Clean Run - May 2013 - 11

So You’ve
Got a
SMALL Dog
NOW
By Brenna Fender

The vast majority of my agility experiences have been with dogs that
were 18" at the shoulder and up. When I added a Papillon to my
family, I figured that things would be different. But in what way?

often check teeters during walk-throughs to test how quickly
they drop and to determine whether they meet the minimum
dropping speed criteria (if there is one) for the venue.

I soon discovered that even training my Papillon to sit was
different than teaching my Vizsla, Doberman, and
Whippet to sit. The Pap was so far away that he
often bounced up to get the treat before I could
reward him in a sitting position. I learned that
some small dog trainers teach stationary behaviors like sit and down on a table or other
raised surface to ease back strain and speed
up reward delivery. This made me wonder
what other tricks there might be to training
very small dogs.

The A-frame can pose an initial training challenge because the steep
incline requires more effort from a very small dog. In most
cases, conditioning and practice can overcome problems with this obstacle in the early stages.

Obstacles to Training the Obstacles
Some agility obstacles, like the teeter, pose particular challenges for very small dogs. Jean Lavalley, known for running her Shetland Sheepdogs
successfully in national and international
competition, says, “I think the teeter is a bit
more of a challenge for small dogs, especially the very lightweight ones. They really
have to get out on the end of the board to
get it down with any speed, and I think that
takes a great deal of ‘trust.’ It’s important to
make them feel ‘empowered’ about controlling the board. They also have to have a good
deal of patience and restraint not to leave the
board early.” Morganne Wagoner-Perry, who runs
both a 20"-jumping Border Collie and a 12"-jumping
Shetland Sheepdog, says, “Training a four-on-the-teeter is also
quite different. Little dogs don’t have enough weight for two-on/
two-off, so I found this quite challenging since the criteria is a
bit more gray than with the two-on/two-off.” Small dog handlers
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Clean Run

The chute may pose a challenge as well; pushing through heavy fabric requires more effort from a small dog. Even jump “feet” and
weave pole bases and supports may provide
challenges for our tiny partners to navigate.
Other obstacles might be much easier to
train with your small dog. The tunnel requires
no “ducking,” and the dogwalk isn’t very narrow for tiny feet. Weave poles don’t create as
much stress on the spine of a short dog. Many small
dogs are great jumpers and have no problems
with knocked bars. In fact, Renee King, who
is well-known for her national and international successes with a Jack Russell Terrier
named Hamlet, says, “Generally, a small dog
can make adjustments over the bar while
airborne with less error than big dogs.” So it
isn’t all bad news for your little one in agility!

Handling Challenges
You can use all the handling tools you’ve got in
your toolbox with your small dog, but the way you
use them might be somewhat different. Most handlers that
run dogs of multiple sizes say their timing differs when running their large and small dogs. Because small dogs have small
strides, they have more time in between obstacles and later commitment points. Lavalley says, “In some ways, the small dog is
11

Clean Run - May 2013

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