Agility and other activity for young dogs

1577 Views 7 Replies 7 Participants Last post by jak, Sep 30, 2009

roxy25

Discussion Starter · Sep 29, 2009

I wanted to know when is a good time to start doing agility and other activities that involve jumping on standard poodles ? I heard a lot of people wait on larger breeds so the hips will not get messed up.

Enzo will be 12 months Oct 4th.

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KPoos

· #2 · Sep 29, 2009

roxy25 said:
I wanted to know when is a good time to start doing agility and other activities that involve jumping on standard poodles ? I heard a lot of people wait on larger breeds so the hips will not get messed up.

Enzo will be 12 months Oct 4th.

Yeah I hear to wait until their hips have been tested. They usually test at what 2 years?

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roxy25

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 29, 2009

KPoos said:
Yeah I hear to wait until their hips have been tested. They usually test at what 2 years?

I hope its not 2 years

hwell:

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Cdnjennga

· #4 · Sep 29, 2009

You could definitely start training once he's 1 year. Our local agility class lets dogs enter at 7 months, which is a little young, but there's a lot more to agility then jumping. You can just get Enzo jumping over very low jumps if you're worried about his hips and focus more on the contact articles, weave poles, etc. You might want to hold off on competing until he's 2, but honestly, it takes a while to get both dog and handler up to snuff anyway so he most likely wouldn't be ready until then anyway.

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Bella's Momma

· #5 · Sep 29, 2009

Bella's puppy class was at our local agility center and they have a class for puppies that doesn't involved the jumping.

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Locket

· #6 · Sep 29, 2009

The standard age for large breed dogs to start strenuous exercise is usually 18 months. You can start conditioning him for agility by having solid sit, down, stay/wait, slowly, etc. commands, and build up his cardio.

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highhorse

· #7 · Sep 29, 2009

Here in England you can't compete until the dogs are 18 months. Unaffiliated competitions start at about 15 months but the jumps are very little in these activities. There are lots of things you can do at home to prepare for agility, such as making sure your recall is absolutely perfect every time, getting them to walk along a plank on the ground, in preparation for the see saw, running through make shift jump wings with just a little pole on the ground, getting them used to being around other dogs, without the necessity to play. I used a kids play tunnel for the girls before we went to agility and also hung curtains under tables and called them through (preparation for a collapsed tunnel). You yourself could go to some competitions and watch the handlers walk the courses and prepare the best possible route for their dogs. I've even known people to go to a competition that they hadn't entered and walk the course. I started as a novice handler with a novice dog and it takes a while to actually get your body language right and your commands at the right time. So again, when you are out on walks, you can practice wait, come and turning the dog with your body. Good luck. Agility is fabulous fun.

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jak

· #8 · Sep 30, 2009

I think at our club, you can start training for agility around 9 -12 months. You can't start to compete until the dog is 18 months though. Our club as a general rule when training, says do not make your dog jump anything higher than its elbow until it is at competing age.

With agility, you could start training whenever, all you have to do is take all the bars of the jumps, put the tyre down low so they don't have to jump high at all. Once you get your handling act together, all it is really is getting the dog used to the equipment etc, and listening and following your commands.

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