Training Your Dog To Use A Dog Agility A-Frame
Have you ever seen a dog agility show? It’s quite an experience to watch one beautiful dog after another run through their paces on an obstacle course.
A staple at every dog agility show is a dog agility a-frame. This is a peaked ramp, shaped like an "A." In competition, the dog runs up one side of the ramp and down the other. The dog has to touch the contact point on the back side of the ramp before going on to the next obstacle.
The a-frame in competition goes against a dog’s natural inclination to avoid steep, slick surfaces. A typical ramp is 7 feet long on each side and 30 inches wide.
Training The Dog On The Agility A-Frame
When training your dog on the dog agility a-frame, choose a time when your dog is a little bit hungry, and be sure to have some treats on hand as rewards.
Start your dog out on the down slope of the dog agility a-frame, just a bit above ground level. Encourage the dog to run down the ramp, and reward the dog at the bottom. Repeat this exercise many times, until your dog feels perfectly comfortable running down the low end of the dog agility a-frame. By the time you finish this phase of the exercise, your dog should think of the dog agility a-frame as a toy, and the dog should enjoy working with it.
Next, place the dog near the top of the downhill side of the a-frame, and start the encouragement process again. Reward the dog only when it walks down the a-frame, not when it leaps off the top of the frame.
Next, place the dog at the peak of the a-frame. Continue the routine of encouragement, and reward your dog whenever it runs down the downhill side of the a-frame.
When your dog is comfortable running down the downhill side of the dog agility a-frame, you are ready to move to the uphill side of the frame and begin training from that end. This time, start the dog close to the top of the a-frame on the upside, within sight of the peak.
Encourage the dog up and over the peak, then down the downside, which the dog is by now extremely accustomed to traversing. Continue to place the dog closer and closer to the bottom of the upside of the dog agility a-frame, encouraging the dog to climb up to the peak and walk down the downside of the a-frame.
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