Obedience And Agility

[angelsun]

Both can be done and work well together. One helps the other I have found and the dogs easily figure out what they are doing based mostly on your body posture and commands, and the lead up to the event. I also used different collars, and in one type of agility there were no collars allowed so the dogs easily sorted out what they were doing.

Most dogs can see clearly tunnels and frames from inside the car and know before they even step outside what they are going to do.

There are many things about agility that help traditional obedience and vice versa.

[Tay.]

I do both with my BC..but i wish i didn't start agility so soon!

Before we started agility she was so much better at obedience.. but there's no turning back now.. we are both addicted to agility!

But I still want to get at least her CCD title before pulling her out of Obedience.. probably even CD.

It's taken me a while to get back into Obedience because she enjoys agility so much more... but now she enjoys both!

[poocow]

Yeah I did obedience with Darcy but he wasn't that keen on it, with agility he just loves it. I certainly think a grounding in obedience does help at agility. That being said I won't be going back with Darcy to get his CCD.

[Tiggy]

So for agility do you teach the sit, drop and stand from both sides? I was thinking the both sides thing isn't going to be a problem because I walk the dogs on both sides but then when I tried to reverse all my signals for the right side I was so un-co , poor Banjo. I'm also wishing I never taught him the automatic sit in obedience, I'd rather he stands beside me when I stop. I'm going to practise my hand signals without him so I don't confuse the poor thing.

[Kavik]

For agility you need a start line stay (position of your choice - I use sit), drop stay for the table and recall. You can use any type of signal you like, hand or voice, does not need to be formal like obedience. There are many less 'rules' than obedience in what commands and signals you can use, though for a competitive performance it is a good idea to be consistent with your signals so you don't confuse your dog. There are a couple of different handling styles around to help you with the common signals used in agility for turning your dog and giving directions, but you won't get penalised for using any combination of signals.

While I don't do agility competitively with Diesel, I sometimes give him a run while I have the equipment out for the others, auto sit is not a problem, all the focus training I have done though creates issues with too much handler focus and he does not like to go ahead of me as much.

[xena98]

Hi Guys

I have been doing both obedience and agility with all of my dogs for about 20 years now (really showing my age) and have also done tracking at the same time for a number of years. It never confused the dogs at all and I had done a Jack Russell Terrier as well and he did all three sports as well. They all got there obedience champion titles except the jack. One of them I got told I would never get a ud title let alone OC title or back than it was called AOC but I got there. My two current girls have both OC and AG Ch titles. My youngster that I am doing now Gabby have been doing both obedience and agility (agility training since 6 months doing foundation training) and she has only been in a gamblers novice and won that class but wont start doing her agility competition till June when she is 22 months old she has just got her first leg in open with a score of 197.

I just found that the dogs enjoy doing both sports and are enthusiastic in doing both they are not confused at all.

I do lots of distance work cause I cant run very fast and have taught my girls directional cues left, right go on etc they work both left and right of me and ahead of me but they know when we are doing obedience its on the left.

I hope that has helped

Good luck

[magicmine]

I have done obedience and agility together and they loved it. The dogs know the difference between the 2 well my guys do. For obedience i use a check chain and for agility i use a flat collar. they know what collar is for what and have done this for ages.