Curlydogs

I have been told that once a dog is sequencing on jumps and obstacles at full height, it is ready for competition. I know that every dog (and handler) learns at different rates, and some teams may never be competition ready, but I was wondering how long some of you (or your students) trained in agility before becoming competition ready.

flyingduster

technically once you're able to run around a course together (probably could do that within a few months) you can compete. But you won't be competitive for much much longer (a year or more) so I guess it depends on what your goal is.

You'll find many of the good trainers will wait until their dog is REALLY going before ever entering a competition, it could take a year or so of training, but when they enter a competition, they are highly likely to place and win up to the next level pretty fast. Generally those trainers have already done some agility though, and know the deal, so it isn't worth the entry fee and petrol to go to a show just to play about! Whereas newer/first time trainers are more keen to just go out there ASAP and say they are competing with the big guys! lol!

So, if you are only interested in getting out ASAP to play on a course in a 'real' show, then by all means you'd be able to do that pretty quickly. If you want to go out there with a competitive dog who will run fast and accurate, then the sky is the limit as to how long it will take of training to get there.

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debjen

My first agility dog a lab (12 years ago) started agility at 6 months never planning on competing but just looking for something to wear out a 6 month old lab..was about 2 1/2 at his 1st competition..2nd dog was 9 weeks when I got him and he started training from the time he came home..1st competition at 16 months...he was actually started to early while he appears confident he stresses easily and he stressed and I'm still paying for that 3 1/2 years later..3rd agility dog I got at 9 months..again he started training from the time he came home..and started competing at around age 2...2 years later he is ahead of his brother who is a year older then him..Dog 4 Flyer started training with me even before he came to live with me permanently at about 12 weeks old..I was going to wait until he was 2 before I started competing with him but he was doing so good and had the confidence that I started do one class at each trial I had entered the other dogs when he was about 18 months..just last month at 22 months he had his first full trial..

Curlydogs

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Cosmo and I will probably stick to the classroom for a while longer... I think he has tons of potential, but we were both completely new to agility when we started about 1 year ago - he could barley even focus in the beginning and unfortunately I am not the most naturally coordinated/graceful handler. I am very anxious to progress faster and try a competition soon, but I think I should be patient. It will probably be a better strategy for both me and Cosmo in the long run.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with your four dogs, debjen. 12 years of experience in agility- wow - that is great!

Rocketagility

When are you competition ready hmmm well I personally think the game of agility is supposed to be fun and not to serious in the beginning so I say get out and give it a try almost asap.

Ok I have a class I teach and I live in a small town with one NADAC trial per year I sure would like to see all my students enter that trail in Feb so that gives them about four months to get ready. It is NADAC so they have less equipment to worry about teaching there dogs but they still need to teach weaves and contact two very hard things for a dog to learn and be consistant with. They also need to know some basic handling skills and then need to teach there dogs some basic foundations and circle work and teach the dogs to run with the handler.

As for how they will do at the first trial as long as they have fun then they are successfull in my book last year all my students walked away with some Q's and big smiles where they really ready no but they had fun and to be honest they did better than some people that had trialed for years.

They also learned a lot kind of like being thrown into the fire but any mistake they made was remembered and didn't happen again.

Look if your dog will stay with you off leash and has a recall on the agility field and if he will do the equipment then sign up. Find some friends and ask them for support and ask them to help if you need it I am sure they will. Figure out what your strengths are and use them and figure out your weekness and find the top three that you think you can fix and work on those next class.