FREE Agility Webinar
5 Steps to a solid startline stay in dog agility
A webinar for agility enthusiasts to train and maintain a solid startline stay in dog agility.
We’re so excited to have you join our webinar “Dog Agility Skills: 5 Steps to a solid startline stay in dog agility". This webinar will show you how to train a reliable startline stay from the beginning, add distractions and distance, and teach you how to fix broken startline stays. Even if your dog stays at training but not in a competition, we have some tips for you!
After the webinar, we will send you a series of emails that deep-dive into each of the topics we discussed during the webinar, so please make sure to tick the "allow communications" box in the registration form if you wish to receive those.
Watch the webinar for FREE by filling in the form below. You will be taken straight to the recording after you click submit on the form.
Some Startline Stay Tips from our Coaches
Most puppies and young dogs will more easily learn a sit-stay, but you can teach a down-stay if you’d prefer that. The first phase of training a startline is to teach the dog the position (such as sit).
The key is to use your treats to show the dog to sit by luring him into position. Once he sits, immediately reward him, then keep rewarding him in sitting position only.
Say your release word (such as “ok” or “break”) before he gets up so he learns to wait for your verbal release cue before he’s allowed to move.
Dogs understand ‘you are right’, but they can’t understand ‘you were right’. By rewarding your dog while he’s sitting, and in position, he’ll understand he’s doing the right thing.
- Be timely with your rewards.
- Reward your dog in position.
- Gradually build up the length of time (duration) of the stay.
- Always say your release word (for example, ok!) before your dog gets up. That’s how he’ll learn to wait for you to give the release word for him to get up.
Adding distractions and distance
Once your dog can sit still for a few seconds, it’s time to add distractions.
It’s important for your dog to understand that he should continue to stay until you say the release word, no matter what’s going on around him.
Is the leash runner behind him? Is there a dog outside the ring? Are there trial sounds going on around him? He should keep staying no matter what. The better your dog understands how to hold a stay with distracting things going on, the more you can trust this in trial situations.
You can introduce distractions in lots of different ways, and practice them anywhere you go.
About OneMind Dogs
The OneMind Dogs method is all about the dog’s point of view. Everything we teach in Agility is about seeing the world from your dog’s perspective, and having fun together. 100,000 happy dogs with 50,000 happy owners have used the OneMind Dogs method, and to put it simply: it just works.
