Lorrie [00:00:08]:
Welcome to the Maximum Fun Agility podcast. I'm Lorrie Reynolds, owner of Maximum Fun Dog Sports. We help your agility team build your relationship, communication, confidence, and fun in training so that you can joyfully succeed on any course. In this episode, we'll discuss whether you have to run full courses in practice to be able to compete at a trial. I was fortunate to have a phenomenal young agility dog named Dash. Most of my friends have never heard of him. Unfortunately, after 2 years of training and one agility trial, he became the property of my ex husband. And although I was promised he would continue in agility, he never competed again.
Lorrie [00:00:51]:
As sad as that is, Dash did manage to prove one myth wrong for me. It's best explained with a story. Dash was truly a wild child. He was a terrier border collie mix, and he had the tenacity of a terrier combined with the unending energy of a border collie. He would play ball for hours or train for hours, but he also had some bad habits like grabbing and ripping clothing and jumping up to shoulder height in front of you when you least expected it. Oh, and he barked. All. The. Time. His basic agility training took longer than any other dog I have owned. It wasn't because he wasn't smart.
Lorrie [00:01:34]:
It was because his energy was so over the top. By the time we got those issues under control in an exciting setting, he had all of the obstacle and handling skills down pat. I decided to enter him in a trial with my other two dogs just to see where we were in our training. The first day was not great with typical green dog issues like getting a bit distracted and knocking a few bars. But the second day, wow. Six runs, 6 qualifiers, several of them first place. He was fast. He nailed all his contacts.
Lorrie [00:02:09]:
He got his weaves, and he kept all the bars up. The most shocking part, because of his craziness, we had never actually run a full course, only sequences of 5 to 10 obstacles. Yep. His first course was at a trial. This is definitely a case of do as I recommend, not as I do. All of my other dogs were able to successfully run elite or masters courses in training before I ever put them in the ring. I've always recommended that students wait to enter a trial until they can run a full course in practice, and I still believe that's the best way to go. However, there is a misconception that you have to train on full courses to get your dog ready to trial.
Lorrie [00:02:56]:
Many of the higher level weekly agility courses follow the format of run a full course, figure out what you did quote, unquote wrong, and run the course again, trying to fix the mistakes. Here's the issue with that approach. Most of the time, after the first issue on course, your handling plan goes out the window and you focus on just getting through the rest. The focus is less on improving your handling and teamwork and more on making it through the course. A better format would be to break the course down into sections, master each section, and then put it all together. That's what I do in my seminars. The good news is that following this approach of working in sections means that even if you don't have room or equipment at home to set up a full course, that doesn't mean you can't compete. A good practice is to focus on shorter sequences and exercises that build your skills and connection as a team during training.
Lorrie [00:03:59]:
Full courses should be a tool you use to gauge your progress and identify weaknesses, not the mainstay of your training program. If you've gotten into the habit of working on full courses, this week, try breaking down your practice into smaller sections before putting things together. Was it easier to navigate the full course after you worked on the pieces? Did you feel as though you were able to train specific skills more efficiently? Thanks for listening to this episode of the Maximum Fun Agility podcast. If you wanna build a successful agility team where runs with your partner feel flowing and in sync, join us in The Agility Playground. The Agility Playground is a low cost membership that meets you where you are on your dog agility journey and helps you propel your team to new heights. You can check out The Agility Playground and join our community at www.maximumfundogs.com. See you next time.
