Dogs love to practice their agility skills and are happy to practice in pretty much any type of weather, but when it's rainy, snowy or your area is in the middle of a thunderstorm, going outside is not a good option. While inclement weather can put a damper on your dog's daily outdoor agility training, there are definitely some agility activities that you can easily set up inside your home so that he can exercise and train.
If you are fortunate enough to have adequate space in a basement or your garage, why not set up an indoor agility area that you can use at any time? This can be a great place to work out not only during inclement weather, but also if it's dark outside and your dog needs to practice or just expel some extra energy. You can set up several pieces of dog agility equipment, including a tire jump, a tunnel or a chute, a pause table, a see-saw or perhaps an A-frame. Some homes simply don't have these handy spaces for training, but there are still other options.
If the weather looks daunting, bring your pause table inside, move a little furniture and practice the pause table skills. This piece of equipment is where dogs must stop running around a dog agility course and pause, showing off their sit, stay and down skills. While this probably isn't as fun as weaving through a set of poles or jumping through a tire, it is not only a big part of agility competitions; it's also a great way to improve overall obedience in your dog.
Other equipment that can be fun on a rainy day would be the teeter-totter or an A-frame. This is actually a great way to introduce these apparatus to your dog. Sometimes dogs are bit unsure about climbing up the A-frame, or the teeter-totter makes them slightly nervous. Start out with a low incline and work your way up to the height that will be set during contests.
Contact obstacles include the above-mentioned teeters and A-frames, as well as a dog walk, but few homes probably have space to set up this last item indoors, and maybe not even an A-frame. A good piece of equipment that is smaller and will fit more comfortably indoors would be a contact trainer. This looks a bit like a shortened A-frame or a dog walk and it features two ramps, often separated by a small pause table. You can use it to practice the ramp skills, as well as the pause skills.
Sometimes you can build your own equipment, but this can be difficult and time consuming. There are several companies that build agility equipment that looks just like the equipment you see at a competition. Carlson-Agility.com, for instance, offers a full line of dog training equipment, including agility jumps, agility dog walks, dog tunnels, chutes, pause tables and any other training equipment you need.
If you are fortunate enough to have adequate space in a basement or your garage, why not set up an indoor agility area that you can use at any time? This can be a great place to work out not only during inclement weather, but also if it's dark outside and your dog needs to practice or just expel some extra energy. You can set up several pieces of dog agility equipment, including a tire jump, a tunnel or a chute, a pause table, a see-saw or perhaps an A-frame. Some homes simply don't have these handy spaces for training, but there are still other options.
If the weather looks daunting, bring your pause table inside, move a little furniture and practice the pause table skills. This piece of equipment is where dogs must stop running around a dog agility course and pause, showing off their sit, stay and down skills. While this probably isn't as fun as weaving through a set of poles or jumping through a tire, it is not only a big part of agility competitions; it's also a great way to improve overall obedience in your dog.
Other equipment that can be fun on a rainy day would be the teeter-totter or an A-frame. This is actually a great way to introduce these apparatus to your dog. Sometimes dogs are bit unsure about climbing up the A-frame, or the teeter-totter makes them slightly nervous. Start out with a low incline and work your way up to the height that will be set during contests.
Contact obstacles include the above-mentioned teeters and A-frames, as well as a dog walk, but few homes probably have space to set up this last item indoors, and maybe not even an A-frame. A good piece of equipment that is smaller and will fit more comfortably indoors would be a contact trainer. This looks a bit like a shortened A-frame or a dog walk and it features two ramps, often separated by a small pause table. You can use it to practice the ramp skills, as well as the pause skills.
Sometimes you can build your own equipment, but this can be difficult and time consuming. There are several companies that build agility equipment that looks just like the equipment you see at a competition. Carlson-Agility.com, for instance, offers a full line of dog training equipment, including agility jumps, agility dog walks, dog tunnels, chutes, pause tables and any other training equipment you need.
About the Author:
Cheng Bernhardt enjoys talking about dog agility training. To discover a dog obstacles course, or to find more agility dog training equipment such as dog agility kit, please go to the Carlson-Agility website now.
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