Counter Dog Boredom: HOW to Teach YOUR dog Agility at Home!

Dolly, Tyler and Franklin run around the gate 

I teach our dogs agility at home (after having taken our youngest Dachshund Tyler to agility for 2 years) and it really helps combat boredom!  It's especially handy when it's too cold or too hot to walk outside and they go out and back in from the backyard in minutes. It's simple to set up, and in this blog I'll show you how -  (we do this almost nightly!) -  Rob 

NEEDS: 
1)  a couple of chairs, a doggy gate (that can stand up). 

Place a chair away from the gate

2) a room big enough to spread the chairs out and the gate
NOTE: You can put a chair in the middle of an adjoining room.
3) Treats! 
4) Patience, and reward only CORRECT behavior

SET UP 
1) SET UP A GATE near on one side of the room. You'll call this a "Tunnel." If there's something behind it, you can put a blanket over the top of it, and have the dogs go underneath it. 
- HINT: before covering it, get your dog or dogs to SIT on one end of the gate. Take a treat in hand and walk to the other side of the gate and say "GO TUNNEL."  When they get to the end where you are, give them the treat and say "GOOD TUNNEL." 

"Go 'round" (the chair)! 

2) SET UP A CHAIR in the middle of the room.  Extend your hand toward your dog and sweep it around the chair (while holding a treat) 
   - Although you don't see my arm directing them to go around the chair in the photo, I usually do that (I had them pose for you). 
   

3) ALTERNATE- Have them go around the chair, then back through the tunnel. 
Once they get the hang of it, set up a second chair and have them do a "figure 8" around the chairs, directing them with an outstretched hand. When they do it, give them a treat!