Agility Handling

[emilymarston]

So lately I've noticed that my agility handling skills are not great. Most of the time Bonnie can actually understand my crazy cues, but at other times I confuse her.

I've never had any sort of agility lessons, pretty much self taught, and I would like to join an agility club soon. But I need to improve on my handling skills before I start working on improving my dog's skills.

Most of my cues are pretty jerky and rough, but what I've seen on the internet looks so much more fluent than what I'm doing. I also find that my footwork isn't great either, and I usually get in my dog's way when I'm trying to move somewhere.

Could someone please help to point out what I'm doing wrong? Also please ignore the weave poles at the end, another reason why I need to take classes.

So this is today's session, pretty much the worst handling I've ever done.

PS. I'm very new to agility and dog training in general, and Bonnie is the first dog I've ever trained

Edited September 7, 2013 by Emily M

[The Spotted Devil]

Hi Emily

For some reason your link isn't working for me. Do you ever run with an "imaginary" dog?" I used to run a course 5-10 times on my own until I was happy with how it felt before taking my Dally around - 9 times out of 10 we would nail it. Great for his confidence and mine!