Hi Im New, And Want Know More About Agility

[jason]

Hi im jason and I am looking at getting a dog of my own and starting agility and obedience if possible.

would there be anyone experienced enough to tell me a bit more about it

[Vickie]

Hi Jason & welcome .What kind of information are you after? You will find lots of people on here very experienced in both agility & obedience who will be happy to help.

Where are you located? One idea would be to go along to a club and have a look at the training process & visit a trial or two so you know what the end result should be.

[Kavik]

Basically agility is directing your dog through a number of obstacles. Fast paced and lots of fun!

There are many different types of obstacles including jumps of varying styles, tunnels, ramps, seesaws, weaving poles and others. The course is numbered (apart from games) so being able to turn and direct your dog along the correct path is important. For safety reasons on some obstacles there is a contact zone - a coloured area down the bottom of the obtacle that has to be touched by the dog on the way up and down. So correct and safe negotiation of the obstacles is important too.

Many breeds compete in agility, the more popular ones are athletic and light to moderately built, energetic, eager for toys and/or food, biddable and enjoy working with their handler.

ETA: Here is a video. OK a bit of breed bias but I thought I'd get in before all the BC people

Edited March 25, 2009 by Kavik

[Nicole...]

Hi Jason, I am by no means an expert as this is only the first dog that I have done agility with, but I just wanted to say that anybody can do agility. I started obedience training with her as a puppy, and used to watch the agility going on thinking that you must have to be an expert to do it. But we decided to give it a go and it has been an amazing experience, definitely something that anybody can do with the right help and dedication! :rolleyes: You'll love it!!!!