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Advanced training and activities

Once you and your dog have reached a good standard of basic training you may feel that you would like to do more and your dog would certainly benefit from it. There are several training activities you can do which your dog should find fun and exciting. Why not give one or more of them a go?

Competitive obedience

• Serious obedience training for dog owners, with very willing and keen dogs – great for Border Collie types, in particular, to get them thinking really hard!

Clicker training

• First you teach your dog that a ‘click’ noise (made by a purpose made plastic clicker device) means that he will be given a treat. You can then use this ‘click’ during training to signal to your dog accurately that he has performed a correct or desired behaviour.
• This allows you to ‘shape’ your dog’s behaviour easily. He will try to guess what to do and make all sorts of different movements to get you to make the ‘click’ noise which he knows will be followed by a treat.
• Clicker training can be used to teach nearly anything (that a dog is physically able to do) and is especially good for teaching him interesting tricks fairly quickly.
• This is an ideal activity for any dog. Once your dog gets the idea, the sky’s the limit!

Agility

• Running and jumping around an agility course, accurately and at speed – either competitively or just for fun.You do need to have a good degree of control over your dog before you start – at the very least he must be able to sit, stay, walk to heel and come on command. 
  
• Both you and your dog need to be reasonably fit. Dogs must be at least 12 months old before starting agility, as all that jumping can damage young developing bones. 
  
• Most dogs that try this absolutely love it. Although the more serious competitors tend to be collie types, any breed can give it a go – especially if you join a fun pet agility club.

Flyball

• This is a sport in which your dog jumps over a series of hurdles to push a lever on a special box which releases a tennis ball for him to catch. He must then run back over the hurdles with the ball in his mouth. It’s a relay race in teams, so when your dog crosses the line, the next dog goes off.
  
• This is very fast and competitive action that many dogs will love. Again the collie types seem to be the fastest at this, but it’s worth giving it a try whatever breed your dog is.

Working trials

• This is a series of several disciplines – nose work, control and agility that takes place out in the countryside.
  
• This is for serious dog training enthusiasts that enjoy handling their dogs in almost ‘real’ working conditions.