[nagdu] Agility

[Julie J.]

I think it depends on the dog.  If you are doing agility mainly for fun and 
exercise, it isn't all that different than playing with toys, running in the 
backyard, a play date with another dog, a romp at the beach or anything 
else.  If you are doing agility for competition, it could be a bit of 
overload for a new guide.  There's a lot to learn to be super accurate on 
the equipment and there's lots to learn as a new guide team.  It would be a 
bit like taking 20 credit hours your first semester at college, not 
something for everyone.  I don't think the agility training itself would be 
problematic, just the mental energy required to learn a bunch of new stuff 
all at once. On the other hand, agility training could provide extra 
exercise and an outlet for a young busy dog.  It is generally a hands off 
sport and my experience involved no correction or coercive methods.  It does 
build confidence with body position and spatial concepts.  It's also really 
fun and could be good for bonding or team building.

Julie
Courage to Dare: A Blind Woman's Quest to Train her Own Guide Dog is now 
available! Get the book here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QXZSMOC
-----Original Message----- 
From: Bryan Gearry via nagdu
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2015 7:50 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Cc: Bryan Gearry ; Tracy Carcione
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Agility

Good Morning Tracy, I just read your post and the first thing that came
to mind was sensory or work overload. I am a first time Guide dog
handler and I find it takes all my concentration to make sure my Guide
is working for the safety issues. I would think that agility training
might be counter productive for the Guide training. I have my Guide for
5 years and I learn every day, but I have to pay attention all the time.
I'm no authority, it just seems that our Guides have one job and that is
for our safety and navigation. It seems like agility training which
would probably be a lot of fun for the dog is also like
multi-tasking....possibly. Hopefully some of the experienced and long
time handlers will chime in on this and give you a better answer to your
question. I think it might be like using a retriever as a Guide and then
go out bird hunting with them. They might not understand the
difference....I'm just saying. I will be watching for the responses as
it is a very good question.


On 7/17/2015 4:32 AM, Tracy Carcione via nagdu wrote:
> My brother wants to know if anyone has done agility training with their 
> dog,
> and how a blind person does it?  He has a puppy he wants to do it with, 
> and
> he's also thinking of doing it with his young guide.
>
> If you want to reply offlist, my email is carcione at access.net.
>
> Tracy
>
>
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