Those cold winter evenings

This time of the year is a bit quieter for agility. There are less shows, there are less training's as many club training tend to be canceled for weather, and there are less shows. The weather means that for many people their home training space is also less than ideal with mud, puddles and long grass!

Remember that you should schedule at least one decent break for your dogs from agility. This means a break from all shows AND all training. This gives their body a chance to recover from the repetitive stresses that agility puts onto our dogs, and also gives both you and them a break from the mental strain of training.

My dog's have just came off a solid three-month break from training and shows. This was strategic, as all of my breaks are! I needed to stop shows with Evo to break some bad behavioral habits that were occurring, and also retrain startlines. Whilst this is very much in progress, we have just started back into agility training and shows.

I also typically plan a summer break, but this year that will be a little shorter because I have signed up for a training seminar in January.  I have blogged about this previously, but I thought it was important to talk about again.

Remember also that you need to plan your year around big events, to make sure you are training up and peaking at the correct time (see this previous blog post).

Over my agility break my dogs are not on a total break from all activity. really its the opposite - we up our fitness work. Less agility training means more time for fitness workouts, long hikes, and a little bit of polishing of basic training skills like marker cues.

Fitness needs to be tailored to your dog, and constantly checked and tweaked to ensure that progress is being made. It's very hard to have 'one program that fits all' due to the many differences in our canine teammates. For this reason, it is very important to work with a suitably qualified and experienced professional.

If you are interested in seeing me for a fitness assessment, adding more difficult exercises, or creating a fitness program please email on me hybriddogtraining@gmail.com. Also keep an eye on the Facebook page as I regularly post about workshops, events, or times when I have more space for appointments.