# Was this really and truly an agility trial or what?



## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

Maybe it was a demo or something? Or just a "let your dog try the equipment" thing? I know for a few years at the big dog show series here in Houston they had a "My Dog Can Do That" set-up with a few weave poles, a short tunnel, a very low dog walk, etc., and someone who would guide members of Joe Q. with their dogs through the equipment, full of encouragement and treats. It was under close supervision and more to get the handler interested in actually taking classes. 

Maybe what you saw was a different, more casual organization? In AKC Agility, the classes are called Masters/Excellent, Open, and Novice. You might see some unfocused behavior like that in Novice, maybe in Open, but the majority of competitors are in Excellent/Masters and their dogs are pretty much under control by that time. But there are other Agility organizations out there.

Maybe everyone was just having a bad day! :act-up:


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Any of Quossums's ideas about what was going on could be true. And if it was a demo or fun run kind of a thing that could account for the crazies. I do think that unfortunately sometimes agility competitors don't think they need obedience training (when they really do). One of my friends is starting an obedience foundations for agility workshop today at our club.


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## Moni (May 8, 2018)

"obedience foundations for agility workshop " that sounds awesome! I have seen agility trials like that, when it was a bit of a free for all. Especially if there a lot of beginners who are in it. I always feel bad for the handlers because I think agility is one of the things that look easy when done well and is incredibly hard to do. I once had an opportunity to run a fully trained awesome agility dog on a course and boy was that a humbling experience! That poor dog was so frustrated with me! Give me the signals! Where do I go? Lol it was pretty bad! And Dobies are my secret love! I used to show one as a junior handler decades ago in Europe - he was the best dog! But I am no Dobie mom - way too much of a softie and my DH unfortunately does not like them....could never convince him to even consider one.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

The obedience for agility workshop is starting today and I am planning to go to my club to work outside the ring to deal with distractability issues. I am interested to have the chance to be a fly on the wall for it. My friend who is offering it breeds CKCS and shows in conformation, obedience, rally and agility all to top level titles (Mach's, GCh, UD and RM). I think she has some great ideas for the folks who will be attending.


I think Dobes are usually cupcakes and rather a lot like spoos in many personality traits.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

You hit the nail on the head. Dobes are goof ball cupcakes. haha. You have to be a softie because they're very sensitive...like poodles. They worship their owners and live to work. They just need a lot of involvement and a ton of socialization and training. (like any dog but more of it)

This was sponsored by a local AKC Kennel Club and it was a real agility and obedience and rally. (I just looked it up...didn't see the rally) They called this a show, not a trial. Is there a difference?

Like I said, there were a few who did quite well...were focused, but the majority looked like they needed some more obedience practice under their belt first. I mean, the owners called them to come when they were running a muck and the dogs paid no attention. lol.

That's a good idea Catherine...to work on distractions. That's something these dogs apparently completely lacked in their training. There were a lot of distractions...being outside is even worse. So I'd give a little leeway there but this was really bad. lol.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I’m guessing you were watching the novice dogs. They may have had good training but the stress of showing plus the distraction of running on grass could account for some wonky behavior. 

If those dogs normally train indoors and take classes inside buildings, competition outside on grass is very difficult for a novice team. 

My club participates annually in a local dog fair. We bring fencing and agility equipment so we can run demos and allow the general public to run their dogs on some basic equipment. It’s good advertising for our club. Where I live everyone trials indoors- there are no competitions outdoors. During the demo even the top competitors with beautifully trained dogs had funny things happen during a run. 

This same club has incorporated obedience, back end awareness and conditioning into the early obedience classes with assigned homework to focus on things like a solid stay at the start line, walking figure 8 with the dog on the right and left to help teach the dog to work on both sides, practicing two feet on and two feet off, getting into boxes, cavalettis etc. Unlike many organizations, in ours the dogs are Introduced very slowly to the apparatuses. There are three levels of introduction before they get to handling classes with people repeating most levels at least once before they meet the criteria to move on. They then go through several sessions of handling classes before they are ready for competition handling classes. Once you hit competition handling classes you are ready to go to a competition. Whether people do the homework or not is up to them; but they are taught a good foundation. 

I’ve seen posts here on PF of people taking agility classes where they are introduced to all the apparatuses quickly without this preparation.


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## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

Trainers for our club (Sandia Dog Obedience Club) sometimes refuse to allow people to advance in agility classes (or even refuse to let someone continue in a class) if a dog is uncontrollable on the field. Here is our sequence of classes. Notice that obedience is a prerequisite for even the preparatory agility class!

The sequence of classes is: 
*Agility - Agility Prep: *Prerequisite is 8-week basic obedience class above puppy level; and dog must have appropriate shots. Dogs should be at least 12 months old.
*Agility - Beginning I and II Agility: *Prerequisite is 8-week agility prep class and the recommendation of the head trainer (signed form for class placement); and dog must have appropriate shots.
*Agility - Intermediate I and II Agility: *Prerequisite is at least 16 weeks beginning agility and the recommendation of the head trainer (signed form for class placement); and dog must have appropriate shots.
*Agility - Competition (Advanced I and II) Agility: *Class participation is on an “Invitation Only” level.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

Skylar...no kidding about the outdoors. When I was showing Matisse, we had never done an outdoor show. And the scents on the ground were so enticing. I remember he wanted to sniff while going around the ring. I had to keep picking his head up for him. But over all, he still did quite well. I think he got a best of breed and a few other things that day. Btw...that was in this town before I knew I was going to live here. lol. But yeah...outdoors needs extra practice.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I am back from training. I only took the briefest peak at what the obedience for agility people were doing, but it looked and sounded really good. When I looked in to let my friend who ran the class that I was there she was having people work on impulse control by having them set their dogs up in front of a jump, telling them to wait/stay before tossing a toy. The dogs had to wait until released to take the jump and get the toy. The rest of what they did was a blur in the background since I stayed out in our lobby room and worked on clean dumbbell pick ups then using the dumbbell to motivate getting the glove (work in progress), take hold with the glove and with utility articles. I then did the little warm up exercise for around the clock for utility articles to work on having no rolling or chewing the articles (made good progress there). When the agility prep class ended I took Javelin in to join the novice class. Working around distractions is a top topic for me this summer with him. He did pretty well today with dogs he had never seen before, a couple of them being very green dogs and one green dog with a green handler. He did a lot better this week than he did in our Thursday class where the picture changed on him since one dog was missing. It is truly astounding how bad dogs are at generalizing things.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

Wow, I must be tired and not reading clearly. Why am I reading about dobermans in a Poodle forum? I must admit I am tired and didn't continue reading very far. Off to bed....


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