Lead Hand Foundation Game
This is a game you can teach your dog to target to your lead hand.
In agility, the lead hand is the hand you use to show a dog what obstacles to do and what path to take on course. So it's very valuable for you to teach the dog to pay attention to your lead hand.
Show your dog that your hands hold rewards
Load up both hands with your dogs favourite food treats. Show your hand to your dog. As he sniffs your hand, and actually touches your hand with his nose, tell him "Good boy"! in an excited voice and pop a treat into his mouth. Continue to offer your hand, praising and rewarding your dog for each touch, until it is clear he has worked out what gets him the food reward.
This game should be played with both the right and left hand. You should NOT face the dog to give treats. You should be facing slightly away from the dog, making the dog come up behind you to touch your hand to get the treats. This will reinforce the posture you'll have with the dog in agility. You will be on the move, facing the same direction the dog is facing. The lead hand is ALWAYS the hand closest to the dog.
Make the dog chase the hand to get the reward
You can now start the game of chase. As your dog moves towards your hand to give the touch that earns the reward, you will begin to move away from the dog in a straight line, while looking back at the dog. This will cause the dog to chase the hand to get the touch that earns the treat. You should move only so fast that the dog is allowed to succeed. But as you work you should be about to move faster and faster, making your dog run to catch the hand. Play this game equally with the right and the left hand.
Figure of eight
We use an exercise called the "figure of eight" to teach the dog to pay keen attention to the handler's lead. The agility figure of eight is very different from the healing exercise that is done in obedience. In obedience the dog is always on the handler's left side. In agility we are ambidextrous. We work the dog equally on both right and left sides.
The easy way to do the figure of eight is to place two objects about 3m apart. These can be chairs, garbage bins, or even traffic cones. The handler must begin with both hands loaded up with treats. The dog gets a lot of treats in this game, and will quickly learn to love the game because of the constant reward from the handler. The handler begins with the dog in the middle and escorts the dog around one of the objects, giving the dog treats each time the dog shows keen attention to the lead hand. Note that the dog takes the wide path while the handler takes the lazy inside path.
As the first circle of the figure eight closes, the handler must get his dog on the opposite side, so that the dog will again take the wider path while the handler takes the shorter path. To effect the change of side the handler must turn towards the dog, and flip over to the dog's opposite side. This is called a crossing turn.
Instructors give up their training to help you, please help them by assisting with setting up and packing away the equipment.