Can anyone give me some help regarding agility training my Airedale 'Jake'.

Jake is good at obedience classes but I am starting to have problems with him at agility training.
We have been going to agility classes for several months now but during a class and after initial enthusiasm Jake loses focus on me and tends just to wander off and totally ignores the recall command.

I have reached a point of total frustration - out and about he is generally very obedient.

Is there anyone that can put me in touch with owners of Airedales who have agility trained with success!

Regards, Richard Pinder e-mail richard.pinder1@btinternet.com

How do you enforce the recall?  Do you reward all the time?

Hi Richard,

You have to remeber that for some dogs agility isn't a natural motivation.  My WSD is naturally motivated by agility, he is obsessed with it.  It is self rewarding.  Some dogs, whilst they enjoy agility, they also enjoy sniffing round, wandering off etc.  So you need to find a way of motivatin him to stay focused on the agility.  The easiest way is if he loves a particular toy.  I would then make sure that I carried that toy with me whilst working.  Do a few obstacles as small sections and then throw the toy.  That should incrase motivation.  If he is food orientated then  I would suggest that you put food in something (a pot or pouch).   Make sure you feed him from it.  That pouch or pot will become a toy that can be thrown (make sure pot or pouch are big enough not to be swallowed).  If your dog is motivated by you then you need to be more animated in you handling.  Use silly voices.  Sudenly stop running grab him and fuss him and then carry on.

If you dog wonders off it is because what he is doing is more interesting than what you are doing.  It is not disobedience.  Dogs will do what they find the most fun.  If this is the case then you have to find that trigger which makes doing the agility more intersting than wondering off from the agility.

Hope that helps.