Clean Run Magazine - January 2008 - 11

Agility Success with “Impossible” Dogs as I leave her at the line d at the poles t of the ring dler, she just makes When Pigs Fly By Jane Killion s me © LOUIS B. RUEDIGER d Do you have a dog or a breed of dog that is not predisposed to work with you? Have you been to obedience or agility class and been humiliated by how inattentive and wild your dog was? Do you really want to do agility with your dog that you already own and love, but feel like you are getting nowhere and no one knows how to help you? Has it been suggested to you that you should just switch breeds or trade in your dog for a more compliant model? Don’t hand over the leash, just yet. There is hope. If you were nodding your head when you read the above paragraph, then you and I are kindred spirits. I have two passions in life—Bull Terriers and agility. Unfortunately, about the only thing that you can count on from an untrained Bull Terrier is that the instant you take off the leash, he will run as far away from you as he can, as fast as he can. This does make it challenging to train Bull Terriers in agility, and no one would have blamed me if I had given up when I discovered this discouraging trait. I did not give up, however, because I loved my dogs and saw something in them that told me they were just as smart and capable as their more obedient classmates, if only I could figure out how to get through to them. I stuck with it, soaked up everything I could about dog behavior and dog training, and eventually earned the unimaginable pleasure of putting agility titles on my own little varmints. I will present a series of training articles that show you how to teach your “impossible” dog to do agility. Much of the agility advice you receive from top instructors deals with shaving seconds off your dog’s time, or teaching you the best handling system to maximize January 08 | Clean Run your dog’s performance. Friends, that stuff just isn’t so helpful when you’re watching your dog jump out of the ring and run off so fast that there is a little cloud of dust behind him. What does it matter which cross you put where, if your dog’s nose is glued to the ground at the start line? What do you care about techniques to teach your dog three-second weave poles, when your dog won’t even go in the same quadrant of the ring as the weave poles? Make no mistake, the handling techniques those top trainers outline generally are brilliant, but you and your dog need to do some background work before those handling techniques have any relevance to you. My articles will help you learn how to train the things you need but won’t get from most training resources. For this first article, I have adapted a piece from my book, When Pigs Fly: Training Success with Impossible Dogs. We will examine what makes a dog challenging to train and present the case in favor of the “impossible” dog. I want to encourage you to look at the positive points of your dog’s personality and understand that, given the right approach, your dog might not be so impossible as you think he is! 11

Clean Run Magazine - January 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - January 2008