Benefits of Dog Agility Training I have been teaching dog agility for about 20 years. When I first started teaching it, I just focused on making sure the dogs had fun and that my clients were prepared if they chose to compete. Over the years I have seen that agility has so many benefits for both the dogs and their handlers. Team-Building Aside from the physical benefits, the next obvious benefit I have noticed is how agility improves the bond between the humans and the dogs (when agility is taught with empathy and compassion). Dog agility is a team sport, therefore the dog-human team must work together. As with any team sport, there must be trust and understanding between the teammate (in this case the dog and the human). In most situations, the dog and human are both learning a new skill and they will both make a lot of mistakes. As humans, we often like to blame others for our mistake. My heart always sings when I hear my client say “Ugh, that was my mistake” when they are practicing agility with their dog. I have found that agility can create a tremendous human-dog bond as both players [...]