Help with obedience and agility training.

Haha, I have problems with both! I'll start with agility.

We've not long been doing agility but my boy, Alfie, is just ridiculously over keen! I know it doesn't sound like a problem but I'm worried he'll hurt himself. When we're waiting for our turn and watching the other dogs, he doesn't take his eye of them and screams and cries, throwing himself around in the air! Once we actually get going, it's hard to keep his focus on me and not pulling to every other piece of equipment to have a go. With the jumps, he's so desperate to get the the next one that he just jumps straight through the jump and manages to knock them over a lot. He can jump them, they're not that high, he's just going too fast to do it properly! Is there anything I can do to keep his attention better? We've tried treats, he just doesn't care. I'm going to take his toy on Tuesday but I'm not sure that will help either. His basic obedience goes to pot, he doesn't pull on the lead at any other time and he can only just do sit and down because he's so obsessed with watching the other dogs. Any advice?

For the obedience, I need advice on training the present. He just doesn't come close enough, how do you teach it? At training, we did it by starting sat on a chair and training them to come to your knees, which he'll do perfectly, but I don't know how to get from there to standing up.

Thankyou to anyone who reads all that and might have some ideas!

My dog was like this, I solved it by working on the watch command and using a clicker, I also stood away from the other dogs to enforce it,he still likes to greet the other dogs but is much more focussed.

Closer presents

Hold both hands out in front with a titbit above the dogs head at a level he can reach to touch your fingers/hand as your dog approaches in the recall. As your dog reaches you pull your hands back in at the same height until your arms touch you & then raise the hands up so the dog can touch when sat. Give your present command(come, front etc)& then sit & then treat. Don't add a finish until your dog has grasped the idea. Train the finish separately from the recall

Thanks, I'll give those a go

I`ve had a few overly keen at agility now and then, I know exactly what you mean as I`ve seen it in them just as you describe. For those I usually do a few one to one sessions so that they don`t get wound up any other dogs and can concentrate much better [ so a lot safer ], and some onlead-work [ with harness ], helps them as well as their speed can be better managed between elements while doing focus work as well as meaning they are`nt able to try stringing themselves up through desperation to get going.

The one to ones are the main thing though, as they can think much more clearly and then go on to cope far better in the usual group sessions because they don`t get so het up after getting some good basics in place in a quieter fashion :smt001

Thanks for you advice Patch.

We've kept him on lead so far, until he's calmed down a bit I wouldn't feel comfortable letting him off. Our club doesn't offer private lessons, they use a stables to do it and only have it for the one night.