This book provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for training your dog to master each agility obstacle with safety, fun, and competitive excellence in mind. It Includes important principles for building a happy and successful working relationship with your dog, as well as a solid foundation for all of your agility training. The focus is placed upon setting high standards from the start so that no retraining will be necessary later down the road.

Whether your dog is young or old, large or small, pedigreed or mixed breed, Agility is a sport you and your dog can enjoy together. Agility Training makes clear all aspects of this, the world's fastest growing and most versatile dog sport. Whatever your interest, whether purely casual or highly competitive, you will find the instructional methods and helpful hints meaningful for your goals. Agility Training tells readers how to get started in the sport, work on their own, attend classes, earn titles and organize a competition or practice event. Chapters describe training for all levels of Agility, from beginners through an advanced curriculum. A special feature provides detailed construction plans as well as a list of materials for all obstacles. A Howell Dog Book of Distinction

TEACHING THE DOG TO THINK is Kimberly Davis' engaging memoir about her crash introduction to the sport of dog agility-with its jumps, tunnels, balance beams and weave poles. An award-winning poet and blogger, Davis vividly describes her frustrations trying to get her dog to "mind." We then watch as her first steely-eyed agility coach shames her into giving up choke collars and scruff shakes in favor of the "positive" training methods used by agility instructors. Davis' breezy, often humorous account shows how these new techniques allow her to communicate with the "alien" mind of a dog. Also how they transform her unruly yearling collie, Willow, into a loyal, hardworking teammate. Davis ultimately carries the lessons she has mastered in dog training class into other areas of her life, particularly into parenting and teaching creative writing. In the end, this memoir becomes a soul-searching exploration of how to get others to do what we want without bullying or cruelty-by using our heads and forcing ourselves to be a little smarter. A subtly subversive book about dealing responsibly with those less powerful than ourselves, Teaching The Dog To Think speaks not only to dog lovers, but also to anyone who has ever felt helpless, angry, or frustrated as a parent, teacher or pet owner. "You MUST read this book if you have children or pets, and want to change their behavior without coercion "--Richard McManus, Founder and President, The Fluency Factory "An interesting story of how switching to clicker training vastly improved one agility fan's dog and also changed her own approach to family life."--Karen Pryor, author of Don't Shoot the Dog and Reaching the Animal Mind "A wonderful entry point for anyone learning about these important new methods for teaching skills and enhancing creativity."--Catherine S. Mayes, Independent Autism Advocate and Autism Project Advocate, Massachusetts Advocates for Children

Do you long for a dog that will soar accurately and enthusiastically through the most challenging agility course, while working at great distances? If so, you have come to the right place. This book will show you how to train your joined-at-the-hip Velcro dog to both enjoy and excel at working away from you. The ability to handle your dog at a distance is a tremendous asset if not a necessity in all types of agility courses. Through the methods detailed in this book you can: Attain a competitive advantage through the enormous flexibility you will gain in choosing a winning handling strategy; Take a shorter path than your dog by working at a lateral distance, thus allowing you to take full advantage of your dog s fastest speed instead of being limited by yours; Acquire tools to enable you to smoothly handle courses with handler restrictions, long straight-aways, and layering challenges; Ace courses that specifically require distance skills, such as Gamblers and FAST; Enjoy the exhilarating feeling of ultimate teamwork as you and your canine partner master-fully negotiate the course together, yet independently.

Safe as well as spectacular jumping is a key component of many dog sports. Combine the agility know-how of Julie Daniels (Enjoying Dog Agility #DTA111) and the conditioning expertise of veterinarian Christine Zink and you get a ""must-have"" book for your training library.

Beyond Obedience is a revolutionary new training program for you and your dog from one of our country's foremost animal advocates and holistic practitioners. The idea that your canine companion is a fully emotional being and acutely sensitive to your changing feelings and moods is the foundation of April Frost's original and highly effective training program. One of the most difficult aspects of training your dog is communicating your intentions clearly. Beyond Obedience is the first book that works on the way you communicate with your dog, providing you with the necessary tools to truly understand how your dog's mind works and, therefore, how you can create an effective and mutually satisfying relationship. Drawing on her extensive experiences as an animal behaviorist, Frost teaches you that training your dog should not be a tedious chore limited to exerting physical and psychological control over an animal's drives, but instead an enriching and spiritually fulfilling experience--gratifying for both human and animal. Frost discusses such essential concepts as mutual respect, unconditional love, mental and emotional discipline, and your expectations and priorities. She shows you how the insights gained from working with your dog can have positive, far-ranging effects on many areas of your life. Beyond Obedience revolutionizes dog training by addressing the spiritual, physical, and psychological needs of dogs and people, teaching them to communicate effectively through powerful techniques, including visualization and energy work, and offering them valuable insight into the emotional bonds that enrich the lives of animals and their companions. Guidelines Dogs are born knowing how to bark, bite, dig, chew, chase, jump up on one another, eliminate when they need to, and snarl when they feel threatened. It is a challenge to get a dog to suppress or modify his instincts in order to make human existence more pleasant. If the dog reverts, you need to remember that these acts are not malicious; the dog is simply doing the best he can with information he has been given about living with and behaving in a socially acceptable way toward a totally different species. Dogs can learn whatever you can find a way to teach them, so long as it is within their physical capability to perform. Dogs, like humans, take the path of least resistance; they do only what works well and easily to satisfy their needs and desires. If it is a self-rewarding move, they will repeat and escalate the behavior, whether that behavior is in harmony or conflict with your wishes. Every dog has its own point of motivation, a trigger that will evoke a response and awaken its desire to respond to its human.

Positive Herding 101 is the first in a set of two books that cover training herding using positive reinforcement. Marker or clicker training is started in a house or small yard with cones, treats, and toys with no livestock present.