Start Your Agility Run Early and End it Late

Technically your dog agility run starts when your dog trips a timing device -- and the run ends when your dog trips the timer at the final obstacle.

But psychologically, did you know you can start your run while you are in-line waiting to go into the ring?  Doing this will get your dog primed and ready to perform.

If your dog will tug your leash while waiting in line, you can use tugging as the start of the "psychological run."  Then when you go into the ring, your dog can still be tugging and your dog will see the ring entry as just an extension of what she was doing before. It will be less likely to be a scary distracting experience. 

In the video, I show how Momo starts her run before obstacle #1 by doing a little left turn. When she finishes her run we celebrate; she gets a treat and then I send her to her crate -- she can go to her crate off leash since this is not a real trial but a training session. 

If your dog likes to tug, when you finish the run you can immediately offer the leash for another fun tugging session after putting the leash on her to exit the ring. This helps to build your dog's self-image and will result in a happy, fast performing dog agility partner.

Some dogs don't like tugging that much, especially right before they enter the ring. But they may be eager to chow down on some delicious treats. If you use treats as a reward rather than tugging, you can ask your dog for a "trick" before giving the treat.  If you have trained your dog to turn left or right on cue, you can ask your dog to spin to get the treat. You can then regard this spinning as the start of the dog agility run -- even before you go into the ring.  The ophoto of Momo shows her levitating and showing Wonder Woman Powers to earn her treat before entering the ring. This could be thought of as the start of her agility run experience.

It is good to use intermitment reinforcement, so your dog knows that a treat may or may be coming.  As soon as you go into the ring to set up your dog, the official "GO" command will not yet have been given and you can ask for one or two more tricks from your dog inside the ring before the official run starts. You can't reward with a treat, but you could reward with praise and gentle petting. This gets your dog primed and already paying attention to you before your walk out. 

When you finish the official run you could ask for another trick as soon as you exit the ring and then offer the reward. Have the treat ready outside the ring in a safe location, so you can offer the treat as soon as possible. Your psychological run ends when you have given this treat outside the ring before you walk your dog back to his/her crate. That's what we mean by ending your run late. 

NOTE: in AKC there is no rule against giving treats as long as you are outside the ring.  There is no regulation as to how far away from the ring you need to be.