Obedience And Agility Training Together

[Rileys mum]

Just after some advice.

My 9 month old GSP is currently in grade 3 obedience and is picking things up like a champ. We put alot of hard work in and it's really paying off.

My ultimate aim is to get into agility with him. My obedience club doesn't allow any agility training until dogs are at grade 5 obedience ( which is fine ) but I have found another club that is offering puppy agility which I'm thinking might be good.

My question is..... Will doing agility training be detrimental to my pups obedience training and vice versa. I just don't want to confuse my boy by doing different things but I feel he will benifit from learning the foundations of agility as a youngster too.

Any advice??

[bedazzledx2]

Depends on how you train. In my book a cue is a cue and most competition behaviour should be on cue. Dogs know context and will not be confused by different activities unless you train one to the exclusion of the other like we did in the bad old days and then try and change. For example dogs know that for obedience, heeling is done on the left. If you train agility then in that context they can work off your right (not heeling BTW ) and have no problem switching sides. My Aussie who was trained in both at the same time has no issues with this at all but my kelpie who was trained firstly in obedience and then was allowed to train agility was always uncertain about working on my right and would switch back after a couple of jumps...not helpful in agility! (this was back in the days when agility was obedience with bumps!!) A start line stay is as important as a stay for a recall, just a different context. Most progressive clubs have no problem with training both simultaneously.

Just after some advice.

My 9 month old GSP is currently in grade 3 obedience and is picking things up like a champ. We put alot of hard work in and it's really paying off.

My ultimate aim is to get into agility with him. My obedience club doesn't allow any agility training until dogs are at grade 5 obedience ( which is fine ) but I have found another club that is offering puppy agility which I'm thinking might be good.

My question is..... Will doing agility training be detrimental to my pups obedience training and vice versa. I just don't want to confuse my boy by doing different things but I feel he will benifit from learning the foundations of agility as a youngster too.

Any advice??

[PAX]

What she said.

[Aussienot]

I have done obedience and agility at the same time with my last three dogs, and have found that after starting agility, interest and performance in obedience actually improves. The issue of the dog wanting to be on the left is common, and was called "the obedience problem"" at the agility club.

[Tiggy]

My dog handles it fine, can't say the same about the handler . I love doing both though and it does get easier, I'm still a bit awkward with him on my right but I'm training for that, and also you need to train them to work ahead of you, not have their eyes glued on you which is great for obedience but not so much for agility.

[ness]

Both my girls train and compete in both agility and obedience. My older one has her CDX/ADM/JDM/ADO/JDO and is trialling in UD. The youngster is trialling in agility but will also train in obedience. The only issue I find is a lack of time to devote to both sports but then my expectations and standards are pretty high.

[angelsun]

We routinely teach the basics of agility along with obedience because I beleive that the two work nicely together, giving the dog great rewards (using agility) to combat potential boredom in obedience. Like any sport or activity, you teach dogs specific commands to specific actions. It's no different than people believing that you can't do obedience and conformation at the same time. Teach the dog to sit, teach the dog to stand...they know the difference if you have done your training correctly.

Agility needs some basics in obedience of course, so I do recommend doing that first, but once you have some control and the dog has learned to respond, it's easy enough to work in agility stuff. In class, it's normal for us to do the circle heeling work and then at the end of the class do some agility work. The dogs have been warmed up properly to focus and the agility is the reward at the end. They consistantly perform wonderfully with this method and the feedback from our students is that the dogs really enjoy coming to class and know that they must do the first part before they get to do the second part. I equate it to saying to a kid they must eat their dinner before they get their dessert.

[GoldenGirl85]

No reason why you couldnt do puppy agility, but I wouldnt be letting a 9mo GSP do any sort of jumping or weaving, my GR wont be starting that until she is at least 18 months old, you can start him doing contact work and the really basic stuff

[Rileys mum]

Thanks for all that help.

Don't worry. There is no way in hell I'll be doing any full blown agility training/jumping/weaves with him until he is at least 18 months (hence puppy agility classes only).

It's good to know Training both is a possibility