Training for Speed - Silvia Trkman

'Speed is certainly my major focus right from the beginning and I won’t do anything until a dog is showing the attitude I want. Many people choose to do things slowly first to let a dog understand the job and then try to add speed: those with good drivey dogs with no problems – but an average drive dog might never add speed. And even if he does, very often adding speed to the picture changes that picture that much that a dog can’t do the job correctly anymore, then a handler re-does the exercise before rewarding and by that, gives a dog a message that going fast is not good."

"A dog can be slow if they worry too much about being right and their handler fails to give them a clear message that they ARE right."

"Forget about that start line stay. Run with your dog. You should reward right away when a dog shows more speed. I know it’s hard because it’s just so much fun to run a fast dog, but if you reward anyway, this will happen again. If not, it might never happen again. Rewarding is your only way to give a dog an information that fast is good. If you keep running and then even comment the possible mistakes that more speed brought, you’re giving your dog an information that speed is bad."

1. Make sure your dog understand agility is about running, not about doing obstacles. To beginners, I teach running first and then we include an obstacle or two that are on their way.

2. Keep agility training short and fun. Do all the necessary drilling outside agility field – no drilling allowed on agility filed.

3. If you want a fast dog, put is as your priority and act like it. Be happy and reward enthusiastically everything that is fast or at least faster as usual. Don’t worry about skipped or additional jumps.