From Sloppy to Snappy: An 8‑Week Game Plan to Boost Your Dog’s Agility Score

Look, we’ve all been there. You’re at a competition, your dog is having an absolute blast, but when the scores get posted… you’re down near the bottom again. It’s not about winning every time, but you know your dog is capable of more. They love this stuff. You just need a clear, no‑BS plan to tighten things up. That’s why I built this one.

Welcome to Paws & Performance. I’m Jordan Mitchell, and I’ve lived this from both sides of the leash—as a competitor and now as a trainer. This 8‑week plan isn’t magic. It’s the exact kind of focused, progressive work I used with my own dogs to stop the sloppy runs and start posting serious scores. Let’s get into it.

The Core Idea: Stop Training Everything, Start Training Precision

Here’s the biggest mistake I see: people just run courses. Over and over. Your dog gets fitter, yeah, but the little errors—the dropped bars, the wide turns, the hesitation at the weaves—they just get cemented as habit.

The Paws & Performance philosophy is different. We’re going to break agility down into its three weakest links for most teams: Contact Performance, Bar Knocking, and Weave Pole Entry. For 8 weeks, you’re going to obsess over these, one at a time, while keeping the rest of your dog’s skills sharp with maintenance work.

Your 8‑Week Roadmap

Weeks 1‑2: Cement Those Contacts

We’re starting here because a bad contact costs you 5 faults instantly. A slow, creeping one kills your time. We’re going for a fast, reliable 2on/2off.

The Simple Drill: Forget the full A‑frame or dogwalk for a few days. Set your contact equipment low or use a plank on the ground. Walk your dog to the end. Mark and reward the second their front paws hit the ground and their back paws are still on the equipment. Do this 10 times a day. The goal isn’t speed yet; it’s creating a muscle memory “bullseye” for that foot placement. By the end of Week 2, you should be able to send them from a short distance to hit that spot every single time. Then you add speed by raising the equipment back up.

Weeks th4: Banish Bar Knocking

This is the most frustrating fault for a lot of handlers. The solution at Paws & Performance is often shockingly simple: adjust the jump.

The Simple Drill: Set up a single jump. Lower the bar 6 inches below your dog’s competition height. Have them jump it, one direction, 5 times. Raise it 2 inches. Jump 5 more. Raise to competition height. Jump 5 more. What you’re doing is making their take‑off and landing points perfect at an easy height, then asking them to carry that same arc over the higher bar. Do this drill for 5 minutes at the start of every training session. You’ll see a cleaner, tighter jump form develop, which saves those bars.

Weeks 5‑6: Master Weave Pole Entries

Missing the first weave pole or popping out early is a huge time and fault sink. We’re going to make the weaves a brain‑off, automatic behavior.

The Simple Drill: You need just 6 poles for this. Set them up offset (in a straight line, but with the bases not in line—this is key). Offset poles force the dog to really snap their body through the correct footwork. Practice sending your dog through from the left side entry 10 times. Then from the right side 10 times. Don’t handle. Just stand there and send them. Use a target at the end if you need to. We’re removing you from the equation and making the poles themselves the guide. Once they’re fluid on offsets, go back to straight poles and watch how much more confident and independent they are.

Weeks 7‑8: Put It All Together With Speed

Now we reintegrate. But we’re not just running courses. We’re running sections.

The Simple Drill: Design a 5‑obstacle sequence that includes one contact, one spread jump, and the weaves. Run it. If any of our three focus areas fails, stop. Reset that single obstacle. Do it perfectly three times in a row. Then run the sequence again. This is called “proofing under pressure.” You’re teaching your dog that even in the flow of a sequence, those key skills must be performed correctly. Do 3‑4 different mini‑sequences per session.

The Vital “Other Stuff” (Don’t Skip This)

This plan at Paws & Performance only works if you support it. While you’re drilling the specifics:

• Keep Your Dog Fit: Add 10 minutes of hill work or gentle trotting on a trail 3 times a week. A fit dog is a precise dog.
• Keep It Fun: End every single training session with 2 minutes of your dog’s favorite game. Tug, fetch, belly rubs—whatever says “THIS WAS AWESOME!”
• Nutrition Matters: A dog running complex drills needs good fuel. I’m not pushing a brand, but ensure their food supports their activity level. A sluggish dog is a mistake‑prone dog.

Trust the Process, Then Go Show Off

This isn’t about creating a robot. It’s about building such a solid foundation of skill that when you get to a competition, your dog can perform with total confidence. You get to focus on handling, on speed, on strategy—not on whether they’ll hit their contact.

That’s when scores start to climb. That’s when you both walk out of the ring grinning, knowing you nailed it.

Stick with this 8‑week focus. Be patient. Celebrate the small wins. This is the Paws & Performance way: clear, proven, and always with your dog’s joy as the top priority.

Now, go get your training shoes on. Your next great run is waiting.