties are typically smaller, but even if you can, a scratch on the head as you are walking, and use your voice to keep her focused on you and not on everything else.
Good luck with the show!
Nancy M
22 Oct, 2011
Any practice you can get in, as long as you aren’t boring the dog, is good. If you don’t have heeling down, you got nothing. A dog isn’t ready for obedience without 100% solid heeling before you get in a ring — once you get in a ring, your nerves are on edge, the dog is excited and if they are not well trained, they will screw up — basically you have to have a well proofed dog if you want to be competetive – proofed and trained with enthusiasm. I haven’t competed in agility – trained a little in it but just haven’t had a desire to compete but have competed in obedience for decades and schutzhund for a few years and training is training – the dog needs to be fully trained – know precisely what it is you want it to do regardless of what else is going on in the world around it — and the training and working has to be so much fun that the dog will enthusiastically work. I think likely the same is true for competing in agility and I would expect my dogs to be 100% way before I considered stepping into an agility ring. You can make obstacles to work on in your own yard or do obedience in your own area but basically if you can’t take the dog out to someplace that will be very distracting and obedy 100% with enthusiasm, I wouldn’t consider going in competition with her. From your description, she is not close to being ready to compete and place except maybe by accident.
Monty: No one tries to ‘gain fame’ by training and competing with their dogs! Grow a brain… there are thousands of dogs who compete and place and place high in various venues but they aren’t ‘famous’ — it isn’t about that but obviously you don’t know, do you? It is about dogs want and need to do something — if you did nothing in your life but eat, sleep and be patted on the head and be ‘loved’ by some other species, your life would be pretty pathetic — same with a dog. They are canines and as such have various drives and instincts that are ingrained in them and they, unlike a lot of people, have something called ‘work ethic’ — they actually ENJOY being useful and doing stuff for the people in their lives. Your lack of knowledge regarding canines and training is abysmal – get a stuffed dog if you just want to ‘love’ something for your own gratification and without any concern about the actual needs of the animal.
dogmusher2002
22 Oct, 2011
You are doing great for Obedience. If your dog can take any more, feel free to push for more, just don’t burn yourself or your dog out. On the other hand, many top dog trainers suggest the 15. min a day, 2 times a day schedule, as for some dogs, 15 mins. is all that they can handle before they are bored or worn out.
For agility; if you are going to compete in agility…. eh… I know some people who can get by with just one session a week, but I train every day, twice a day if I can fit it in. I place well on this training schedule.
If you are intersted in building your own agility equipment, the yahoo group agility_equipment I think it is (or it may be agility-equipment) is a great group to join. They focus on building your own equipment and it is often a very busy group; I know as I am a moderator there. Hope to see you there!
sharon f
22 Oct, 2011
If you show your sheltie in AKC agility you can pretty much guarantee yourself a placment in the Novice classes because there really isn’t much competiton in the Novice classes but you have to make no mistakes. Well you are allowed 2 misatkes in Novice and one in Open and Excellent no mistake.Once you move up to Excellent there is lots of competiton and to place in the top 4 cause that is ally they pin is the top 4 fastest times and then the green Q ribbons.Sharon