Clean Run Magazine - May 2007 - 23

Bonnie Calhoun McDonald Bonnie judges AKC, USDAA, and UKC agility, WWKC obedience, and WWKC rally. She owns and is the chief trainer at Bonjon Training School LLC, operating in Tampa, Florida, since 1992. Bonnie has earned MACHs, UDs, HXs, Schutzhund titles, and more with GSDs, Mals, and Shelties. Visit Bonnie’s website at www. BonjonTrainingSchool.com. It’s certainly a challenge to train one of the giant breeds to compete successfully in agility. If you’re up to the challenge, Great Danes can do well and even excel in the sport although they might not be a handler’s ﬁrst choice due to their stature. The contact zones are only one of the challenges big dogs face. Tunnels can be difﬁcult, as well as tight spacing between jumps. The contacts will require a system that is clearly understood by your team. There are many methods of teaching contacts with various pros and cons. I run mostly large breeds (German Shepherd Dogs and Belgian Malinois). While I prefer to begin training dogs as puppies, I have certainly had success starting an adult dog by making the sessions fun and taking it slowly. It seems to be much more difﬁcult to overcome a frightening experience with an adult dog so take care to avoid pushing your dog past his limits of comfort. I would advise that whatever method you choose, you start out with your contact obstacles on the ground or at least very low so there is no danger that your dog will be frightened of falling or slipping off while he learns how to control his front and rear on a narrow (12") plank. I also advise that you take the time to teach your dog how to turn around on the board, to sit, to down, and to get on and off from the side. Once he’s truly comfortable doing all these things on the board and can run across it on the ground without fear, only then would I start actually teaching my preferred contact method. Another neat trick is teaching your dog to back up on a board on the ground. Some dogs take to this right away while others never seem to get it. It certainly does teach the dog where his rear end is so might be something you should think about doing. (I have never asked a dog to back across a dogwalk at full height; this is an exercise I use when ﬁrst introducing dogs to the board on the ground.) Jumping could also pose some problems because dogs with large strides often do not jump “rounded.” They can learn and will need to master this and run relatively “collected” to match their larger stride to the small (for © PHOTOGRAPHY BY LESLEY © GREATDANEPHOTOS them) distances between obstacles. You wouldn’t think a giant breed would knock bars, but in reality, that would probably be the biggest reason the really large breeds NQ (I think missing an up or down contact is second and conﬁdence issues—the dog doesn’t make time because he is too worried to move fast enough through the course—third). To sum up, yes, you can be successful with your giant breed in agility. Some adults train more easily than others depending mostly on previous life experiences, genetics, and your patience in introducing the obstacles and building conﬁdence from the very start. Don’t expect to ﬁnd a class in the next week and six months later be entering your ﬁrst AKC trial. It could happen but it would be very unusual. You can teach your dog a reliable contact using one of the many current methods. (I prefer two-on/two-off but that’s just my preference.) Depending on your dog’s stride you may need to teach the up contact as well and there are methods that work for that. Find an instructor who has experience working with large and giant breeds. You may even check to see if there’s an email list for folks like you where you could get additional support and information. Good luck and have fun with your dog! There are many agility organizations to choose from as well with different rules and classes so if one doesn’t “ﬁt,” check into one of the others available in your area. companionship, not necessarily to compete. I taught agility to two of my Danes and only competed in agility with one. One Dane was too careless on the contacts and I was afraid he would get hurt if I added the excitement of an agility trial to his exuberant attitude. Even so, I still enjoyed training him in agility and he had fun too. My point is, competing in a trial would be your decision if you feel it is safe for your partner. Even if you don’t compete, agility training will be fun and educational for both of you. long board starting at about 2' off the ground. I want the dog to walk the board slowly so he keeps his eyes looking at the board, about 12" ahead of his body, while working to keep his rear on. As far as agility competition being safe for a large dog, there is no guarantee. Small dogs can get injured too. If your dog is properly trained and ﬁt, no matter what his size, the risk of injury is lower. Every dog I own I train to do agility along with other training because it is fun. I train for the interaction and D Brenna Fender is a freelance writer with an undergraduate degree in mass communications and a masters degree in elementary education. She lives with her husband, two young children, a Vizsla, a Doberman Pinscher, a Whippet, and a cat. The dogs are collectively titled in agility, obedience, conformation, hunting, rally, and lure coursing. The cat, husband, and children are lacking in this regard. Contact Brenna at BrennaFender@gmail.com. May 07 | Clean Run 23

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Clean Run Magazine - May 2007

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