Ages For Agility

[JulesP]

At what age can you start doing the different agility stuff i.e. weaving, jumping etc. ?

Ta

[Sayreovi]

By club rules or personal opinion?

Club rules, have to be at least 12 months old (think this is for every where)

Personally I wouldnt start until they are 1 1/2 - 2 years old, so they are physically and mentally mature. Talking about medium sized dogs, smaller dogs I would start earlier and larger dogs later but its just a matter of opinion.

I hate seeing dogs that have just turned 12 months entered in an agility trial, the dog has been training while its still a pup

Edited November 28, 2008 by tollersowned

[DeltaCharlie]

I think it ultimately depends on the dog and how fast they physically mature.

I have always been told that a good rule of thumb is jumps no higher than the wrist until 9months and then no higher than the elbow until 12months.

Delta started agility at about 7months but it was only tunnels, planks of wood, running over lowered contact equipment (no stopping), wobble boards, etc. Her jumps were just the bars on the ground.

At 12months I started allowing her to jump 200mm, moved it to 400mm at about 14months and didn't allow full height jumps until about 16-17 months.

Delta matured rather quickly though, she is only a small dog and hasn't really physically changed since about 12months. Dogs that mature slower than that will obviously need to wait longer.

I wouldn't allow medium/large dogs to start weaving until they had finished growing. I started weaving with Delta at about 14months (or possibly older). Small dogs are a little different as they dont really bend their spines in the weaves, they kinda jump back and forth.

[The Spotted Devil]

Agree with TO - particularly with a dog from late maturing lines (both physically AND mentally ). I have only just started training agility with Zig (he's just turned 2) and it's a real joy to work with a dog that is confident, focussed and bursting with enthusiasm. His chiro told me that his lack of physical maturity was preventing his back muscles holding his spine in place - this has really changed of late and she is finding much less stiffness in the region. I don't think weaving poles or jumping would have helped that so I stuck with creative clicker training and obedience work

[J...]

I hate seeing dogs that have just turned 12 months entered in an agility trial, the dog has been training while its still a pup

The only way you could enter a 12 month old dog in an agility trial in Vic is if the owners have associate registered them and lied about their age when they were registered with VicDog. They are not able to be entered in an agility trial until they are 18 months old.

[Sayreovi]

I hate seeing dogs that have just turned 12 months entered in an agility trial, the dog has been training while its still a pup

The only way you could enter a 12 month old dog in an agility trial in Vic is if the owners have associate registered them and lied about their age when they were registered with VicDog. They are not able to be entered in an agility trial until they are 18 months old.

Yes the rules say that, but they either found a way around it or like you said lied about its age.

Same in flyball, detest seeing such young dogs doing full runs and competing, though i think they can compete at 12 months.

[JulesP]

Poppy is 13 months and is a little border collie (at the moment she is in the 400 height range). Croydon will let you do certain things at 12 months but you have to pass your obedience stuff first which takes a while and the dog is usually older anyway.

[kobblyness]

I agree with waiting until they are mentally mature.

I rushed this with my youngest. We reached level 3 obedience at 9months, that was the marker I had set for us to start basic agility(no jumps). ETA we started at close to 11 mths

I see ability in my dog. What I didn't factor in was the occasional in the face rush at my dog who was at a young age which has created some fear (for both of us, more me which is worse )

For me I now know that's where mental maturity comes into play. He loves tunnels, jumps, weaves and beams. But until I can handle the odd dog in his face for now for we will keep up with the class obedience and homemade agilty and when we are both ready we will start back.

Edited November 28, 2008 by kobblyness

[WalandLibby]

Sylvia Trkman is well known, and apparently sometimes criticised, for holding the view that short training sessions are fine for young dogs. And she certainly has sound, fast dogs who love agility and Lo has had a long and successful career.

Can't give a more specific link to her articles than this... http://www.silvia.trkman.net/ Click on 'our training' and then the articles list at the bottom of the page (Agility is good for dogs, pts 1 and 2).

I don't claim to be an expert on this at all, but I can't imagine that ppl are told to stop their children jumping etc until they are fully developed. So I'm unsure why it's necessary for young dogs with normal, athletic build.

Edited November 28, 2008 by WalandLibby

[Leema]

Waland - I was going to post what you have. Worth a look.

[Sayreovi]

Probably worded my post wrong, i have no problem people teaching basic ground work type of stuff, its when dogs are doing proper weaves, full height jumps and full height contacts when they are so young that i disagree with.

Though do find it silly comparing young pups to children.......didnt realise the human population was plagued with hip problems?

[Kavik]

There is a heap of foundation work you can do while they are young - shadow handling, wobble board, tunnels, jump bars on ground with uprights, contact training on a board on the ground, through a channel as prelude to weaving, distance commands, start line stays and releases etc. Like many others said though you wouldn't start more serious stuff til 12 months or so.

Edited November 28, 2008 by Kavik

[The Spotted Devil]

Our dogs of today are built differently to the tough dogs of old - survival of the fittest, eh! Plus, our dogs are living much longer too and I don't want my old dog plagued with arthritis. If you want to compare dogs and children, I'd be more likely to compare young kids that do high level gymnastics and young dogs doing full height agility Kavik is right - there is so much foundation work you can do without going near a jump or a weaver.

[JulesP]

I am not talking about dogs under 12 months though.

Dog is 13 months. At what age from now can I start doing weaves etc.

I didn't do any agility with Brock until he was 18 months.

Just want to know if I can teach weaves over Xmas!

[DeltaCharlie]

Im assuming the dog is a BC? Id say go for it

If its a great dane or a mastiff or something then hold off...

[kelpiechick]

Sylvia Trkman is well known, and apparently sometimes criticised, for holding the view that short training sessions are fine for young dogs. And she certainly has sound, fast dogs who love agility and Lo has had a long and successful career.

Can't give a more specific link to her articles than this... http://www.silvia.trkman.net/ Click on 'our training' and then the articles list at the bottom of the page (Agility is good for dogs, pts 1 and 2).

I don't claim to be an expert on this at all, but I can't imagine that ppl are told to stop their children jumping etc until they are fully developed. So I'm unsure why it's necessary for young dogs with normal, athletic build.

And I don't stop my dogs running around and jumping things when they are puppies either because I can't - but I'm certainly not talking about deliberately setting up jumps and putting them over them.

By 12 months old my dogs have probably jumped off my deck without using the stairs, jumped over low lying plants in the yard chasing each other - one also jumped over a low fence. None of these things I was happy about, but you can't wrap them up in cotton wool and these things happen....... but they definitely didn't do any formal jump training until 12 months old - and not at full height then. I actually read an article explaining the difference between the 2 (running and jumping free in play and formal jumping) which was great but do you think I can find it??????

Not a fan of Silvia Trkman in any way BTW. Yes, her dogs are awesome and very fast but this seems to blind people to her manic, frantic style of handling. Doesn't do anything for me. Watch her on Youtube and then watch Susan Garrett- miles of difference in both handling and training styles and I know which one I'd prefer to emulate! Not really a fan of the European style of handling in general - speed seems to be given preference over anything including dog's safety. Love fast but not manic. I would probably be taking my advice from top US, Canadian or English handlers rather than European, but that's just my opinion.

We have been taking dogs from 6 months of age at Agility Dog Club Vic. but that is going to change next year and they will need to be 12 months to join Foundation class. Not that they were doing anything in that class that was physically damaging but mentally we were finding that most just weren't ready to be in a group agility class situation. So from now on, the only dogs allowed to join from 6 months will be dogs with an experienced agility handler who has trained a dog to a particular level before. And most of them will only put their young dogs in for a few minutes at a time anyway to work on foundation equipment with some distractions.

And there is so much foundation training you can do with young dogs - I'm a huge fan of foundation and getting it right first.

Working on your body language away from equipment is way more important than putting young dogs over jumps.

The Chris Zink book 'Coaching the Canine Athlete' has good guidelines for the 'generally best age' to begin equipment, and she has weave poles listed as between 12 and 14 months if that's any help.

[Kavik]

Just watched videos - kelpiechick you are right - very different handling styles! I need to really work on my handling, I am a bit too frantic/erratic at the moment

[kelpiechick]

Just watched videos - kelpiechick you are right - very different handling styles! I need to really work on my handling, I am a bit too frantic/erratic at the moment

And I'm sure a lot of people love Silvia Trkman and fair enough with the results she gets - but to me the European handling style that a lot of people like is nothing but yelling, cheerleading, arm flapping and lots of bending over.

And don't we all need to work on our handling - just because I wish to emulate SG unfortunately doesn't mean I look like her

[Sayreovi]

I am not talking about dogs under 12 months though.

Dog is 13 months. At what age from now can I start doing weaves etc.

I didn't do any agility with Brock until he was 18 months.

Just want to know if I can teach weaves over Xmas!

I don't see why you can't start foundation weaving now, depending on the method and how well you want your dog to weave, it will be months before the dog is actually doing proper weaves anyway.

Didn't like Silvia's training either, watched several of her videos and don't know how the dog goes so well, her handling is erratic and i was confused by what she wanted!! Did love her running contacts though.

[JulesP]

I have the SG One Jump DVD to play with over Xmas too. It was actually this that inspired me to start with Poppy!! I tried with Brock and he was ummm hopeless so I had a go with Poppy and she was a little star.