On the adventures and training of Cinnamon Snapdragon, a papillon destined for greatness.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Follow-up on the miniature agility contact equipment

There has been some discussion over whether I should use the miniature contact equipment I made for Tiny Dog. The concern is that he'll learn a particular stride on the tiny equipment and then be confused and lose confidence and drive on the full-sized equipment. After getting advice from a handful of instructors and agility-experienced friends, as well as asking the local small dog agility group, I've decided to go ahead and use the mini equipment.

I feel that the difference between my equipment and full-sized equipment will be so obvious that he won't get confused just due to practicing on the small stuff. It's not like the difference between a ten-foot and a twelve-foot teeter, where the dog might not see the difference in distance and that might actually ruin his performance. In this case, as long as I also practice as much as I can on full-sized equipment, I should be able to get the benefits of having something to practice with at home. It won't transfer fully, but it will be good to have something that works in a similar manner to regular contact equipment on which he can practice driving ahead with speed. I'll also be able to practice sending him up the ramps at different angles, and do obstacle discrimination with tunnel-like objects underneath the mini dog walk and a-frame. In the end I believe that this will make him more confident in agility. The biggest advantage, though, is having a teeter-like object so that I can slowly raise the height as he practices hopping up onto the end and riding it down. Even if I were to never send him across the mini-teeter, this would be a huge benefit.

People also pointed out that it depends on my goals. If I really want to get to the highest levels of competition, the best way is to choose one or two venues and practice only on equipment that fits their requirements. If I just want to have fun, it doesn't matter so much. I would love for us to reach high levels of competition someday, and I am doing my best to train strong foundation behaviors to carry us through many years of competing. However I know that I will make mistakes, since this is my first time training for agility. We're not going to be on the World Team. I'd rather be able to practice at home whenever I want to than hold out for only working with "perfect" equipment.

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