Dog Agility Foundations: Train World Champion Skills Right In Your Living Room! #311
Shaped by Dog with Susan Garrett
DogsThat
4.8 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2025
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Visit us at shapedbydog.com
Ever wonder how world champion agility dogs are made? I'm sharing how to build dog agility foundations and train skills right in your living room! From simple daily games to fun exercises, discover the secrets that helped all 11 of my dogs reach the top, while creating a confident and focused dog that makes brilliant choices. Whether you're new to agility or already competing, you'll discover practical ways to bring out the best in your dog while having fun together.
In this episode, you'll hear:
• How all 11 of my dogs achieved top-level success in agility.
• My early beginnings in the sport and my experiences.
• Why so-called "naughty" dogs can shine in agility.
• The common myths about what makes a good agility dog.
• How to build value for multiple reinforcers: food, toys, and most importantly, YOU.
• Why "learning how to learn" is an important skill for dogs.
• About the role of recall and Reinforcement Zone in developing focus.
• How to build attention even in distracting environments.
• Why "Spotlights" (location-specific reinforcement markers) create clarity and confidence.
• How simple choice games like "This or That" accelerate learning.
Free ItsYerChoice Summit
Learn How to Play ItsYerChoice - https://recallers.com/iycsummit-join/
Resources:
1. Podcast Episode 177: Dog Training Outside The Box: Transfer Of Value Case Study - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/177/
2. Nina Ottosson's Puzzle Toys - https://www.nina-ottosson.com/products/all-products/
3. Podcast Episode 302: The Recall Myth: Why Your Off Leash Dog Isn't Coming When Called And How To Fix It - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/302/
4. Podcast Episode 242: Help! Why Won't My Dog Pay Attention? (Secrets Of Focus) - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/242/
5. YouTube Video: Understanding Your Dog's Reinforcement Zone (RZ) with Susan Garrett - https://youtu.be/OaUAScgaFAg
6. Blog Post: How to Use the Distraction Intensity Index to Help Your Dog - https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2020/09/distraction-intensity-index/
7. Podcast Episode 6: The Art of Manipulation - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/6/
8. Podcast Episode 151: How Location Specific Reinforcement Markers Will Improve Your Dog Training! - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/151/
9. Podcast Episode 32: 20 Easy Ways to Exercise Your Dog at Home - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/32/
10. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/gLiRTY9iNrc
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | On today's Shape by Dog episode, I'm going to share with you why I've been able to be so |
| 0:05.2 | successful in the sport of dog agility over my decades of competing. Some of you listening to |
| 0:11.5 | this episode are going to say, well, I already do agility, so I don't really need help. |
| 0:18.3 | But I'm going to share the secrets of why each of the 11 dogs that |
| 0:23.1 | I've competed with in sport of dog agility have all made a world team, have won world championships |
| 0:30.9 | or American or Canadian national championships, all 11 of them. And I'm also going to share with you how you can do |
| 0:39.0 | the exact same things. Now, others may say, well, I don't do dog agility, so maybe I should pass on |
| 0:44.9 | this episode. But if you listen to this episode, you may find out that you and your dog are |
| 0:48.9 | perfectly suited to the sport of dog agility. And you might be missing out on so much fun. So let's get started. |
| 0:55.8 | I'm Susan Garrett. Welcome to shaped by dog. And as I said, off the top, I've had 11 dogs that I've |
| 1:12.0 | competed with in the sport of dog agility and every single one of them has competed at the elite |
| 1:18.3 | level of the sport. And it's not that I intended on that to happen. It just happened because I was |
| 1:26.5 | focused on bringing out the best in my dog. |
| 1:29.3 | But I believe one of the reasons that I've been able to be so successful is because |
| 1:33.3 | I started really, really early in the sport. |
| 1:36.3 | I mean, the sport was only brought over to North America in the mid-1980s. |
| 1:41.3 | And I started in the sport in 1989. So I was an early adopter. You could say, |
| 1:46.7 | well, it was easy to be successful because there were so few people doing it. And you'd be right |
| 1:51.5 | to think that initially. So early in the sport, there would be one trial a year within an |
| 1:58.6 | hour drive for me. There would be a few more, a three-hour drive for me, |
| 2:03.9 | and the rest were 12 to 15-hour drives for me. So there weren't many agility trials that you |
| 2:10.6 | could attend. So over the course of a year, I might get to a half a dozen or so, which means |
... |
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