At what age can we start agility

[MEDMAN]

I have been thinking about getting our Lady involved in agility
At what age is it ok to start training? I have been told that the jumping can be rough on young dogs. Lady jumps like kangaroo around the house and she is 10 months old.
We have met with a woman that is into agility and has a course at her house. We went over today and she gave us a little lesson. We did very low jumps and the open tunnel. I was soo surprised at how well Lady did. Within an hour we could do 2 low jumps in a row and into the tunnel. Dad was very impressed with his little girl:p So i would like everyones opinion, should we keep going or wait a few more months?
And while I am posting just like to sya how much I love this web site, it has been increadible to be able to get soo much information my hats off to those who share there thoughts and those who maintain this site

 

[Boxer_21]

I may be wrong, but I think that in order to compete in agility, the dog must have some type of basic obedience. So, if your dog hasn't had any that would probably be your best place to start. As far as the age requirements, I think at ten months, you can begin with some light training. At a year or more, you could start with the more physically demanding training. Like I said, I could be wrong. I'm sure someone else will offer better advice for you. Good luck!!

 

[MEDMAN]

Lady is pretty good on her obedience. Well i should say in enclosed areas she does very well. Her recall is good in the yard, we have a large yard and its fenced in. When we are not in the yard it is a different story. I would say she is 50% on her recall.
We are working with the local kennel club trainers and we are going to try to get her CD. This will be our main area of training.

 

[Chewy's Mom]

The light, low-impact type of training should be okay for her, but I've heard that it's best to wait until a dog is 18 months before you get them into the hard-core agility stuff.

As Mandy said, basic obedience is required. We were actually going to get Chewy into agility a couple of months ago, and the agility club invited us out to have Chewy participate in a control test. We showed up, and there were about 6 other dogs that were going to do the test. Well, once we heard what all he would have to do, we just knew that there was no way that he could do all of that - especially with other dogs around because he gets distracted and wants to play. He was 18 months old at the time. So we just stayed and watched the test. It was pretty intense, and we know now that he will need a lot more work before he can pass a test like that. I would recommend going and watching a test if you can so you know exactly what you'd have to work on with her. And get her used to obeying around other dogs too.

Good luck. It sure looks like fun!

Monique

 

[MEDMAN]

I will be going to an event soon to see all the dogs doing their thing. I think that its amazing the way the go through the course. I have seen it on tv a couple of times.
The reason I was thinking about getting into it was to just do some new things and have fun with the dog. I like to work with her and she gets bored doing the same thing over and over. I thought maybe this would aide in her obedience training. She really seemed to have alot of fun today. The woman said that she was very attentive to me and this was very important to the whole agility thing. She also said that the stuff we were doing was low impact, low jumps and the tunnel.
I hope I am not coming off like a nut that is pushing his puppy into agility, I'm not. Just having some fun. I dont know if i will ever take her to a trial, I just think it would be fun for me and for her to learn to do these things.

 

[Renee&Jake]

It's never too early to start agility training, it's the jumps and maybe the A frame you need to take it easy on with a young dog.

The easy part of agility is teaching the dog HOW to go through a tunnel, negotiate the dog walk/teeter, chutes, etc. Weaves are tricky for the dog and handler, and probably take the longest (on average).

The hard part of agility is the handler moves, front/rear crosses, footwork, directional movements (get out, come in). That's the type of stuff you can work at home once you've had a few lessions. I have a few light PVC jumps and some weaves in my yard that I set up in certain sequences. You can set up and work on the handling, as the jumps take care of themselves (although I do jump chutes but that's a whole 'nother post.)

When I started my puppy at about 12 weeks, the 'jumps' were nothing more than bars on the ground, just to get the handling started.

 

[jade3232]

the pup has to go through basic obiedience to where if you had your dog off the leash walking beside you he or she wouldn't take off running abouts...Obedience will throughly train your pup for agility..keep praticing with her thoughbut she has to have all shots done and you need the papers documenting that she has all the shots if not they won't let her in kindergarden :( GoodLuck!

 

[diego's heart]

How exciting! Agility is so much fun. When I did my research, I found that the books and folks I spoke to bounced between 14-18 mos to begin agility. As Renee mentioned, *jumping* is the concern to not put so much stress on growing bones and joints. One training center has "puppy" agility classes that work around the jumps and other apparatus. Also, obedience around here is not required, but preferred. We were on a waiting list for 6 months and Diego just turned 2 yrs old and had a solid foundation in 2 levels of obedience. Besides having a lot of FUN, agility dramatically increased his attention and recall skills. Good luck and enjoy... ~ Lisa

 

[Debbie Magon]

NO dog is allowed to start agility before the age of 18 mths here in NZ.
For a very good reason too.
On examination of younger dogs, who had participated in agility, vets found evidence of partial fractures and stress marks , on growth plates and joint cartilage, that although wont neccisarilly cause trouble when young, will certainly contibute to arthritis when older.
A young dog will bounce and leap and do all sorts of crazy stuff while growing, and although difficult to prevent them, they usually survive it all.
Adding to their daily activity level with actual structured jumping is not acceptable until the growth plates have closed completely, the joints have strengthened and the bones have finished growing.
Estimated age for our breed? 18 mths.

The very best thing for a boxer in the mean time is obedience classes and lots of swimming.
Dogs that can be encouraged to swim seem to have a better muscular build, which supports the joints and frame and therefore prevents future injuries occuring, when we put our dogs under stress.
An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.
Something like that.

 

[MEDMAN]

This is why i love this site! Great information!
Thanks all for your comments. I have talked to some other people also and they said the same things that were posted. What i think we are going to do is continue with our obedience and just play around with the low impact stufff till she is older.
Again thank all of you. This site, and all the people on here have been soo much help to me and my girl.