# How can you tell if your dog could do agility?



## Carrie-e (Oct 23, 2012)

I am interested in the agility side of things,but how can you tell if your dog is suitable. Billy is quite energetic,but easily distracted at the moment. He is nearly 1,so think he would be too young anyway to start yet. Would really want to do it for fun rather than take it too seriously.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I think the only way of knowing whether you will both enjoy it is to try it. I would recommend going to the best class you can find, though, even if you only intend to do it for fun. Some "fun" classes I've been to have not been very strong on safety, and can actually teach bad habits that are very difficult to correct later. Plus one really unpleasant experience can put a dog off for a very long time!

Many Agility trainers run pre-agility puppy classes, teaching some of the skills but without the high impact stuff that is bad for joints that are still developing. Might be worth looking for one near you - a good way of testing the water, and very good, fun training for bouncy adolescents!


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

I would think that if he's "quite energetic," he's a good candidate for Agility!  The self-control is all part of the training process. A year is definitely not too young; most training centers will encourage you to start even younger than that, and the classes will be tailored so that the youngsters don't jump anywhere near full height. At our center, the beginner class is all on-leash (except for brief, highly controlled moments) and broken into "big dogs" and "small dogs and puppies." It was funny: in my beginners class, there happened to be no other young puppies, so since my dog was only about 6 months old, I was with the small dogs. A French bulldog, some papillons, a small terrier--and one huge, goofy Standard Poodle puppy who loomed over them all!

Like fjm said, though, try to find the best class you can, one oriented towards eventual competition, even if you're not sure you want to compete. It's best to get good training right from the beginning rather than have to do away with bad habits.

Good luck!

--Q


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## Carrie-e (Oct 23, 2012)

Thanks for the advice guys,will try and find a class suitable.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I agree with fjm and Quossum about finding a good quality class where the emphasis is firmly grounded in having safe criteria for the contacts and keeping the jumps low for a young dog who hasn't closed their growth plates. You can see if your pup likes it and get great foundation skills rather than running amok and then having to fix things or having a vet bill to repair an injury. Work on focus exercises too.


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## ItzaClip (Dec 1, 2010)

You have lots of foundation work you can do. A good instructor will simply adapt to your pups level. Bars on ground. It's not like you can be major weaving yet any ways. Things you can work on. Attention work, sit stay. Sending to target, sending to target with you ahead, behind, running beside, other side. Position of two feet on (bottom of contacts), down stay (for table), getting used to chute/tunnel, man lots more! I'm starting my 14 week old in these type of exercises already!

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## Carrie-e (Oct 23, 2012)

I have been working on "look at me" a lot with him. Thing is he is so interested in people,when I walk him in the evenings,he has a run in the morning and I like to do a lead walk in the evening, if there is someone walking behind us his head is turned looking at them,he has nearly banged into lamp posts numerous times!! Don't know if he will grow out of this or is this how he will always be! He gets huge amount of attention wherever he goes,so that just reinforces for him that people are nice and make a fuss of him!


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## TheRulesLawyer (Jul 30, 2013)

Any advice on how to find an agility trainer? Is there a national association or something that lists trainers or something?


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I don't know of a national directory of agility trainers. I would suggest that you go to some local trials and watch the people in masters and excellent and see if you see someone there whose attitude appeals to you. Talk to them after their runs and see who they train with or if they offer training. You can also see if there are classes at a facility in your area. If you tell us where you are maybe someone will be able to direct you to a trainer or facility.


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## ItzaClip (Dec 1, 2010)

TheRulesLawyer said:


> Any advice on how to find an agility trainer? Is there a national association or something that lists trainers or something?


Don't know where you are but organizations like cappdt (Canadian association professional pet dog trainers) might have list since many trainers do obedience as well. Also Karen Pryor has training schools all over so they might be listed on www.clickertraining.com . Both are scientific, operant conditioning positive methods, not old fashioned jerk and pull style. 
Google agility in your area then go watch them. Years ago I signed up for classes where they dragged dogs over equipment (trainers did), and forced scared dogs to do full courses with no thought to foundation work. So be careful of where you go.

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## joshdo7 (Nov 23, 2013)

Carrie-e said:


> I have been working on "look at me" a lot with him. Thing is he is so interested in people,when I walk him in the evenings,he has a run in the morning and I like to do a lead walk in the evening, if there is someone walking behind us his head is turned looking at them,he has nearly banged into lamp posts numerous times!! Don't know if he will grow out of this or is this how he will always be! He gets huge amount of attention wherever he goes,so that just reinforces for him that people are nice and make a fuss of him!


This post is about 4 months old now..I was wondering if you have fixed this problem yet, and how?? 
My pup is 13 weeks, and he does the same..I know he's just being a curious pup, but I think I should know how to fix this manner for later on 

THank you!


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## Carrie-e (Oct 23, 2012)

Most standard poodles are nosy dogs! All the ones I've had have been,but Billy is the nosiest yet! He is still as nosy as ever I'm afraid! He bumped into a wheelie bin the other day because he was so busy looking over the road at another dog! To be honest,it's his personality and I don't think you can change that! A puppy is naturally inquisitive and I wouldn't worry too much!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Carrie-e you will need to master his attention issues if you want to have success since agility trials are often wildly distracting environments. I was in W. Springfield, MA over the weekend at a large cluster with 4 agility rings running at the same time (in addition to the 27 rings of conformation, obedience and rally!). The agility rings are in a building that normally houses livestock when there are other sorts of fairs and expos. the building smells like cows and is very noisy. Billy is very young and I think spoos are slow to lose the puppy sillys. You can't enter a dog younger than 15 months at an AKC agility trial anyway, so take all the great suggestions for foundation work and see how things go. You might also consider doing some formal obedience training and either doing beginner novice or some rally to help him understand what trials are about.


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## Lou (Sep 22, 2012)

I think Lou would be great at it LOL she jumps over my head and runs really fast!! Apollo on the other hand runs too but he is way slower and not was well coordinated as Lou  

Here is Lou jumping over mah head!!  she has like 1inch clearance every time Hahahaha 









As I mentioned, they can both run a lot!! But Apollo can't catch Lou! Only when she lets him  










Good luck with it all, if this is something you want to do, hopefully you will find a great trainer and have a blast with your poodle! 


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## Carrie-e (Oct 23, 2012)

*Don't think we will be doing that!*



lily cd re said:


> Carrie-e you will need to master his attention issues if you want to have success since agility trials are often wildly distracting environments. I was in W. Springfield, MA over the weekend at a large cluster with 4 agility rings running at the same time (in addition to the 27 rings of conformation, obedience and rally!). The agility rings are in a building that normally houses livestock when there are other sorts of fairs and expos. the building smells like cows and is very noisy. Billy is very young and I think spoos are slow to lose the puppy sillys. You can't enter a dog younger than 15 months at an AKC agility trial anyway, so take all the great suggestions for foundation work and see how things go. You might also consider doing some formal obedience training and either doing beginner novice or some rally to help him understand what trials are about.


I don't think me and Billy will be doing agility trials lily! He enjoys going round the course and is surprisingly well focused while doing it but it's just for fun!
Thanks for the advice though.


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