Agility

[ShepherdLover]

I was wondering if anybody else here does agility with their dog? I do with Iris and it's SO fun!!! I'm going to show in Novice in September! I can't wait!

If you do do agility, what kind of dog do you have? With all sorts of new people, it's hard to remember who has what kind of dog!

I have wanted to get into it... I would do it on my own if we had a big enough back yard...as of right now it just doesn't cut it :(

I am thinking of getting Maddie into it after we get her obediance better! Lexi is 5 now and she had some minor hip problems last year so I don't want to push it with her and Sasha wouldn't be good at it... she is too much of a homebody. I think agility is great and you have a lot of fun. I've never done it but it looks fun and it is a great way to bond with your dog (which is what Maddie and I need to do) and my sister-in-law did it and loved it.

[tatsxxx11]

My lab Star has been in agility for a year now, and we love! She's really quite good, though we only do it for fun! I think we also have a thread on "Games" where many of us talked about agility. Good luck with Iris! She must look simply beautiful running the course!

[KYS]

Can't wait till you start
showing in Sept.
Make sure you share all your agility updates with us.
:)

[ July 20, 2001: Message edited by: KYS ]

[*LabLoverKEB*]

Sadie and I have sorta started too! Do you know any dog agility websites? If you do, please tell me!!! Thanks!

[ilovehounds]

I do agility with my dog Hannah a three year old beagle. Its just for fun we don't compete she loves it and is really good. Her fave is the poles. We have an agility course set up in our side yard, its the size of an olympic dressage ring (we had horses) we practice every night for fun and exersize. Im working on my four year old basset hound X but he is to lazy and just not interested.

[Logan]

I tried it with Honey, at the suggestion of a private trainer I had worked with. But to no avail. We were hoping it would give Honey some confidence she lacks, but she was so intimidated by leaving home that it just didn't work out, and I decided that I'll do it with the next dog for sure, and start much earlier. Lilly can't jump, due to her bad hips, so there is no way with her, but I think she would have loved it!

Good luck. I love hearing all the success stories about people who are having fun with it.

Logan

[*LabLoverKEB*]

Does anyone know any Dog Agility web pages? If you could post the address, that would really help! Thanks! :)

[*SimButtTwo4U*]

ive tried to make Simba jump threw a hoop or an obsacle in his way all he does is crawl underneath it
i use words like over or up but he goes under

[Sudilar]

Shiloh and my daughter have done agility. They don't compete, just for fun. Shiloh has a little problem though. If I'm in the audience, as soon as my daughter lets her off lead, she runs straight to me, says hi, then goes back to do the course. I think they take points off for that! LOL One time they told me to hide in the office and Shiloh went half way out the main door to look for me. Luckily my daughter caught her rear end as it was going out the door. It was a really scary thing because the training center is in the middle of no mans land near a high speed highway! I'd hate to think what could have happened if she got all the way out!
Agility is fun!! Enjoy it!

[AdoreMyDogs]

I do agility with my aussie mix, Graham. He's not real fast but he's very in-tune with me. He's very accurate. He hits the "target zones" on the teeter, dog walk and aframe every time! I have to be careful with my body movements because he gives me his full attention at all times. If I so much look at the wrong obsticle he heads towards the obsticle that I look at!

I have Graham's first "match" next Sunday. We will compete for ribons, but it's still considered a "fun match" and not the real thing. Practice I guess. Graham will be trying for his USDAA novice title soon I think. He's ready but I still have some trouble with my handleing, especially crossing in front and changing sides. We are in competitive level class now.

We do it for fun, and because Graham is getting older (he's around 8 years old) and I have already done quite a bit of formal training with him and I wanted to try something fun to keep him happy and mentally stimulated. I recomend it for aging dogs (as long as they are reasonably fit and sound and their weight is not too high) because it's so much fun. It's not formal and that's what makes it so fun...the dog could do the teeter instead of the dogwalk and the weaves instead of the shoot and it's still fun!

I have never mentioned this before but there is this group in Michigan called "Rock & Roll K9" that is a performance group which does all sorts of performance shows at festivals & carnivals throughout MI. They do fun things like high jump competitions, speed course competitions, flyball, musical rugs (just like musical chairs except with small rugs instead of chairs and the owners have to walk their dogs around several rugs, when the music stops, the dogs have to rush to a rug and do a down. The dogs who don't make it to a rug in time lose, and the last dog remaining wins). It's all done for the audience. It's just a fun group, and all of the shows/games are done to really cool old music (oldies) hence the name "Rock & Roll K9. Anyway, they need dogs to join the group and so Graham and I have an audition this coming Wednesday! I am really excited but nervous, the shows we do will be infont of large crouds and I have stagefright :eek:

[Logan]

I found this site on Agility on MSN Communities by accident earlier and thought I'd share it with you. I think someone asked?
http://communities.msn.com/AllAboutAgility&naventryid=166

[ShepherdLover]

Cool, there ARE people who do agility here! Here is a good agility web site Jackie:

http://www.dogpatch.org/agility/

[ July 21, 2001: Message edited by: ShepherdLover ]