# What Age To Start Agility



## joey1967 (Aug 26, 2015)

What is the age where dogs start agility. I forgot to ask the trainer last night in class? I have a 12 wk old SPOO who is in a puppy kindergarten and the trainer last night who has Standards says she is amazing for a 12 week old, I got her to do a recall playing heavily with a pup, which she said rarely ever happens. (ok so I'm bragging a bit LOLOLOL) I have her starting obedience at 14 weeks and have to get permission from the trainer because she wants all dogs 16 weeks but I think she could do it unless there is a developmental milestone in there she needs. I"m going to do both as much as they'll allow me over the winter she really seems to enjoy it and acts like a different dog all together.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Agility is high impact, so it would be sensible to wait until at least 12 months for full jumping, etc, and possibly longer. Many groups do Puppy Agility classes, which teach many of the skills but avoid the high impact work and the sharp twists of weaving, etc, so it might be worth looking around for one of those.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Your obedience will be part of your foundations for agility. You can also do specific exercises for hind end awareness with young puppies, but you don't do full equipment such as full height jumps until much later. I take Javelin to most of my agility private lessons. We have worked on tunnels, wait on the table with the table low, helping him read crosses and do wraps. We also let him run through jumps with poles on the ground or set at 4 or 8 inches. We have not done see saw, dog walk or A frame. I do let him play near my weave poles and encourage him to follow me through them with them open wide. They are channel weaves so he doesn't wiggle to get through them at all. Javelin is 23 weeks old.


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## joey1967 (Aug 26, 2015)

I'll ask about this and see if she can take partial lessons, she is so good with training but still lacks the ability to 'hold it' like sit, she can sit but needs to "hold it' and right now her concentration is scattered I think because she is still young, so working on her obedience throughout the winter might be the way to go and then get her in to agility in spring when she has matured a bit..does that sound more reasonable? She is 13 weeks today and we just learned stairs LOL..she is great on recall, but her sits/down lack the focus to stay in this positions for any length of time.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I might go with the obedience over the winter, start agility in the spring plan. You need good impulse control for agility as much as you do for obedience. At 23 weeks old, Javelin is still a short attention span kind of guy when it comes to stays. There are too many fun things happening over there (basically anywhere else) to want to stay on a sit. The main reason he has done what he has in agility is that I was bringing him along to teach him to wait quietly in an expen/crate situation while watching me do stuff with Lily and to give Lily and Peeves training breaks when the weather was still too hot to keep them running for extended periods.


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## joey1967 (Aug 26, 2015)

I just got the ok to do 2 obedience classes and one agility so we will busy over the winter months, I'm going to try and cram as much in as possible. The agility is novice so no high ramps for her just baby ramps. Can't wait.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Since it will be cold outside I'm glad you have good indoor opportunities to enjoy some constructive bonding activities with your girlie.


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