Agility

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MizElz

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Our five year old Lab, Dinnie, is always bursting with energy, and I'd love to start taking her to do agility. Is five considered to be too old to start them off, both in the physical and mental sense? She's a very bright girl, but I'm worried she wont get the hang of it! I dont really know much about agility; my aunt runs obedience and puppy classes, and I used to take her GSDs round the agility course when she was teaching, but I was very, very young then. I'm thinking it would be a great way for both Dinnie and I to keep fit now!

Any advice or opinions welcome
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I wanted to do agility with our lab coz he loves going round the jumps at the yard
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Sadly the only place I could find round us that wasn't stupidly snobby was full
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When I first started doing agility it was with an older dog. As long as she is sound, and in good condition I am sure she would love it. You will ideally need basic obedience so you have some control when you start training for agility. Have a look at www.agilitynet.com, they have a fairly comprehensive list of agility clubs around the country.
 
On on week 5/6 with Dante and he loves it - doing very well, they say we are ready for the next level
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Its great fun give it a go, you never know.
 
Deffo give it a go. My sheltie x has been invited to join a couple of agilty groups when I have taken her over a course she loves it and has a real natural flair for it but I am not sure if she is too old to start ( 11 years ) she doesn't really enjoy a big show enviroment and unlike my GSD who is trained within an inch of her life the little sheltie isn't and although she will whizz round a course she thinks that any type of human command is beneath her. ( unless of course it suits her )
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Oooooh thankies everyone - I might give it a go!!! Dinnie is in great shape - she's a little muscly power house, no Lab fat at all! And I will say she is wonderfully obedient - we bred her ourselves, and she was already sitting, staying, going down and playing 'dead' by the age of 12 weeks! I think she'll be fine....I just wanted to check, as I know you cant do agility with young pups - I didnt know if the same applied to older doggies!

Thanks everyone!
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They do veteran classes at competition any way, with smaller jumps and I *think* they leave the weaves out. I think so long as your dog is fit and healthy, eps. fit, then go for it.
 
go for it, i started my collie x when she was a year, then stopped and now shes 4 iv started again and shes soooo much better at it because she seems to think alot more about what shes doing.

good luck!
 
Just to add to my OP....

I have spoken to the 'leader' of our local agility group, and she was only too happy for me to take Dinnie to the session tomorrow. However, I was a little concerned that she said she herself will be bringing along her own puppy for the agility class - although she said she wont do the full hour with him, he is still only five months old! Now I thought this goes against every principle in the book - I've always been told that you should not jump or ask a dog to do agility until they're at least 18 months old. Dinnie was two before I even let her come riding with me! So I'm not sure that this club would be best, if that is the way the leader trains her own dog! Am I being OTT?
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I have not done agility for quite a while but when I was competing the rules changed from a minimum age of 12 months to 18 months to compete. People tended to start jumping the lighter breeds around 10 months, I would never jump my GSDs until they were 12 months and had been hip scored. They used to do tunnels from just 3 or 4 months old, and walk over a low dog walk from about 6 months but nothing else. It could be this is all your trainer is planning to do with her pup, but if she is doing jumps with a 5 month old I agree with you it is far too soon and maybe she is not the right trainer for you. Why don't you just go along and have a look and then decide.
 
Thanks for the reply - I didnt think I was being over the top! It turns out that the woman who runs the session is actually an old aquaintance of my aunt, and I have since heard some less than favourable things about her! My aunt (who owns the GSD pup) runs her own dog training classes and used to be one of the trainers at an agility club near us, when I was very young. Apparently this woman who I have been talking to was the culprit behind the closure of that club, and it would appear that the agility equipment she is using all mysteriously *vanished* from my aunt's old club, twelve or so years ago! So I'm really not sure I want to get involved now....think I might have to give that club a miss
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And I thought horsey people were complex and underhand!
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In my experience dog folks are ten times worse than horsey ones! I have recently started reading the GSD Breed Council magazine again, and looking at breed forum, you would not believe the bitching that goes on there. Makes HHO look all lovely and fluffy
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Did your aunt compete in agility with a GSD, I used to go to most of the shows about 15 years ago, probably knew most of the people working GSDs, we tended to stick together
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Dont think she competed much - she may have done a bit with Elsa, her old girl who was an absolute genius on the weave, but she's always been more into teaching than competing herself!

Anyway, this was Roma yesterday:

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i have competed in agility for 7 years.
five years old isnt too old at all, dogs are clever and can pick it up with patience. But it takes alot of training so be prepared! lol
Dogs can compete in agility from 18months and a labrador would start competing in veteran classes at about 7 or 8 years old, but even then they can have fun at it.
I've started one of my dogs off as a 4 year old as she was a rescue. Give it a go, its great fun!
Nickie
 
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