Dolce and Louis

Hi. We have a 4 month old silver miniature boy which we purchased for pet purposes under a limited registration with an agreement to neuter by 6 months. As his personality is coming out, we feel he would be excellent in agility. He loves to run and is lightning fast. He loves to carry things in his mouth and also loves to leap. He is such a joy! So our question is.....under the conditions that we purchased him would he be able to get into agility? Is it the same as showing poodles where they should be working with a handler by 6 months old? We wanted to find all of this out first, before we try to get Louis started.

debjen

Yes you can do agility with a neutered dog. You can do any of the performance events with a neutered/spayed pet. They only need to be intact for conformation. Now is a good time to be getting him into classes. I generally recommend a good basic obedience/focus class first as that will be needed in agility too. I will warn you agility can be addictive..*G*

Dolce and Louis

Thank you so much... I am really excited about it!

fjm

Do be rather careful about too much jumping or leaping in such a young pup. Small dogs are less prone to joint damage than large ones, but all out jumping is best kept till he is 12+ months. There are lots of things you can be doing that will get him off to a good start in agility in the meantime - obedience, puppy pre-agility, tug toy and crate training, etc, etc.

__________________

To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,
where doing nothing was not boring- it was peace.

~ Milan Kundera

Teffy

I read in one book, not to let a pup do weaves or at least a lot of weaves until the plates close (11-12 months??). It has something to do with the constant twisting but I'm guessing the author meant constant, daily weaving.

Yeah, obedience classes have paid off, made our agility training so much easier. Commands, hand signals, targetting, stays...it was a smooth transition. So...much...fun!!!

Purley

Our kennel club gives agility classes but will not take dogs until they are a year old. I ran Lucy through a tunnel that I have here, and I have to admit that she was always jumping on her own - but I wouldn't have put her over jumps while she was still young.