How do you connect with your dog better while running an entire agility course?

Okay, so connection means, you know, you run your course and your dog's got to do all those

obstacles, but if you don't connect with your dog, your dog may misread what you're

telling them and go off and run a course of their own, which of course, in the sport of dog

agility, we have to do the course as the judge numbered. Some judges are just funny that way.

Actually, the truth is you have to follow the rules. So, how do you connect?

Now, I think it comes down to just a few things. Number one is having a consistent handling

program, obviously handing 360 does that for us, but that means that you do the same thing.

Every time you set a sequence that looks like X, you handle it exactly the same way

every time and your dog learns that. Now, the other part of that is you put in the layers

of learning so that your dog has clarity of understanding with every single cue you will

ever use in dog agility. So, if I give my dog a cue to jump long over

a jump, there is no way that that dog will ever turn tight when I give that cue to jump

long regardless of what my body is doing. So clarity of handling, my execution as a handler

ability to give the dog a cues.

My dog's understanding of those cues through the layers of learning that I've put in.

And the third one, and this might be the most difficult for some people, and that is the

ability to handle your ring nerves and do what you want in a timely fashion to be able to execute regardless

of how excited you are in the moment.

Okay, so those are the big three things that help you to connect with your dog best.

Next question.

How to give motivation a boost during a course or a training.

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