Dog Agility Training

Dog Agility Training you have likely seen in competition or training session on social media or TV. It’s a competitive dog sport, where dogs are zooming through an obstacle course with their handlers running next to them, guiding them through tunnels, over jumps, etc.

Dog agility is thrilling, fun, and exciting to watch. But did you know it’s just as fun to do agility training with your dogs? You don’t necessarily have to compete to enjoy it, and there are numerous benefits of agility training for dogs.

In this article, we discuss some of the key benefits of agility training for dogs:

Dog Agility Training Provides a Much-Needed Outlet to Release Energy

Dogs, especially puppies, are full of energy. It is in their nature to run, be curious, and exert themselves physically on a daily basis. Agility training offers a much-needed outlet for your dogs to release this energy in a fun, safe, and productive manner.

Some dog breeds have more energy and drive than others, which means agility training can help them use all that excess energy by focusing on tasks and running at full speed. Agility also helps stimulate their minds.

As part of agility training, dogs have to problem-solve and overcome obstacles in the most efficient manner. This engages them mentally as well, as a result of which you will immediately start to notice how tired yet happy and relaxed your dogs are after even a short session.

Dog Agility Training Prevents Boredom & the Blues

While dogs do not get clinically depressed like humans, they do experience sadness and feel the blues. With agility training, they can expend their physical and mental energy, which helps prevent boredom and keeps the blues at bay.

This is important because bored and inactive dogs, who do not receive enough mental and physical stimulation tend to release their energy in negative ways. They may resort to random barking, digging, and destroying nearby things. This is especially true of working-dog breeds.

Agility training will benefit your dogs and help them stay physically and mentally sharp, while utilizing their energy in constructive ways.

Dog Agility Training Improves Coordination & Consciousness

Dogs are nowhere near as coordinated or conscious in natural movements as their feline counterparts. Most dog breeds move in a thoughtless, haphazard, and often impulsive fashion. But agility training can help change that!

It can make your dog become more conscious of their movements and help improve their coordination. This is because agility requires them to up their paw-eye coordination and be conscious of landing steps in the right places, to overcome obstacles swiftly and smoothly.

High jumps require their entire body movement to be coordinated as well, to successfully make it over an obstacle. Such coordinated, conscious, and swift movements are the true meaning of agility, which is extremely beneficial for dogs.

Dog Agility Training Improves Health & Strength

It should come as no surprise that agility can help your dogs improve their physical and mental health, increasing their overall strength. Regular training can have lifelong health benefits for your dogs, allowing them to lead longer, happier, and more satisfied lives.

Increases Dog Confidence

Your dogs are most confident when they are with you, their primary “hooman.” With proper training, they can work to increase their confidence when you are not around, and agility training is the best way to do this.

It helps your dog overcome fears of dark tunnels, confined spaces, long jumps, uneven surfaces, and other such “scary” scenarios. They train better because they know you are right there with them.

You can see satisfaction in their reactions after successfully completing an obstacle course. Over time, they learn to be more confident and trust their movements without you as well.

They become more confident in their personal lives as well, from meeting new dogs and people, to stepping into new places and situations. Greater confidence also results in lower reactivity and anxiety, like separation anxiety.

Dog Agility Training Sharpens Focus

Whether you and your dogs do agility training in your backyard, at the park, or in an agility training center or hall, your dogs will learn to ignore distractions and focus on the task at hand.

In competitions, there are dozens of other dogs, handlers, new smells and audiences, but over time, your dog learns to ignore these distractions. They will gain more self-control and this will help in their regular lives as well.

Strengthens Their Bond & Communication with You

Agility training means complete focus on your dog. You have to tune-in with each other to think and move as one unit. This level of attention will have your dog vigorously wagging their tail with happiness.

They enter dog nirvana and build a much stronger bond with you. Unsurprisingly, your dog will develop an unspoken language with you, where they instinctively understand what you want them to do.

You will also learn a lot more about what your dog is feeling and what they want to communicate to you.

Fortifies Their Natural Instincts

Consider all the things that an agility course offers. It helps dogs harness and hone their natural instincts. They learn to jump higher and run through, over, and under multiple obstacles of different sizes and shapes, focusing on their goal and changing directions with it.

It develops their drive, focus, and natural instincts to run through changing terrains and chase prey. This is something special that most pet dogs lack in their homely lives. Agility helps them rediscover their ancestral roots and do things they are meant to do naturally.

Don’t worry, agility training does not make dogs violent, on the contrary, it makes them more calm and retrained in their daily lives.

Conclusion on Dog Agility Training

The aforementioned benefits of agility training for dogs are just a few key ones to consider

If you think your dog won’t enjoy it, or that agility training is only for certain dog breeds, you’d be wrong. While certain breeds like Border Collies and Shelties are exceptional agility dog breeds, every dog is an agility dog.

The only perquisite for agility training is that your dog should be healthy.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of agility training for dogs, pet care, tips, tricks, and the best pet care products, be sure to visit our website and check out our blog.