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Comment by Becca [Formally Siduri] on June 29, 2008 at 12:43pm

Alright, thanks :) I'll try that. Thanks for the response.

Comment by Sylvia & Timmy on June 28, 2008 at 11:00pm

Becca,
Actually, corgis make excellent agility dogs. See Christopher Zincone and Monty, here on MyCorgi. Monty is an agility dog champion. There are several other members here involved as well, I just mentioned Monty and his dad Chris because they've made some fantastic videos.

It's a matter of physical conditioning. If Jake is 2 then there should be no problems. Trainers always advise waiting until they're 18 months old, after growth plates have closed and the bones have fully grown. Long backed dogs are only at risk when they are in poor physical condition. Consider looking for a training classes in agility, but you can start the conditioning at home by starting with PVC pipe, a simple frame, a small homemade teeter or wobble board, an old used tire. There are several kits available, or you can simply build them yourself. By all means, any activity you can do with Jake will build his confidence and give him that "job" he needs.

Also, before you begin to work seriously on agility, be sure that he has his basic obedience commands down well. Sit, down, stay and most important "come or here". You' ll need those. One other thing to consider if and when you start with serious training and lots of work is making sure his diet is beefed up to a working level. Make sure he gets supplements to support his joints, has enough protein in his diet, and learn how to do stretching exercises. (front end down, back end up) and the famous "sit up". Sit up really helps strengthen the back muscles needed for balance and flexability.

Hope you consider it with Jake. Timmy attended agility training for several months during which he gained an enormous amount of confidence, and now eagerly challenges anything on a trail. He will jump on rocks, go over logs, through culverts, walk along bleachers, etc. He became very self assured. He had to quit agility due to having panosteoitis (aka growing pains) at 20 months and had to limit his activities for a total of 8 months. Since then, we've never gone back, but do some of the exercises in our yard and at the playground.

There is a group, agility corgis, here on mycorgi, but I'm not sure how active they are, but you might check with some of them as well. Good luck and go for it. Jake looks like he's in pretty good shape!!