Agility

[Buddy Blaze Lover]

I was wondering if anyone here trains their dog in agility and what all it entails. (especially those BCs!) I'd love to get Blaze started; I think it'd be a great opportunity for him!

[Lexi_Lover]

I was also wondering that! I think Lexi would be amazing at it! What age can you register for it, or what is the most appropriate age to! Lexi is 10 months old!

[Buddy Blaze Lover]

I think the best time to start agility is when your dog is like 2 or so. As a puppy and at 1, their bones and body are still growing, and they could seriously hurt themselves if put through too much strenuous excercise!

[Lexi_Lover]

Lexi already jumps logs and climbs things LOL! That'S what I thought the age would be! We'll start training and be the best in class then!

[Crikit]

I train all three of my dogs in the sport, Smudge and Winter both compete and Tama still has some kinks to work out but really agility is a sport that you always have to work at to improve both yourself and your dogs.

What you need for agility is a good relationship between yourself and your dog, you don't really have to worry if your dog doesn't have all that much confidence that comes in time, trust me on that one. The dog should have a basic level of obdience like a good recall, a sit and down, and a decent wait or stay. It's not always necessary but it's also a fairly good idea that your dog is at least tolerant of other dogs because in a class in environment a dog can get away from it's handler and then all kinds of mayhem can insue. Other then that all you really need is a good attitude towards the sport and a good teacher. Agility is not the type of thing that you want to attempt to teach by yourself as there are some safety issues with contacts and some of the other pieces of equipment that should be taught to your dog by a professional.

As for age the classes that I help out at will allow a dog over the age of 6 months in to the beginners classes but we do not allow any of the dogs even those that are over two years of age to jump at full height in the building, any jumps that we have are set at about 2 inches of the ground so even a puppy can do it (the training centre that I go to also runs puppy agility classes, where all pieces of equipment are set at uber low heights for the dogs) But I warn you young dogs under the age of 2 should not jump full height and they should be watched so that they do not jump off of a contact piece of equipment.

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

Tango's hopefully going to be starting agility classes soon

[Crikit]

Originally posted by Orangutango
Tango's hopefully going to be starting agility classes soon

what training centre are you looking at going to?

[cali]

Happy, Misty, and Blair all do Agility. Blair is by far the best of them all. Mistys is exellent with me because she preferes listening to me, but currently until we move my mom handles her, Misty does not respond as well to my mom though. Happys is awsome she never misses a beat and I can send her from a distance she never falls for traps in one coarse there was a trap, a tunnel directly ahead but you had to go to the table off to the side I was about 3 feet away and said table she did not even glance at the tunnel(her fav) and went staright to the table, I was so proud lol seeing as how everyone elses dogs fell for the trap, dogs that hav been competing for a lot longer then Happy lol. the biggest problem I have with Happy though is that she will not weave. period. I have tried all sorts of nmethodes out there to teach weave, she will do it slowly in practice but in a fun match or trial she flat out refuses them, so I normally just eneter he is pre-starters regular and then Jumpers, she is awsome in jumpers. Misty I believe took first in gamblers her first time, but that was pretty much the last time Misty botherd to take commands from my mom she would rather run all over lol now Blair, I have not seen run, but I know on saterday Blair took the maximum points you can get in snooker

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

Originally posted by Crikit
what training centre are you looking at going to?

paw-z-tracks. It seems to be the cheapest palce so far, and I've heard alot of good things about them...

[Crikit]

Originally posted by Orangutango
paw-z-tracks. It seems to be the cheapest palce so far, and I've heard alot of good things about them...

Yeah they're pretty good, I know some of the people who teach the classes and they're really nice people as well. I'm still partial to the spectrum though

[LuvinMyAussieBoy]

Both of my boys do agility, they have so much fun doing it. I think they are in their own little world when doing it.

[bckrazy]

Agility is SO much fun! Blaze would kick butt in it .. Border Collies are, just the best in agility! Like Crikit said, Blaze should have a solid recall and be able to listen/respond to you off-leash with other dogs around. I would recomend doing a refresher course in Obedience if you haven't recently, it helps a lot!

[Buddy Blaze Lover]

Originally posted by bckrazy
Agility is SO much fun! Blaze would kick butt in it .. Border Collies are, just the best in agility! Like Crikit said, Blaze should have a solid recall and be able to listen/respond to you off-leash with other dogs around. I would recomend doing a refresher course in Obedience if you haven't recently, it helps a lot!

Thanks for all the advice! I need to work on the recall, since Blaze isn't too good at that... My fault!

[jackie]

when we move back to canada i would love to get my pup tito involved in agility. i think he would be great in it, and it would definitely help burn off some of his extra energy!

[*sled_dog*]

I have an Aussie that I am staring to train. So far he is likeing it. He loves to run fast through the tunnel/chute he is not so sure about the teeter and weaves, but hopefully he'll get it. I, think it is sooo fun too!!