Agility training
I was wondering how many folks on the forum do agility with their sheepies and what experiences you've had. This seems so fun for both me and Bella, I am so excited. Any advise on what kind of equipment to have at home for practice? Or any other advice, for that matter. Oops, forgot to log in again....Bellalover, Mom of Bella and JoJo...Mary |
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Good for you! Agility is so much fun! Boni is still young but I did do agility with Lumpi. Before we started it I was hoping he will like it, because I really wanted to do agility. Well, he loved it! 
I will try it with Boni too because it's just a lot of fun for both of you. Also, it's a great way of bond with her. So, how did she do with the wave polls then? We did agility from the very beginning and didn't do the wave poll for about 2 months. After 3 months we started to get confident with the Seesaw but did everything in very little step. I would love to see some agility pictures, as I've never seen a sheepie do agility!
Have fun and keep us updated! |
| Hi, Mary.
Check the Pictures section for links of OES doing agility, pictures and videos, from the recent OESCA agility trial in Michigan. Belle's Mom - Kristine |
| How old does a puppy have to be to start, just curious |
| We are going to train for agility. Pet edge has some agility equipment in their catalog...their prices are usually pretty good. |
| Sounds like your sheepie will be great at agility! Congratulations! Did you say your dog was 15 months? I had the same question about what age to start. My dog is in regular obedience and our trainer suggested we wait until he's older to start agility so not to stress his growing bones. But he only just turned 10 months...
I can see how sheepies would do well with agility. They are herding breed and like to run and play and move like a freight train! |
You can start basic agility stuff (a lot of it being basic obedience  ) fairly young as long as it's age appropriate but you don't jump them at full height, put them on full height contact equipment (or at least not much) or having them weaving (you can teach some foundation work with open channels or weavomatics) until their growth plates have closed. Since they are a large breed, 14-18 mos is probably a good GUESS. To be sure, you'd need to x-ray. I just wait till 18 mos and even then take it slowly, progressively asking more and plan for them to be at full height by 24 mos. Better safe than sorry. I do a lot of foundation work before then and a lot of play/interactive stuff with agility in mind long-term even with young puppies. Oh, and you can start getting them on all kinds of fun surfaces, walking them through ladders on the ground (teaches them rear-end awareness) and loads of other prep work - socializing them is prep work, they are going to have to work in sometimes very distracting environments! A good recall and a stay, also very important. Sit, down. There is a lot you can teach at any age that isn't stressful for the dog if you keep it short and fun.
It's kind of hard to describe in a post - talk to some local agility trainers/handlers and get a feel for what they do, perhaps. A lot of general puppy/beginning obedience classes include some basic agility fun things as well. Kristine |
| Age appropriate agility training can start when they are born - One of mine came to me at 9 weeks running through tunnels and well aware of where her feet were at all times. At two she is doing very well at agility (everything seems to have clicked int he last month) but we still only participate for fun. |
kerry wrote: Age appropriate agility training can start when they are born - One of mine came to me at 9 weeks running through tunnels and well aware of where her feet were at all times. At two she is doing very well at agility (everything seems to have clicked int he last month) but we still only participate for fun.
Well, not quite when they are born, but, yes - I start mine as soon as they are up on their feet. 
I know a sheltie breeder who puts minaturized agility equipment in the whelping box. I'm not THAT dedicated
Kristine |
| great info on the agility age. My boy is just ten months and has been in ergular obedience since 12 weeks. Our teacher has introduced the tunnel he got stuck in it the first time throu and ran backwards to get out! Now he loves it. Wr have also done the tiny jum poles and a little bit of weaving. the teacher also introduced a very low table which they go up on. She's pretty good at introducing things.
Are you saying you should get an x-ray before starting agility? And you do that at 24 months? Thanks, Diane |
| There are two different reasons to x-ray.
(1) to make sure growth plates have closed (maybe when they're about 14-18 mos old). If you do a lot of heavy-duty, demanding training with a dog whose growth plates have not closed, you risk doing damage and disrupting the dog's development in some bound to be unfortunate way. If you're not in a hurry to get your dog to competition height, that's not necessary. Just don't push them at a young age (in fact, you are on exactly the right track). (2) to make sure the dogs hips and elbows are good. You are going to be asking the dog to do very physical things and you owe it to the dog to make sure s/he's up to it. Since I OFA my dogs anyway, and don't push to get them into the ring, I just wait until they are older than 24 mos (minimum age for a OFA rating), go to my vet and say: I want to do OFA hips and elbows, she takes the radiographs and we submit them to OFA, they send me some nice certificates that tell me that my dog's hips and elbows passed. The reason for anyone who does performance (agility, obedience, herding etc) in the US to submit them to OFA even if you never plan to breed (and apart from the fact that you are doing a - serious - breeder a favor by giving him or her that much more info on what they are producing) is that submitting them there is much cheaper than submitting them to some private orthopedic specialist for an evaluation. Little known "secret" - well, it's not a secret, really. And you may be helping the breed in the process. What a bargain!
It's definitely the way to go. Kristine |
Thanks for all the info Kristine. I worry about my boy and him hurting his legs. He jumps in and out of the car and of course up and down on the bed and couch. I have ramps for him but he prefers to jump  I will probably feel better once he's old enough to get x-rayed. But if the x-rays are okay at say 24 months, does that mean they will stay okay? In other words, once cleared, is the concern for development of the disease gone? If it doesn't show up by 24 months, you're clear forever? Hope my question makes sense!
Diane |
| Well, there's really no need to wrap him in cotton EITHER Puppies his age are going to rough house and jump around and things like that and that's actually healthy in my opinion. They condition themselves and learn a lot about their bodies that way, and they do it of their volition and at their own pace. When I first started taking Sybil to class the jump bars were basically on the ground (she was maybe six months). And yet she'd periodically jump over the ring gating (24"?) to say hi to her Uncle Luca. That didn't bother me (well, the disobedience did, not the physical jumping ) It's a far cry from an occasional leap to steadily jumping a young dog at height - that kind of thing.
I was jumping Mad at full height by age two, so before she was x-rayed (I got around to it about six months later). She never gave me cause for concern, I just played it safe on the open growth plate issue and then confirmed my gut instinct that she was physically fine. If ever in doubt, x-ray. So it's not that (a) must wait till two years old to x-ray and (b) can't do anything physical before that age. Is two the cut-off for dysplasia? That's a good question. A very physically active dog is probably not going to have the same hips at age 8 as he had at age 2, but it's the same for humans. There is such a thing as normal wear and tear. By two you should be able to see the laxity that will set them up for problems down the line. Most, if not all, breeders go by that. They certainly don't x-ray every two years thereafter to see if hips still come back excellent (like you would redo eyes, for instance). So I guess I would have to say that you can have good to excellent hips at age two and expect those hips to hold up well, but not necessarily be as perfect eight years later. Does that make sense? I can ask my vet/look it up if you'd like, but it's not anything I lose sleep over the way I do making sure not to pound the dickens out of a young dog. FWIW Kristine |
Yes, you make sense  After I posted the question, I asked my trainer the same thing about the jumpint on and off the couch, etc. She said exactly what you did about voluntary jumping and beinf trained to jump, etc. And of course, I do understand that a dog at 8 or 9 years old, they may not be as limber as they were at 2...Like humans! And unfortunately I know that first hand I certainly am not as limber and it takes me a bit longer to get up than it did 20 years ago
You know, dogs and humas are not that far apart after all, are they! |
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