Certain age to start agility?

[Sowa]

I've heard about doing certain activities with your dog before it's fully developed can be harmful. I want to sign Clover up for agility but she's only 7 1/2 months old. I asked the place if there is certain age they need to be, they said no. I'm still a little wary. Should she be 18 months at least before starting something like this? It would just be beginner level so she probably wouldn't be doing anything extreme.

[IRescue452]

You can start training her on the equipment if that's what the class is about. Until she is over a year of age the jumps and anything she jumps off of should be no more than elbow level on her. Fast-paced competition should wait until 18 months to 2 years. She's not going to be too big so 18 months will probably be ok as long as she's not carrying excess weight.

[Freedom]

Most places require the pup to pass a basic obedience class first, as the dog needs to know stay, wait, and how to follow your lead.

Where Willy goes, they also offer a class called Performance Puppy, for pups who will be going into Agility.

As mentioned, jumps and landings are the key, you want to wait until the growth plates have set for that stuff. Low jumps should be fine.

[MonicanHonda]

A lot of places have an agility prep class, which is working on all the agility foundational skills but don't really touch the jumps yet. I would wait until at least a year to do repeated jumping like you would in a class. However, if the agility class is your foundational skills, GREAT! This would be your handling skills and your crosses and your start line stays, tunnels possibly, etc.

[Sowa]

I just signed Clover up with some private training lessons with the lady who taught her puppy class. I think I'll stick with that for now. We're working a lot on recall and gentle leash walking. We're trying positive training this time. With my past 2 I always trained with training collars. I'm interested to see how this will go. She's doing great, and loves all the treat games she gets to play :rolleyes:

[Freedom]

FUN! Just remember to cut back on her food a little bit, with all those treats. You don't want a pudgy Clover!

[Asiel]

Wise to put off the agility for now and concentrate on basic obedience. She needs to have that down pat first and in the meantime she won't be overtaxing her bones or ligaments. You can introduce the tunnel slowly if you want to make that into a fun game but the jumps, twisting and turning stuff is too much for a pup until they're finished growing.

[Sowa]

FUN! Just remember to cut back on her food a little bit, with all those treats. You don't want a pudgy Clover!

I'm actually using part of her dinner as the "treats". She works well for her food. She gets higher value treats though as well sometimes but since I need to use a lot for her training I'm mostly using her food.

[Freedom]

Clover, come on over, Willy says he will instruct you on the proper way to train: you work for the GOOD stuff, not ordinary kibble! :D

[Sowa]

Clover, come on over, Willy says he will instruct you on the proper way to train: you work for the GOOD stuff, not ordinary kibble! :D

Shh! She doesn't know any better right now! I think she inhales it so quickly she doesn't really know what she's eating :rolleyes:

[Freedom]

Ahahahaaaa, as the mom to Starvin' Marlin, THAT I can understand!!!! :p

[sasvermont]

I wish my dog liked her dog food. I have tried many kinds and eventually she stops gobbling it up and leaves it for later. I have many healthy treats that she just leaves for much, much later. When training her, I had to produce some pretty tasty stuff for her to respond. I don't know if she is spoiled or what. I don't give in to her, and I leave the treats on the floor or in her dish until she eats them.

I think waiting until she is older makes good sense as their joints are getting settled in and you don't want to disrupt the process. I didn't walk Prue on concrete or asphalt until she was older, too. I stuck with dirt and grass for a long time.

I bet she will be good at learning recall etc. Prue was horrible with recall, so she remains on a leash. Having her on a leash also controls what wild animals she may run in to by mistake, or what food/Junk she might find and eat. So, I don't mind keeping her on a leash, for the most part.

Photos of her new tricks would be nice! :)

[Bonny]

I just signed Clover up with some private training lessons with the lady who taught her puppy class. I think I'll stick with that for now. We're working a lot on recall and gentle leash walking. We're trying positive training this time. With my past 2 I always trained with training collars. I'm interested to see how this will go. She's doing great, and loves all the treat games she gets to play :rolleyes:

It sounds like you are doing the right thing by Clover. Learn the basics first & then go on to the more challenging stuff. It would be a good idea to have an x ray done on her hips to make sure there are no problems there that could affect her later on if you want to do agility.

[Sowa]

I wish my dog liked her dog food. I have tried many kinds and eventually she stops gobbling it up and leaves it for later. I have many healthy treats that she just leaves for much, much later. When training her, I had to produce some pretty tasty stuff for her to respond. I don't know if she is spoiled or what. I don't give in to her, and I leave the treats on the floor or in her dish until she eats them.

I think waiting until she is older makes good sense as their joints are getting settled in and you don't want to disrupt the process. I didn't walk Prue on concrete or asphalt until she was older, too. I stuck with dirt and grass for a long time.

I bet she will be good at learning recall etc. Prue was horrible with recall, so she remains on a leash. Having her on a leash also controls what wild animals she may run in to by mistake, or what food/Junk she might find and eat. So, I don't mind keeping her on a leash, for the most part.

Photos of her new tricks would be nice! :)

Sometimes I cut up some hotdog into small pieces into a baggy and mix her kibble in as well. So the kibble smells of hot dog too and she's not eating only hot dogs which aren't that great for her but she LOVES them. It works great when we're outside and she only focuses so long with just kibble.

[MonicanHonda]

Kibble is GREAT for around the house! That's all we use. We don't feed kibble, but I keep the travel size free ones around for inside treats. Outside you may need to step up the game because it isn't as high value, so you may find her attention wandering. That's when you pull out the good stuff. As the distractions go up, so does the value of the treats. :)

[lolli94]

Hey you are doing a wonderful job with your puppy!!! Not many people are so concerned about training right.

[binka_nugget]

To answer the original question, it's generally recommended to wait until 1 year to start agility classes (and widely recommended to wait even longer for larger breed dogs). That said, if it's an agility foundation class, then she'd be fine doing that now. Kwik is almost 7 months and I'm just starting on foundation training with her. We work on things like tunnels, running through jumps with the bars off, contacts (she stands on a wooden platform about 3 inches high and puts two feet on the floor and two feet on the platform), and ground work (rear crosses, front crosses, blind crosses). Things like that that don't require heavy impact on their bodies are fine, and would actually help a great deal if you ever decide to compete.

I also highly recommend you make sure she has a really good stay. Keeva always had an amazing stay but it slowly got worse and worse as she got more excited about agility.

[Sowa]

To answer the original question, it's generally recommended to wait until 1 year to start agility classes (and widely recommended to wait even longer for larger breed dogs). That said, if it's an agility foundation class, then she'd be fine doing that now. Kwik is almost 7 months and I'm just starting on foundation training with her. We work on things like tunnels, running through jumps with the bars off, contacts (she stands on a wooden platform about 3 inches high and puts two feet on the floor and two feet on the platform), and ground work (rear crosses, front crosses, blind crosses). Things like that that don't require heavy impact on their bodies are fine, and would actually help a great deal if you ever decide to compete.

I also highly recommend you make sure she has a really good stay. Keeva always had an amazing stay but it slowly got worse and worse as she got more excited about agility.

Thanks. I decided to wait til she's older for agility for now. I'm still hoping to do it when she's older. The trainer I'm working with is possibly starting a Rally-O training session which I may try for now since it would be less stress on her body (I don't think they do jumping until much later in training)