Episode #117 Frisbee & Agility with Laura Sarvinski

Are you interested in participating in sports with your dog? Frisbee and agility are two great activities to look into. Laura Sarvinski joins Amy in studio today to discuss the two sports and offer tips on how to get started. 

Transcript

Amy: 0:00

This is the puppy training Podcast Episode 117, Frisbee and agility this podcast designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the puppy training podcast, and I'm your host, Amy Jensen. Hey, everybody, welcome to the puppy training podcast. Thanks for joining me this week. As you've noticed, I've tried to bring in some of my trainers to talk about different things that they're interested in. And we have a fun one for you today. So Laura Servin ski is joining us and she is into dog sports. I'm going to let her explain maybe what those are and which ones are her favorites and all about that. So let's welcome Laura to the podcast. How are you today?

Laura: 0:52

Good. Hi, everyone. So happy to be here. And yeah, I am really into dog sports specially with my little iPad Mini Ozzy Finn, and we love to compete in all different kinds of activities. Some of our favorites that we're going to kind of discuss today are agility and frisbee disc dog. We also have done obedience and rally and confirmation which is showing. I've done scent work and herding. So lots of different ones that I'd be happy to talk to you guys if you want to discuss that on a call or something. But today, definitely agility and frisbee I think are two really fun ones to get started with with puppies.

Amy: 1:35

Yeah, awesome. Thanks so much for being here. Let's start off with maybe the benefits. What are the benefits of involving your dog in a canine sport and why my other people get interested in it?

Laura: 1:45

Yeah. So I think it's a one, it's a wonderful way to bond with your dog to have an activity to do to put their mind to work. We know that dogs love to have jobs, they, you know, don't want to just sit around and be bored all day. They like to do things. And some definitely thrive more than others in dog sports. And there's certain ones that are would be better suited for lower energy dogs and some that are better suited for higher energy dogs. But it's a really great way to just do an activity with them bond get that exercise, challenge their brain challenge your brain to. So that's why I like to do that with my dogs. I feel like it's really enriching for them.

Amy: 2:22

Yeah, I agree. I also agree with the fact that it's a way to build a bond. Yeah, definitely. And like you mentioned, every dog is different and unique. And some will gravitate to one sport and some may gravitate to another sport. Have you seen that with your own dogs?

Laura: 2:36

I definitely have. My mini Aussie is definitely a Frisbee lover from the you know who we love to play in the backyard. So when I had it when there was a club that we started in our in my hometown for disc dog recently, and he has just really taken to it. He just loves it and he loves agility. But it did take him a while to gain confidence in that sport. Because there are some kind of scary obstacles like the teeter totter that wobbles and going up high on some of the obstacles he was. He's a very soft dog. So it took him about a year to get used to it. And once he did, man, he just took off. So it was a really great confidence booster for him to to see him like have that burst of confidence and be able to do things, it was like a whole new dog came out.

Amy: 3:16

I love that you pointed that out that sometimes it might not be immediate. It might be Oh, give it some time. And they evolve into Oh, I really like this sport.

Laura: 3:24

Definitely. And that's why you know, we want to go and make it positive, just like with your training that you know everyone's doing, we really want to not force the dog to do anything and really take it slow. And I've been really lucky to have some really great trainers that are all about just taking it slow and making sure your puppy is having fun, and we're not going to, you know, get too hard and correct them and be upset if they don't do something, right. We're just going to make it really happy and fun. And that was really important for my guy and for most dogs to have fun with it, or they're not gonna want to keep doing it.

Amy: 3:55

I find with these young puppies that we're training, sometimes I'll have clients that will say, I'm so frustrated, they won't fetch, no. And I say well don't give up on it. Like, you know, toss the ball if they run after it. Great, let's reward that. And then maybe we move on to something else. And I find that you know, a few months down the road they start to really enjoy something whether it's a ball or like you said your dogs really into a Frisbee.

Laura: 4:23

It's just finding the thing that they really connect with and not focusing too much on it. I think just kind of having fun with it. And then all of a sudden they're oh my gosh, they're doing it.

Amy: 4:34

I know you're a parent to Laura and so this reminds me a little bit of parenting kids, you know, I have three kids and 12 to 17 and you know as much as I want you know, my daughter would be a volleyball player as a mom, I you know, I want her to try it and I want her to experience it. But if she doesn't love it, then we just move on to something else and we find something she does love. You know, my kids are soccer players. They absolutely adore soccer and I love it. They'll go into different things, but they do tend to gravitate to Hey, this is my thing. This is what I really, really love. Do you find that that's kind of the same with dogs?

Laura: 5:08

Definitely. I mean, dogs, you know, it's important to find what they enjoy. And you know, I can understand my kids aren't that old yet only two years old, so, but I can already see her having preference towards things. And I do really want her to just love what she does and have fun with life and be happy and you know, whatever makes her happy is fine with me. And my dogs are the same way. I want them definitely to be happy and enjoy what they're doing. And you know, I've we've had sports that we've tried that we both are just like, this isn't very fun. Like it's too serious. And we like the the fun sport.

Amy: 5:41

I think it's good that you both find something that you can both enjoy.

Laura: 5:45

Definitely.

Amy: 5:47

Let's get started on Frisbee. I'm very interested in this. So I know there are clients who are wondering, how do I get started in Frisbee?

Laura: 5:57

A great way to just start is introducing a Frisbee to your puppy and getting that excitement with it. And maybe like even playing a little tug of war with it and kind of, you can start with rolling it on its side, you know, not throwing it where they maybe have to try to catch it when they're that little, but just kind of rolling it and seeing if they'll chase it and praising them for wanting to go after it and check it out. I start with like the little soft Frisbees, not the hard plastic or anything like that, I want something that's really fun to pick up. You know, something like that, just to kind of get them engaged and see if they're interested. And again, like we've talked about, it may take time, they may not be interested at first, but you can kind of keep introducing it and making it fun. And you know, most puppies want to chase something that moves and rolls. So starting early is a great thing to do.

Amy: 6:45

And that tug that you've mentioned, I found that to be a success with Baxter. If I play tug with him with the Frisbee, he really wants to bring it back to me the next time.

Laura: 6:53

My guy is the same way like he likes to tug with it. And as he's gotten older, and we're participating in sports and like competing now I'm kind of trying to teach him to let it go on command, which comes into you know, our training, give and drop and things like that, because I want them to give it to me fast so I can throw it again. So you know, it's something that you can work on as they get older. Like if they're tugging on it, I wouldn't be too concerned when they're a puppy, like just get them excited about it. And then we can work on fine tuning the Alright, give it to me when I say the word and things like that.

Amy: 7:26

And that just brings into that the component of patience and training, right? Instead of expecting this whole beautiful process all at once. It's just get the point of hey, he's excited about it and excited about it. Laura, what age do you recommend we get the dog started with frisbee and why are there concerns about starting to young with this sport.

Laura: 7:48

The awesome thing about frisbee with dogs is you can start with some of the games with a little tiny puppy. As long as it doesn't include jumping, which some of the games do incorporate agility. They're kind of like a it's called frizzy agility where they have to do some jumps in a tunnel and then you throw the frisbee. You know, those ones were waiting till 12 to 18 months for you know, growth and development so they can jump. Little puppies can start with just rollers on the ground rollers are just as legal as throwing the Frisbee through the air in this sport. So if you can't throw the frisbee you're not good at it, or your dog doesn't like to catch. You can roll the Frisbee on the ground. And as long as they catch it while it's moving. It's called a catch. So that's what's great about puppies. Actually, one of the ladies I compete with just got a brand new puppy and he was like 12 weeks old at the last competition and she took him out and did some rollers just to have fun. Get them engaged, playing around all the other dogs that are there the distractions. So it's really a very inclusive sport, which is something I love. And yeah, little puppies can even start really early with it.

Amy: 8:52

Can you describe for me what a Frisbee competition is like?

Laura: 8:56

Yeah, so there's obviously a lot of other people and dogs there. So it's definitely something you want to work on early socialization and exposure and desensitizing to other dogs and people because it is a sport where they are going to be around other dogs and people. The great thing about frisbee that I love is they're really inclusive of all types of dogs. So say we have a reactive dog, the owner might say my dog is reactive, everyone needs to put their dog in a crate while this dog is competing. And I really love that because it just lets every type of dog compete. Whereas you know, agility, it might not always be possible. There's dogs running right next to you. And if you have a really reactive dog, you might not be able to compete. So yeah, that's why I like frisbee because it's really inclusive. So if there is a reactive dog, everyone can be in a crate or you can take your dog off the playing field. And that way that dog that's competing can compete without distractions, which is so fun.

Amy: 9:50

Yeah, that sounds like a good thing to get interested in. We might have to check out our local club here. It's really fun. So you've mentioned agility a few times will you explain to those who maybe are aren't familiar with agility what that is?

Laura: 10:02

Sure. So agility is like an obstacle course for your dog. There's lots of different types of obstacles, and they'll be combined in a course. So maybe like a one through 15 number of different things that you have to go through in order and have your dog complete. So there's jumps, there's tunnels that they have to go through, there's weave poles, maybe you've seen like the poles that are upright, and they have to weave their body through them. There's A frames and things that kind of they go up in the air and come back down and have to climb it a teeter totter they have to go across. There's just lots of different obstacles. And so obviously, it does take a lot more training than say, just like frisbee where it's just chasing a frisbee and catching it, because you have to get them used to all of these obstacles and learn how to do them. So you do have to break it down. It takes more time for training. But it is a really great activity for dogs that are very active, maybe love to have lots of exercise. I've even had watched people do leave their St Bernard or their basset hound through agility and they seem to enjoy it, they do it at a much slower pace. But hey, they like it. So again, it can be pretty inclusive with with lots of different breeds of dogs and temperaments doing that sport.

Amy: 11:19

One of my favorite things about agility is I can use it to build drive in my dog. So you could just take like you mentioned, you know, you have those 15 different obstacles, you know, pick one or two of them. I like the tunnel, for example, you ask your dog for a down stay, and they get really excited. And then you say okay, and they get to run through the tunnel. And that's the reward.

Laura: 11:38

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, most dogs tunnel is a great one. Every dog seems to love the tunnel. They always want to go for that one. So it is a great way, I definitely suggest getting a little play tunnel off Amazon 10 $15. I got one when my puppy was little and we just did some different little going through the tunnel builds confidence going into kind of a closed in space that maybe they can't see out of. It's yeah, so it's great for confidence, and just really fun for doing some agility training when they're really young.

Amy: 12:08

I could also see this as a fun family project. Get some wood and some supplies and your own little mini agility course for your backyard.

Laura: 12:16

Totally could you could make all you could probably Google it all and make it all as well. I know that lots of people make their own PVC pipe jumps or different types of things. And yeah, so great way to get the family involved in training.

Amy: 12:29

So if I'm a client and I have a brand new puppy, how would I get started? And what age would you recommend for agility.

Laura: 12:34

So for agility, there are typically puppy classes that you can find that are more geared towards young puppies that aren't going to be jumping yet. That's the one thing we really want to avoid is them jumping and causing a lot of stress on joints and ligaments and bones and everything. But there's so much that you can do to start with big things I always suggest people start with is teaching a reliable sit, stay or downstage stand, stay whatever you want. Because when you're doing agility, it's nice to be able to sit them at the start line and walk out onto the course and get ahead of them. So that you can be a couple obstacles ahead and release your dog and have them do those obstacles and you can take off running and get ahead of them, especially if they're fast. If you have to run with them, because they won't stay, you're going to be behind them pretty quickly. So really reliable sit stay is something a lot of agility trainers will say you've got to have that to start with. So I always talk about that. Even just exposure to desensitizing to being around other dogs and people maybe going to a park or to a dog park because agility competitions are often lots of stuff going on, there's hundreds of dogs barking and running, and there's people and if your dog is really distracted by that it can be really hard to obviously compete. My first dog I started with was a Sheltie and he really loved people. And for the first couple competitions that we did, he would run up to all the helpers in the agility ring and say hi, and try to jump on the judge and say hi. So we work through that. And he learned it was more fun to compete with me than it was to they never give attention. They're very good about ignoring. But you know, obviously exposing your puppy to people and other dogs and those kinds of competition settings would also be a really great start with a young puppy. Even just going to a class if you can find one in your area and practicing creating them while other dogs are running and creating while you walk the course you usually walk it without your dog first to kind of memorize where you're gonna go. All those kinds of things can be a good start for like a young puppy. And then there are some things you can do to start with like the tunnel like we talked about, they can run through a tunnel without hurting themselves. You can typically do jumps with like the bar that they jump over just laying on the ground. So they get used to going over it, but they're not jumping. So there are a lot of things that you can do that don't cause too much stress to a growing puppy.

Amy: 14:53

Yeah, and the the obstacles are great, like you mentioned for confidence building, which is it's really important for socialization with these young dogs.

Laura: 15:00

Yeah, definitely. And some puppies really, you know, struggle with their confidence. And that's something I will typically tell people to try, like get a tunnel off Amazon or get, you know, a little table that they can kind of climb up on like a little platform or work on getting them to get in a box. All these little things that just free shaping, like we talked about in training to having them try to learn it for themselves and figure it out. They always feel more proud of themselves, I think when they when they accomplish something. So yeah, it's a great confidence booster sport.

Amy: 15:31

Well, thank you so much for being here. And for talking a little bit about frisbee and agility. I hope we've piqued some of your interest out there on these dog sports. And we hope that you can start to explore them and find one that you and your dog gravitate towards, and then really just enjoy it together.

Laura: 15:48

And a great way to also find people that are into what you're into. Dog sport, people are really fun to be around especially if you love your dog and doing things with them. It gives you a whole new group of people to hang out with and and have common interests, which I think is something I really enjoy too is having my dog friends.

Amy: 16:08

Love it. Love it. Well, thanks for being here. Laura. Have a great rest of your week, everybody happy training and we'll talk to you soon. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other Puppy Training question, visit my site Baxter & bella.com to contact me