HUSKIES LIKE TO JUMP | Teach your dog Agility | Dog Training

Last week, we showed you how to build your own backyard agility jumps. You guys requested that we show you, how we trained our dogs to do these jumps. So, that is what we're doing today! ♪ We're Gone To The Snow Dogs ♪ Ok! The first thing I want to point out is, I am not a trainer! I'm just going to show you, what worked for us when training our dogs agility. My advice would be, if you have a place around you that offers agility classes, go take one! Shelby has been through beginner's agility a couple of times and advanced agility a couple of times. Memphis is still in beginner's agility and Oakley, we pretty much used what we learned in those classes to kind of teach her, how to do agility at home. So again, the tips and tricks I'm going to show you in this video are things we have learned, things we have figured out work for our dogs. You have to remember, not every dog is going to enjoy agility. Not every dog is going to be super fast at it. But, it is a great way to bond with your dog. Have some fun in your backyard. Exercise their mind. Give them some physical exercise. And most of all, above everything else, have fun while doing it. So, the first few things you're going to need to start training your dog, how to do agility jumps, is a leash, some type of reward. It can be treats, it can be a toy, something your dogs get super excited over. A dog and your jumps. And as always, if you want to see the video on how we made our jumps, I'll put a link up in the cards and down in the video description below. The next thing you're going to want, is you're going to want your dog to know basic commands, such as sit, don't tell me no, and stay. That will really, if your dog knows how to sit and stay, that's really going to help you as you start to do agility. So, the first thing you're going to want to do, is introduce your dog to the jump. There's the jump. There's the dog. You basically just don't want them to be freaking out. Let them sniff it. Let them check it out. Let them kind of see what it is. And once they're used to it, we can get started on showing them how to do jumps. All right, when you're first introducing your dogs to jump, you don't even have to use a command. You pretty much just let them walk back and forth over it. Come on, let's go this way. Shelby already knows how to do this. But pretty much, this is all you want to do. Sometimes your dogs will get to about right here and they'll stop. And you can kind of step over. Make sure you have some treats. Lure them over. If they knock a bar down, that's fine. It's gonna happen. This is why it's a good idea to have your dog know how to sit and stay, before you start doing that. I can get her to sit on that side and then lure her over. You never want to jerk on your dog's leash and force them to come over. You want them to do it just like that on their own and give them a treat. During the first stages of training, you don't really use any command while you're doing this. You just basically want them to get this motion and get used to coming over the bar. And start the bar low and slowly work your way up. Okay, so once your dog gets used to going over the bar without issues, now you're going to add the command as you do this. And when I started doing this, I made sure I was on the outside of the jump. Keep the treat or the reward or whatever you're using for your dog in the hand that is closest to the dog. You're basically going to lure them over and go, Jump! Good girl! Whatever your reward is, make sure you give it to them right away. And make sure you get really excited when they come over it. So you're petting them and you're telling them, good job. And the other thing that I learned in agility, is you never want to force them to come back over this way when training. Shelby knows how to jump. Jump! She's like, that's not a jump. She's like, the bar is too low. I don't have to. But when you're training, try not to bring them over, then bring them back, then bring them over, then bring them back. Because you don't want them to learn that that's fun. You can line up a couple jumps and do a few in a row. Or you can just do one circle back around and do it again. Eventually you're going to get to the point where the dog is going to be able to be off leash. Hopefully you'll be able to put them in a sit and stay or sit and wait position. And you're going to want to get a little bit out in front of the jump and call them. Shelby, jump! Good girl! Good job! I know I'm making this look easy, but you have to remember Shelby's been through like five advanced agility courses already. So she knows how to do this. It takes a lot of time. Make sure you have patience and have fun. That's the key. When you're leading your dogs for jumps, if I'm on this side of the jump, I want to have my treat or my reward in this hand. If I have it over here, the dog is going to be looking to come into my body. So you want to make sure that you have your treat or reward on this side. So they're always looking here. So go jump! Shelby, jump! Good job! Sit! Stay! You can tell she's focused on me. Shelby, jump! Shelby's saying her name every time before I say a command. It isn't always the right thing to do, but Huskies have such a short attention span. It seems to keep her focused on me a little bit more. The other thing you want to be doing, is you want to make sure that you're saying jump before you get to the jump. Not as they're jumping, because you want them to know that as you say it, that's when they're supposed to be doing it. So when you're doing beginner's agility, treats, reward, praise, all that stuff really matters. As you get a little bit more advanced into it, you're not going to reward them every single time. In the beginning, every time they do something right, every jump they hit, give them a treat, give them a praise, give them their toy. Because you want them to be amped up and excited about what they're doing. As you get a little bit more advanced, maybe you'll do two or three things in a row before you reward. That's a little bit more advanced stuff. We're just teaching you the backyard beginner stuff. So Memphis is a ridiculously hyperactive puppy. This is how Shelby was when she first started. You have to remember again, I'm going to say it again, be patient. They will try your patience. Won't you? You think we could do this? Can you wait? Wait. Jump! She's fast. She ran around that fast. And she's not really sure what she's doing yet. Come here. She's still beginner. Sit. I know. Wait. Again, I'm showing you that it does take time. Wait. Jump! Yeah! Good girl! You knocked the bar down, but that's okay. Memphis, jump! Jump! Memphis, jump! Them are really close jumps. It looks pretty funny. It doesn't give her a chance... To think about doing anything else. Yeah. She has to jump them. Eventually you'll spread them apart. So it's another thing when you have a dog that's really fast. You need to be able to have them wait and get ahead of them. But this is also another way to teach them. You want them to do things in a row. The other thing is... Don't train with your dogs for too long. Doing a jump and a jump and a jump. It's really boring. Really fast. So switch it up a little bit. Do a few jumps. Go do something else. Go do a few jumps. I probably wouldn't train for more than 15 minutes at a time. When actually doing this. When we're in our class, that's pretty much all we do. About 15 minutes and we break for a little while. Then we do another 15 minutes. That's just because you don't want their brains to get bored with what they're doing. With Huskies it's pretty easy to do. They get bored pretty quick. Especially once they figured it out. So there you have our little tutorial on how to teach your dogs to do backyard agility. If you guys have any questions, leave them in the comments below. I'll try to answer as many as I can. If you've done agility with your dogs and you have tips for other people, leave them in the comments below and maybe you'll be able to help somebody out as well. And if you think we should do more videos like this, definitely let us know. All right you guys! If you're new to this channel and you liked what you saw, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. Like this video and share it with your friends to help us grow the Pawdience. As always, thanks for watching! Thanks for subscribing! Stay positive and dream big! And we will see you again soon! Goodbye Pawdience!