age to start agility training - Page 1

What age does everyone think I can start my GSD in Agility training. He gets his first hip x-rays in about a month as he is 5 months old now. Assuming ( I hope and prey ) they are good can he start after he has enough obediance to follow directions? or should I wait until he is a year or more

You can and should be doing lots of your foundation work now.. all ground work but you can be teaching wrapping around jump stanchions and going ahead for a toy and channel weaves (they are straight and wide open at their widest setting.. you can be teaching contacts by back chaining

You can do jump chutes with bars very low ..... just a few inches off the ground..... growth plates will not close until about 14 months so no real jumping or hard pounding or real weaving until after that.

There are lots of good reference materials.. go to www.cleanrun.com .. they actually have a separate puppy issue which is super and wouldn't hurt any dog... also check out Building Blocks for Performance by Bobbie Anderson, great book for all puppies but especially competition puppies

I would strongly suggest you try to hook up with an agility training facility, if your goal is to compete then you want to work with someone who does...

What area of the country are you in?? There are lots of good people out there, my husband is very successful in agility with GSD's.. so he knows lots of people.

You also want your obedience to be fun fun fun.. no compulsion at this age if you want to be competitive.... so make everything like a game and you will be in good shape...... you can be teaching sit and down and wait (for the table and start line lead outs...)

Hope this helps

Denise

Hi,

to really start training Agility, your GSD should be AT LEAST 12 months old otherwise it can damage his muscles.

But I was also told by my trainer that if you just want to play around without doing any strenous agility then that is also ok provide it is done in moderate amounts.

Hope this helps.

Henry, do you do agility???? If you do, I suggest you look for a different trainer.. because all the foundation skills  can and should be taught just like any other sport while they are young... It would be such a waste of time to not train a puppy now!

Nothing strenuous, no jumping at comp height (just ground work), weaving, etc but most skills can be taught and then just expanded upon at the appropriate age....

More than muscles can be damaged if too much s done too early

Denise

When I was training my female for agility, the trainer who has 135 performance titles with 7 different dogs in AKC and USDAA, starts Agility training with pups as young as 8 - 10 weeks old.  Everything is NON impact.  There are tons of things to do in building an agility dog that doesn't involved jumping.  We did A-Frame spread out so it was pretty flat, we did the dog walk, started on the titer-toter, did the tunnel and chute, got the pups walking over cardboard tubes, then added the jump stanchions with the bar about 6" off the ground, we started working on weave poles.  I didn't get my female until she was 8 months old and we were so far behind the curve. 

I start my BCs at 6 weeks playing with a tunnel, going through tires, just getting used to surfaces.  Then taught "touch" the contact points, then made a game out of that.  weaves, ground work..... whoever it was that said "cleanrun" website is right, thats a great place to get some info.

I agree with the starting early. Just make sure it stays postive and motivational for the brain and low to non impact for the body.

goose, that's perfect!

when i was doing agility i found that a great thing for teaching puppies where their feet were was to walk through a ladder on the ground.  Or a plank up on cinder blocks.

Thanks for all the great advice. Seems like there are a lot of fun things I can get started on right away.