Introducing 4H kids to agility
Written by Deb on May 18th, 2009Tonight I hosted a clinic for kids in our county’s 4H dog project to introduce them to agility. We had 15 dogs participate with their owners and I think a fun time was had by all. I especially wanted to show the kids how positive training techniques make it easy for the dogs to learn as I don’t think they get a lot of exposure to those techniques. I was fortunate to have my friends Jeff and Michelle helping out so all the kids got plenty of assistance. All the dogs ended up doing great and there isn’t one of them that couldn’t do agility in the future. If you are a dog training instructor please consider offering 4H clinics or classes at discounted rates so kids can get exposure to all the fun they can have with their dogs. Kids are the future of our sport and I love teaching them. I hope to arrange a 4H dog agility class session for later this summer.
Deb, do you know around here the 4H frowns upon kids getting lessons from “professional” trainers! I have had a number of them go through my place on the hush. Sad.
This county 4H dog project does not offer agility so I did a clinic to introduce the kids to agility. Thus they weren’t actually getting training for what they will be doing at the fair which is obedience or showmanship.
None of them knew about “marker words” or clickers and I believe their training is still unfortunately a lot of “jerk and pull” as I saw some evidence of that last night with a couple of them and not nearly enough praising going on. I’m glad we got to show them a positive way to train their dogs and hope I made a small impression about that for the sake of the dogs. I found several of the kids to be VERY good trainers already and the rest with lots of potential.
What a wonderful idea. Agility seems like such a fun and rewarding activity for kids and dogs. I am saving my pennies so my neighbor/niece can do agility training with my dogs. Brutus will never take the wide open path if he can find a way to go under, over or around! He would stay clean much longer if he wouldn’t insist in crawling in between the compost bins or jumping over them. He also likes to weave around the patio pots like they were construction cones.
Yes, very fun and rewarding. By the end of the clinic time I saw kids having a lot of fun in a positive manner with their dogs. I really enjoyed working with them.
I see that here, too Deb. I have had a difficult time getting the kids out of the yank and jerk stuff to praise and food motivation. Around here they do some agility but not much. I actually had one family quit me cause I was too positive! Her dog was scared spitless cause of all the correction and no positive reinforcement. So sad. Glad they had such a great time!
I think it is great that you help the 4H kids with their dogs. I am glad to hear that all dogs did ok on the agility. I have a dog I do not think would do too well.
Your dog would probably do just fine with the right training. Not one method works for all dogs so you need to find a trainer willing to be flexible if your dog is shy/frightened, etc. and needs to go slower.