Left and Right

We are new to agility and doing quite well the only thing I cant get my head round is left and right turns, is there an easy way to teach your dog this?

We do a 'spin' type thing to teach left and right - get treat in hand and get dog to follow treat and give the command for each direction - each direction taught independantly - so spin to left is left and spin right is right - not all dogs can easily do both ways so you may have to break down.

Other ways is by using heel work and when turning left say left and when turning right say right.

This is actually harder for the handler to work out left and right turns LOL!

We have been struggling with this too. I have been working on having a kind of a fork in the road, with two matching tables after the jumps

I started by running with her (slightly ahead) and sliding her to one side or another while saying the command and using the hand signal. And a treat is on the table when she get there.

When she seemed to be getting it down I stood in the middle and use the well known handle signal for "there" which is a flat hand pointing at which way to go. I would release her from the stay and say the command and point. A treat would be on the table for her when she got it correct (obviously there is no treat on the other table)

From that, I slowly moved closer to her and away from the jumps so she would have to remember which way after she passed me.

Eventually I took away the signs. And only said the command, so I knew she was learning the command, and not just following my hands.

We did it within two days by practicing for 5-10 minutes every hour or so. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough to have a good foundation to work on.

It didn't seem as complicated with we did it...but we have left it at that for now and I just keep practicing that. Eventually I want to give her the "Left Around" and "Right Around" for the jumps that are in a circle...but the basics are good enough for what we are working on now.

If any of that made no sense, let me know and I can try to reword it. I bet there are other quicker or more effective ways to do it, but this was the way that we came up with in the backyard. Let me know if you find a better way. I am always looking for hints and tricks.

I am not good with left and right...so instead of having left and right commands I have a come towards me command and a go away from me command.

Works great for me and has done for about 15 years

I taught it with a tunnel and flung a ball left or right with the appropriate command. Also toaught a go on command by flinging ball straight then added jump before ball given as reward


As a total aside where's Patch?

I've alway taught 'go on' with a circle of jumps.....the never ending straight line

I taught the girls by spinning and I taught Bertie using heelwork, the girls caught on a lot quicker than Bertie.