The table is an obstacle in Agility where the dog gets onto a table and has to wait. While it may seem simple, I have seen a lot of dogs have issues on this exercise. When you think of it, how many times in a young dog’s life did you tell them not to get onto a table? If you have a show dog and use a grooming table does your dog want to get onto the table for its nails to be done? For the lucky folks, their dog likes to get onto tables. My wife’s little girl Harper loves to get onto tables, but the Agility table she wasn’t as fast to get onto.
With my young puppy, Lola hates tables. She has a phobia of her nails being done so she does not want to get onto the table. So how did I get her to go to the Agility table with gusto? I turned it into part of our fetch game. I came up with this actually out of self preservation. She would come back to me and use my sensitive parts as a stopper. As I was getting my breath one day I thought I could use the table!
At first, I stood behind it and she would come to my side in order to avoid getting on the table. I had my older dog out with us and he was getting on the table so finally, she put her front feet on it. I let this go for a couple of sessions then I began to make her have all four paws on the table. She loves the game so much that she forgot all about her phobia of the table.
She was taught also that she has to hand me the ball, or play stops. Well, she is not allowed to get off the table until told. How did I proof that she would not prematurely leave the table? I dropped the ball, then told her to get the ball. That not being the release word, she stayed on the table. When I picked up the ball and said “Go” she ran off to resume play.
This is a quick and simple way to teach the Table exercise for AKC agility. If you do some other venue like USDAA, then just add in your “Down” to the play. This, of course, works best with a toy driven dog. If you have to use food it can work also, but not quite as fast. This is an example of a food motivated dog wanting to get recognition for her fabulous table work, hehe.
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