Dogs, like humans, require lots of exercise to burn excess energy. If you have a rambunctious dog, agility training can help both of you stay healthy and in tip-top shape.
Agility training may require a dog to navigate through obstacle courses made up of jumps, tunnels, pause tables, weave poles, and walkways. These challenges keep a dog fit, help prevent obesity, increase endurance, and strengthen bones and joints.
This article discusses the many benefits agility training can provide to dogs.
5 Benefits of Agility Training for Dogs
Agility training has amazing effects on the dog’s overall quality of life. Here are a few other benefits.
1. Enhances your dog’s natural drive
Dogs have an innate desire to please their owners. Agility training builds their natural drive and enhances their goal-oriented instinct.
Moreover, agility courses are designed to mimic different types of natural scenarios for dogs and fulfill their hunting and chasing instincts.
2. Allows them to ease their physical and mental tension
Agility is great for helping your dog release their energy in a safe, fun way. It’s perfect for letting them run at full speed and focus on the task at hand. Training also helps build lean muscle, strengthen joints and improve your dog’s attention.
3. Improves self-discipline
With agility training, dogs learn to harness their self-control and commit to the task they are asked to do.
In addition, it teaches the dog patience because it has to wait for its turn during agility training. It also teaches control when off-leash because they are trained that way, especially during competition training.
4. Increases attention span
Overtime, trained dogs will be able to easily ignore distractions in day-to-day life, like other dogs, people, and smells. This can be helpful when you’re walking them outside or going to the dog park.
5. Makes your dog more confident
Agility training, like all other types of training, helps your dog overcome their fears. This can be a fear of unusual surfaces, small spaces, scary situations, and even completing tasks by itself.
As you do more and more trainings, your bond becomes stronger, and your dog will be more confident in general.
Conclusion
As you can see, there is more to agility training than meets the eye. Not only does agility training keep your dog fit and healthy, but it also provides mental stimulation, confidence building, and better quality of life. If you’re looking for a way to bond with your pup, agility training could be the perfect activity. Give it a try!
For more training examples, check out our PetFitness blog!
