Magnus77 t1_itf4c72 wrote on October 23, 2022 at 4:17 AM

Reply to comment by Beardedshadow in TIL that the dogs in competitive agility don’t rehearse the course ahead of time. The courses are randomized at each competition, and the trainers (without their dogs) only see the layout beforehand on the same day. When the dog runs the course they are literally seeing it for the first time. by Pyraunus

I almost edited my comment because I anticipated this response. I didn't mean to dismiss the skill required in dog training, or the physical prowess of the dogs that compete. Both dog and trainer put in a buttload of time for these competitions.

I was saying that i feel changing the order of the obstacles doesn't change the fact that the dog can recognize what to do on any given obstacle.

Mudcaker t1_itf9kv6 wrote on October 23, 2022 at 5:15 AM

Recognising is one of the problems. Some dogs see the tunnel, think “I know what to do!” and run into it. But that was meant to happen later in the order. The dog needs to pay attention and listen and the handler needs to be clear with audio and visual cues, as well as facing to avoid temptation and assumptions from the dog. Having a dog run the wrong object or go in the wrong end of the tunnel is really common at the ones I’ve been to.

Beardedshadow t1_itf5qbf wrote on October 23, 2022 at 4:32 AM

See the last sentence again: the course is the challenge, not the individual obstacles

Changing the order, distance between obstacles, turns, etc -- all in conjuctiojn with front and back crossing with the handler is MUCH harder than most realize (hence the reason for this post) Handler's only get 1 or 2 walk throughs to plan the strategy for the dog

I've seen HUNDREDS of dogs competing in a few different sports, in the field pointing & retrieving, and in protection: it's both impressive to see first hand and humbling