Agility Training

Tip Of The Month

April 2002

Being "Rusty"

After a long winter off (for those of you who live in colder climates, and don't have access to the outside and trials over the winter), it can be a bit tough to get back into the swing of things.  This applies to the handler as well as the dog, by the way!

What can you do when you go to your first trial of the spring season and your dog and you can't connect, or your timing is off, or your dog has trouble with turns because he's going so much faster than he did all winter inside?  Or what can you do when your dog improves over the winter, and you have high hopes for the first trial of the new season, but he leaves you in the dust the first time you try a course that you feel confident you and your dog can ace?

Well, sorry to say, I don't have an easy answer to this question :-)

Just be patient that you will gel as a team again, and the Q's will come to you in time.  Don't get too frustrated that first weekend out there when things don't go as planned.  Both you and your dog have to clean the cobwebs out!!

Continue to work on smaller sequences inside until you can move outdoors again.  Make sure you don't set too much up in smaller spaces, so your dog still has roughly the proper space between obstacles and so you can work him just below his full height.  And get outside as soon as you can -- that's the real answer, nothing's like working in a regulation ring.

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