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Permalink Reply by Jane on June 6, 2011 at 9:14am

If Brody was just born in March he's still pretty young to really start agility I think. Check out local training facilities, or your local kennel club, they will often have beginner agility classes that you can take once he's a little older. Classes in my area only require the dog to be a certain age and to have at least one obedience class before hand. I've only dabbled in it so I'm sure someone else will have more info for you. :)

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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanton on June 6, 2011 at 9:33am

I believe, and the breeders on the page can chime it, that for their first year, while growing, they shouldn't be doing the kinds of jumping that agility includes.  We've done recreational agility and the dogs had to pass a certain level of obedience inorder to join the class, and had a lower age limit.  But one fun thing you could do is get him used to the tunnels, as that just involves running through them (no jumping) and lots of dogs are afraid of them.  Just making it lots of fun, with cookies, so he thinks the tunnel is a great place to be, could help him be ready.

 

At his age -- the most fun is to be had in puppy kindergarten!  We would to go puppy kindergarten all the time if we could -- you get to learn to train, and have loads of socialization.  And then...obedience.  Well, anything for a cookie is our motto.

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Permalink Reply by Gail and Ashton on June 6, 2011 at 12:32pm

You definitely don't want to start any work that could hurt growth so no jumping. To begin you want to have solid basic obedience abilities since your dog will be off lead. Having a dog who will focus on you is key. You don't want to have to chase your dog down while he runs out of the ring and down the road! Lots of socialization is important and exposure to different situations/places after he is fully vaccinated. Again, you are going to have your dog off lead while around lots of super hyper and excited agility dogs (at practice and trials) so you want to make sure your dog isn't spooked or overly excited by all the barking.

 

As mentioned before, find a training club or classes and start in on building these skills by puppy kindergarten, beginning obedience then novice agility classes. You will be very happy to have put in the solid obedience building blocks and social skills when you do step into the agility ring for the first time! :)

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Permalink Reply by Jen, Brody & Buddy on June 7, 2011 at 5:46pm

Thanks for all the great advice. We're starting our puppy classes next week!

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on June 7, 2011 at 7:26pm

You will have so much fun at puppy classes:) That's where Livvy and I started with AKC classes and then after her 1st or 2nd class the trainer said she should try obediance. It is not good to start them too young and you will want to work with trainers that do agility as you want to make sure that he learns the correct way to do things. we had to try out to get into the agility class.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on June 7, 2011 at 8:31pm

Seanna goes to agility and loves it.  The rules here are that they have to be at least 9 months old, and been through two obedience classes--they have to have finished the part where they can be trusted off leash.  It was really frustrating at first though because all the dogs were big ones, so we had to stop when it was her turn to go and lower all the jumps...

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Permalink Reply by Jen, Brody & Buddy on June 7, 2011 at 8:54pm

aww little corgi legs! I'm still not sure on the age requirement here but I know they have to pass 2 obedience classes as well. I hope that it's 9mos!

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Permalink Reply by Julia on June 7, 2011 at 11:52pm

Jennifer, I feel your pain. We went through six levels of classes, and Lilli was always the shortest dog. But everyone was a good sport about it, no one complained any more than they complained about the tallest dogs. Lilli loved it. She was a STAR! And three years old when we started.

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