Lorrie [00:00:08]:
Are there benefits to teaching your dog to work with other people? Is there ever a time where you will want to let someone else run your dog in practice or at a trial? In this episode we will explore those questions to see what might be best for your team. Welcome to the Maximum Fun Agility Podcast. Hi, I'm Lorrie Reynolds, owner of Maximum Fun Dog Sports. We help you build the best version of your agility team so you can have fun together and succeed on any course. Way back In November of 2017, I had major reconstructive knee surgery to repair my MCL and fix a few other problems. I was supposed to be on crutches for six to eight weeks, although it turned out to be closer to 10 weeks. Being ever the optimist, thinking I'd be done with crutches after a couple of months, I entered an agility trial in January with Pixie. Pixie's distance meant I didn't have to actually run, and I figured I'd be walking pretty well by then. Yep, I was wrong.
Lorrie [00:01:12]:
The trial date rolled around and I was still stuck on crutches with a giant brace. I decided to go anyway, and when I got there, someone suggested having a Pixie lottery for her trial runs. People could put their name in a jar and we'd pull out a name and decide who would run her. She loved agility for the sake of agility and had no problem running with other people, so I decided it sounded like fun. Pixie had been my demo dog for several years. At my seminars, when people struggled with an exercise because their dog didn't have the skill yet, or when their dog got tired, I often let them run Pixie instead, so she wasn't a stranger to running with new people she didn't know. There were quite a few people who had either run her at a seminar or just seen her run with me and wanted to see how they'd do with her at a trial. We put everybody's name in a jar, which filled up pretty quickly, and I let one of the kids draw a name for each run.
Lorrie [00:02:09]:
She ran with a bunch of different people over the weekend and ended up earning her 5000 NAIDAC points award. Nobody really knew ahead of time that she was even close to that award, and it was very cool that she was able to get the last few points that she needed with a bunch of different handlers. Everyone who ran with her had a good time, and most of them ran clean too. I was in a similar situation in 2008 with Maxx after knee surgery on my other knee. A couple of my friends took him to a trial without me. There were limited opportunities to trial in our area back then, especially for that particular venue. Near the end of my recovery from that surgery, which was 12 weeks on crutches, we also went to a local trial and other people ran Maxx in all but one of his runs. Just like Pixie, Maxx was my seminar demo dog and had experience running with a ton of different people at seminars, in classes, and at trials.
Lorrie [00:03:08]:
He loved the game no matter who was navigating for him. The agility community is awesome and people are always willing to step up if you need help, but it wouldn't have been possible if Pixie and Maxx weren't accustomed to running with other handlers. While dog swapping isn't right for everyone, and some dogs just won't work for others, it's worth thinking about the idea for your dog. When I started training, it was a common thing to do in class. Every so often we would switch dogs for an exercise and see how we did. It gave people exposure to a lot of different types of dogs and levels of speed or enthusiasm. I've had fantastic experiences running other people's dogs and letting them run mine in classes or at trials. If you decide it sounds like fun and your dog is confident enough to run with someone else, you can start out slow, just letting someone do a few tricks or basics with your dog before moving to a simple exercise in class or going over the practice jump at a trial.
Lorrie [00:04:09]:
Once your dog understands that they will still get rewarded for working with someone else, you can try letting someone run a short sequence in class or get together with a friend in practice and let them take your dog for a spin. Dogs are way more resilient than we think and they adapt fairly easily to different people if they like playing the game and have been socialized to think that other people are fun. I started this really early on with Revel and now he happily plays with strangers as long as he knows where I am. My first agility dog, Maxx, happily ran with all the students who were up for it in every seminar he helped me teach. It was so motivating for people to understand what a distance run could feel like once they'd spent the time training their dogs. He was a super honest dog. More than once I had a student say something like "I'll run him last so he knows the course".
Lorrie [00:05:03]:
Then they would get going and miscue him. And he didn't just blindly run the same pattern, he followed their direction to the off course obstacles. Everyone usually got a good laugh out of it. Maxx was a great kid's dog too. More than one future handler in my area had their very first trial run with him. Some of my best memories of him are snapshots of him coming off a course with a smile as big as the one on the kid's face next to him. It's never a bad thing to bring joy to a child. Some people worry about ruining their training if they let someone different run their dogs.
Lorrie [00:05:40]:
It's actually not that easy to "break" your dog's training if you occasionally let someone else run him. Having someone use the wrong verbal cue or move a bit differently than you do isn't going to derail your training as long as the person keeps it fun and your dog maintains their confidence. It can be a great experience for your dog. If your dog is really uncomfortable running with someone else, if they don't have the confidence to be comfortable with strangers, or if agility is something they only do because they get to play with you, you should never, ever force them to run with someone else. You should also never ask someone else to run with your dog if there's any chance that they will get nipped or bitten. On Pixie's lottery weekend, I did actually end up running her in two chances runs, if you can call directing on crutches running, but that's a story for another day. The runs are on my YouTube channel if you want to watch them. I'll drop the links in the show notes. If you have a socially stable dog who likes people and plays agility because he loves it, think about letting someone else take your dog for a test drive.
Lorrie [00:06:50]:
You might be surprised at how much they enjoy it, and if you ever need a substitute handler, at least it'll be an option. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Maximum Fun Agility Podcast. If you did, feel free to share it with your friends, subscribe, or leave a review so other agility handlers can find it more easily. You can also join our community at www.maximumfundogs.com.
