Agility – Pet Behavior Help

About Agility

Agility training fosters mutual respect and communication as you and your dog work your way through a sequence of obstacles. Great for building confidence in any dog, agility training also provides essential mental and physical exercise. Our dog agility training curriculum is fun for everyone, from those looking for an engaging hobby to dog-handler teams who want to advance to the highest levels of competition.

People and dogs of any age can participate if they meet the training criteria.

How to Get Started

In order to enjoy agility training, your dog must be able to focus on you in a distracting environment. We ask that you and your dog have experience with group obedience classes before starting agility.

Most people enjoy the social aspect of a group class, but we also offer private agility lessons. Contact us for more information about private agility lessons.

If you think your dog is ready for agility, the first class in the agility sequence is Intro to Parkour. This is a prerequisite for more advanced agility classes.

If you have previous agility experience, visit us for a free evaluation to help determine class placement.

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Agility Classes

Intro to Parkour

Build confidence, engagement and have fun with your dog by teaching them to engage with objects in the world. You will start at the Pet Behavior Help training center and teach your dog to interact with various obstacles. (Advanced Parkour, when offered, meets at various training locations to practice these behaviors out in the real world.)

Intro to Parkour improves leash walking and confidence by working on attention-building skills and prepares dogs and handlers to start agility training.

Prerequisite for Foundations 1.

Foundations 1

This class introduces dogs and handlers to many skills needed in agility and life. The emphasis is on distraction-proofing, relationship-building, beginning handling moves, contact behavior, confidence building on non-competition equipment and tunnel and table.

This is an excellent start for handlers with any agility goals but also for those who want to build a stronger connection with their dog while having fun!

Prerequisite: Intro to Parkour and recommendation by a Pet Behavior Help instructor.

Foundations 2

This class introduces small contact equipment, jumps and tunnels, and continues to teach handling skills.

Prerequisite: Agility Foundations 1 or equivalent.

Foundations 3

Dogs and handlers go into the field to learn the full-height dog walk and A-frame, work longer sequences and learn more handling moves. This class helps build speed and strengthen partnerships.

Prerequisite: Agility Foundations 2 or equivalent.

Foundations 4

This class uses a competition dog walk and A-frame in a full-size outdoor agility field. The focus is on keeping the dog and handler together in a more distracting environment, increasing handler skills and developing the dog’s confidence on full-height obstacles. We also introduce the teeter and weaves.

Prerequisite: Agility Foundations 3 or equivalent.

Pre-Competition Teams

This class focuses on handling in short sequences, obstacle independence without targets and teeter and weave performance. We also cover types of turns and introduce obstacle/handler focus.

Prerequisites: Dogs must be under control off-leash in the outside training areas, able to do the dog walk and A-frame at full height on the first attempt (targets okay) and able to perform jumps and tunnels independently.

Novice Teams

This class shifts focus from obstacle performance to handling in longer sequences. Many dogs in this class may be competing.

Prerequisite: Dogs must be able to perform A-frame and dog walk without targets and teeter full-height with targets.

Novice Teams with Weaves

This class is similar to Novice Teams but includes weaves.

Prerequisite: Dogs must be able to perform A-frame and dog walk without targets and teeter full-height with targets, as well as channel weaves at 6 inches or less.

Advanced Teams

This class is for teams with the skills to compete at the advanced level who want to improve speed, accuracy and obstacle performance on more challenging courses.

Prerequisite: USDAA Novice Standard title, AKC Open Standard title or permission of instructor.

Masters Teams

This class is for teams driving toward the top levels of competition. Courses are challenging, with a focus on speed, accuracy and independence on tough courses.

Prerequisite: USDAA Advanced Standard title, AKC Excellent A title or permission of instructor.

Skills

These classes build specific skills, such as weaves and teeter.

Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.

Young Dog / Experienced Handler

This class is geared toward young dogs (8-18 months old), with a big focus on teaching dogs to follow handler cues. Dogs learn the various crosses (front, rear, and blind), to wrap, to do 180s, serpentines, pin-wheels and the back side of jumps. Dogs work on small sequences of 3-5 obstacles. We also do some foundation work on contacts (2on-2off) and weaves (open channel).

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.