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  1. #1
    House Broken Kelly524's Avatar
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    Age to start agility

    What is a good age to start training for agility? Molly will be six months tomorrow. She has so much energy sometimes, I think doing something like that would be good for her. Is it ever too early, or would something like that be better to hold off until she's finished growing as not to add extra stress to her joints?

  2. #2
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    The guideline is a year of age. However. some agility training facilities offer fundamentals classes where you do a lot of the agility stations but there is no jumping. Or the jumps are like 4 - 6 inches so your dog learns to pick up their feet. You could go through this a few times and work on obedience as well. Also, rally offers exercises that are super helpful in agility as well. And, rally novice has no jumps and many people can put an RN title on their dogs while they are still relatively young.

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  4. #3
    House Broken jake&Tex's Avatar
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    There are plenty of fundamentals that you can work on at this age while waiting for her to be old enough to work on the obstacles. Sit-stays, learning to follow your hand and read your body language (acceleration/deceleration), crosses, etc, are all important skills that can be done.
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  6. #4
    Real Retriever fidgetyknees's Avatar
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    Depends on what training programs are available to you. My pup started at 12 weeks, but it was not "real" agility, it was games of chase, tugging, wobble boards, crosses in the flat, tunnels. No big dog equipment. After all agility is a lot about team work and reading cues of the handler and a lot of that can be taught way before quote on quote a "real agility class".

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  8. #5
    House Broken piccadilly's Avatar
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    Are YOU interested in agility? Having excess energy is a reason that many people think agility, and it's certainly a bonus, but the foundation is a lot of obedience.... so I'd start there if you haven't already. As already mentioned, good agility clubs will start puppies early, but it's a foundations/obedience/attention type class that doesn't involve jumping or weaves... lots of recalls, building toy/play drive, distractions, and shaping.

    If you'd like to "homeschool", I'd start here... Clean Run: Puppy Training

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  10. #6
    Senior Dog Tanya's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by piccadilly View Post
    Are YOU interested in agility? Having excess energy is a reason that many people think agility, and it's certainly a bonus, but the foundation is a lot of obedience.... so I'd start there if you haven't already. As already mentioned, good agility clubs will start puppies early, but it's a foundations/obedience/attention type class that doesn't involve jumping or weaves... lots of recalls, building toy/play drive, distractions, and shaping.

    If you'd like to "homeschool", I'd start here... Clean Run: Puppy Training
    Good point. Especially the first few rounds it works the brain more than anything else (short motions no real running around like you see on TV). The dog will get a decent mental work out (if they are ready for all that attention) but not necessarily a PHYSICAL work out.

    Penny is still good for a good run after class, though it's a great mental work out and we are all ready for bed when we get home

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  12. #7
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    Was advised by the breeder that waiting until the pup is fully matured before starting agility, but that there are lots to do with working with obedience until that time that pup is fully mature. So that's our plan with our pup. Working with the smart brain of a lab until their body catches up.

    KAZ

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