Introducing agility type stuff?

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Pix

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Loki will be a year old next month (I'm still trying to comprehend how this has happened so suddenly!) and I was thinking of getting some garden-type agility equipment for us to have a play around with. Obviously we won't be doing anything overly strenuous or high-impact, as I reckon he has a bit of maturing to do yet. But was thinking along the lines of tunnels (he adored the puppy tunnel at puppy classes!), weaves set quite far apart, a hoop pretty much on the ground for him to step through. That kind of thing.

Would it be OK to start doing something like this with him, or am I better off waiting til he's more 18 months due his size? I can't really see the harm but thought I'd ask all you experts for your opinion first :D

Reason I ask is that I have some vouchers (thank you big brother! :D) and noticed that Clix do things like tunnels that are lightweight enough for me to cart them down to somewhere I could set them up. And anything that helps to prevent Loki boredom must be good, especially as I can't really take him anywhere at the moment :(
 
Tunnels are great. I personally never used to jump my dogs until their hips were x rayed, just in case. I didn't start weaving too early either, as I believe it can put a bit of a strain on a longer dogs spine if you do it before they are fully mature. You can make a channel of weave poles rather than weaves far apart, just to get him used to going through the poles. If he does them with wider gaps he then has to learn to do it again through narrower gaps. Others may disagree but I used to make a low dog walk from planks laid on bricks, taught the dog to coordinate over the narrow plank without the risk of them jumping off, it is always best to teach the full height dog walk with someone walking the other side in case the dog tries to bail out.:p
 
i use bendy weave poles (Which can also be used as jumps by using some pegs....! lol)

bought smome jump poles from robinsons

i dont do much with mine as she goes lame jumping full height (ex comp dog).... but shes 100% sound doing half height and occasional.....
its a real shame as shes sooo fast and absolutely loves it.... but shes had 12 months off now so im bringing her back to agility slowly...

i will find a pic of our equipment if you want?
 
I am sure he will be fine with that.
Although editing to say, if you really do think he has more maturing to do, keep it simple.

We use electric fence poles for weaves (B doing weaves is hilarious as he is so looooong...his tail is still at the first one when his nose is on the fifth :p).
With the catwalk/seesaw, just get him used to walking along a plank placed flat on the ground, lots of encouragement and reward, food all over the place.
With tunnel, we use someone to hold the dog at one end and you encourage through at the other. Some dogs try to go over the top or jump :p so you can put food in the actual tunnel (although the dobe at our club always lies down inside the tunnel, waiting to get fed :p)
Try and get him listening to hand signals, left and right, walking through wings with a pole on the ground etc.

Keep everything fun, no compulsion at all, but bear in mind, sheps are smart buggers, if you get repeated refusals and run-outs, the dog will learn how to refuse and run out, if you see what I mean, even if the last exercise of the session is a tiny jump, as long as he goes over it and gets the association, going over it gets the good result!

It's good to have a look at the dimensions of things and make sure your equipment is standard size if you want to compete or go to classes so that he doesn't get thrown - hey, what's this? This is different to the stuff at home!

You probably won't stretch to an A-frame but if you're introducing it, introduce it flat, then raise it gradually to full height.
Same with the spread, use two pieces, then three, then four, then full length.

That's not to say homemade stuff isn't good.
When we're out and about I do use inanimate objects, to get him thinking, stiles, concrete pipes, duckboards over streams etc!

Only think we have not cracked is the see saw and you definitely see the bigger dogs at our club struggle, it must be hard when you're that big and the ground falls away beneath your feet! Again, we start it with someone holding the end and lowering it very slowly and food all over the place on the actual plank.
 
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Also, bit of a rant, two of the stupidest things I have ever seen were a clampet dragging a five month old pup up the ramp of a full height catwalk by a correction-type collar (she had never even seen the equipment before) and another one who was asked repeatedly not to jump his eight month old, the poor bugger was starting to refuse and smack off the hurdle because he was uncomfortable :( another two broken by the time they are five or six....

Sorry to be sexist but I've found there is something about men and agility equipment, they won't be told sometimes - whee, my dog can do jumpies, over and over and over again!!! :(
 
CaveCanem said:
Also, bit of a rant, two of the stupidest things I have ever seen were a clampet dragging a five month old pup up the ramp of a full height catwalk by a correction-type collar (she had never even seen the equipment before) and another one who was asked repeatedly not to jump his eight month old, the poor bugger was starting to refuse and smack off the hurdle because he was uncomfortable :( another two broken by the time they are five or six....

Sorry to be sexist but I've found there is something about men and agility equipment, they won't be told sometimes - whee, my dog can do jumpies, over and over and over again!!! :(
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:eek:

Maybe a cross-species jumping thing? Think how many riders you get that over jump their horses and ruin the poor buggers. Both physically and in attitude :(

Lots of great advice here so thanks very much everyone :D

Seems we'll be OK introducing tunnels, weaves in a channel, and planks on the ground. Oh and a pause box, he can't hurt himself with that!

I can just imagine Loki's massive WTF reaction if I tried to get him straight onto a seesaw. Or his charming blank stare if faced with a full height A-frame :D

I won't be doing any jumping around until he's had his hips x-rayed as MM suggests, but I'm assuming it's ok for him to walk over slightly elevated poles? (As in a few inches from the ground). I was told that this helps co-ordination, a little like walking a young horse over his first couple of trotting poles. Also, a tire jump set almost to the floor, since he would have to learn to walk through it before jumping through was even an option?

Equipment wise I won't be stretching to any fancy A-frames or see-saws (good god have you seen the prices! :eek:) but planks of wood for starting with can be found. Some of the cheaper garden/fun equipment is approximately the right size (I think!) and should last us a while for learning with. We won't be hammering the crap out of it daily, just having a play as something different for Loki to do :)
 
You'll be ok introduding jumps with poles on the ground, weaves in a wide channel and a tunnel. My pup is also 11 months old and will be starting agility in a couple of weeks, she's a BC though, so smaller and lighter, her mum is competing in the KC Novice Cup agility at Crufts this week with me and I've trained my other 3 dogs in agility too. I will be hip scoring my pup in the next few months.
 
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Oenoke said:
You'll be ok introduding jumps with poles on the ground, weaves in a wide channel and a tunnel. My pup is also 11 months old and will be starting agility in a couple of weeks, she's a BC though, so smaller and lighter, her mum is competing in the KC Novice Cup agility at Crufts this week with me and I've trained my other 3 dogs in agility too. I will be hip scoring my pup in the next few months.
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Good luck at Crufts! :)
 
Oenoke said:
You'll be ok introduding jumps with poles on the ground, weaves in a wide channel and a tunnel. My pup is also 11 months old and will be starting agility in a couple of weeks, she's a BC though, so smaller and lighter, her mum is competing in the KC Novice Cup agility at Crufts this week with me and I've trained my other 3 dogs in agility too. I will be hip scoring my pup in the next few months.
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Hi, I also have a BC who is 11 months old and was thinking of introducing some agility style games in the garden so reading this thread has been very interesting. This is my first BC and I got her at 6 months old from the Blue Cross. She is fabulous and very sound and has been very good to train alongside my Viszla. I notice that you said you will be hip scoring your pup in the next few months. As I am a complete novice at this sort of thing, is this standard practice to do this and why?:)
 
Because if the dog has hip dysplasia, asking them to do high-impact exercise (think of take offs and landings!) is not very fair, and this is why people with larger weight bearing breeds such as GSDs are advised to wait until 12-18 months (physical maturity) before asking them to jump in and out of the car, over obstacles, up and down stairs excessively.

While a lot of hip and elbow problems are hereditary, it can also be cause by damage/too much work too young, while the joints are still forming. Just because dogs **can** do loooads of running and jumping when they are babies, doesn't mean they **should**.

To be honest it isn't something I used to believe (and probably argued it on here :o) but I have sadly come across a lot of broken doggies since then who were asked too much of when they were just babes :(
 
even staffies can get displaysia. My lovely staffie boy was diagonised with elbow displaysia aged 2 1/2 which was heartbreaking. Wasn't likely to be genetic being a staff but vet put it down to overdoing it as a pup and poor feeding (he is a rescue). He is also a "proper" staffie, so right size and bang on weight so not carrying any extra. No sign of it now with his injections and feeding, but he will no longer go on the long walks with my dog walker, just wants to play with her in the garden and saves his energy for the yard - when basically he can stop when he wants to..
 
Luci07 said:
even staffies can get displaysia. My lovely staffie boy was diagonised with elbow displaysia aged 2 1/2 which was heartbreaking. Wasn't likely to be genetic being a staff but vet put it down to overdoing it as a pup and poor feeding (he is a rescue). He is also a "proper" staffie, so right size and bang on weight so not carrying any extra. No sign of it now with his injections and feeding, but he will no longer go on the long walks with my dog walker, just wants to play with her in the garden and saves his energy for the yard - when basically he can stop when he wants to..
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Poor fella, must have been awful to see him so uncomfortable when he's so young :( How old is he now?


Thought I'd give you all an update for the laughs :p

Stuck a hurdle in the ground today with the pole set about 2" from the ground, so that he could try to organise his legs over it and we could work on directions/hand signals etc.

Hand signals, very good. Coordination of legs, not very good :p He did start to get the idea towards the end and began to make a slight effort to not just walk THROUGH the pole.

Unfortunately this success lead me to forget the enthusiastic GROUP HUG Loki likes to do whenever he realises he's just been really clever, and I'm really pleased with him.

Result? Nearly 40kg of puppy-brained GSD spinning about in the utter ecstacy of being a good dog, followed by GROUP HUG and a high 5 to the face.

We did end on a really good note though :D
 
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