Working On A-frame Confidence

[Rileys mum]

Hi all.

I'm currently doing puppy agility with my boy. He seems super confident on most things we tried apart from the a frame. It's down low but he's just not confident with it just yet.

Are there any ways/ things I can do at home to help build his confidence up?

Any tips appreciated I feel an agility obsession starting. Sooo much fun

Edited November 19, 2010 by Rileys mum

[Nekhbet]

just keep helping him up and down, I tend to hold on the collar and have one hand behind the bum. Push them through a couple of times and not let them baulk, they think it's heaps of fun after that take it slow and super praise at the end!

[Staranais]

I've been told one way to get fast confident A-frames is to lay the frame completely flat & open on the ground, & get them to run over it to a target/toy/food. Only raise it very gradually as they look confident running over it. Probably only works if you have access to the equipment at home, though.

[Kavik]

You could try placing a board on the steps at home, so he gets used to walking down a slope.

Most agility clubs that I know don't do any contact equipment with the dogs until they are 12 months.

[Rileys mum]

Thanks guys. Unfortunately no stairs where I live but he's getting pretty confident on the wobble board which may help his confidence with uneven sensations under his feet ??

He's 12 months old now so I'm looking foward to the fun that's heading our way once classes start up again

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Wow

I couldn't stop my dog. She just loves being up high. My problem is getting her to leave it when appropriate, same with dog walk. And then there's getting contacts ie she doesn't get why it's not ok to jump off the top - including on to me sometimes.

I think if she wouldn't, I'd go with the laying it out flat. Another team in our class had to do that with the dog walk because her dog didn't like the metal feel of it.

[Rileys mum]

Lol now that's keen.

He's a funny lil dog sometimes. Once he understands and has confidence you can't stop him lol. ( im guessing thats pretty common lol) The frame was low but not flat so I may see if I can start like that and progress. He's gained a HUGE Amt of confidence in general foundation stuff since I posted the original post so here's hoping he continues in leaps and bounds he's used to being on a few different materials now so hopefully that may also help him.

Thanks

[Agility Dogs]

Lol now that's keen.

He's a funny lil dog sometimes. Once he understands and has confidence you can't stop him lol. ( im guessing thats pretty common lol) The frame was low but not flat so I may see if I can start like that and progress. He's gained a HUGE Amt of confidence in general foundation stuff since I posted the original post so here's hoping he continues in leaps and bounds he's used to being on a few different materials now so hopefully that may also help him.

Thanks :D

The other way to do this and build confidence is to work up to full height by teaching a nose touch to begin with and then asking the dog to do a nose touch on the end of the contact equipment. When he can do that ask him to do a nose touch from 6 inches, then a foot, then 18 inches etc etc. Eventually you are asking them to drive into position from the top of the a-frame.

Once you get this they are ready to run the entire a-frame with a nice 2o2o performance at the end.

This way you never have to worry about slow performance because you are asking for fast performance (and getting it) before asking for the next piece of the puzzle.

Rear end awareness is a MASSIVE start - the dogs should understand to rock rock back as they head to the bottom of the a-frame. You can really tell the dogs that understand their where their bum is from those who don't.

IMO no dog should be allowed on full height equipment unsupervised until they understand how to complete the obstacle.