Agility at 8 months??

S

SueEllen

Forums Regular
Okay so Bailey has had puppy socialization & basic training classes & now I have signed him up for agility classes at the Dog Ranch just south of Ottawa (Ontario).

He will be 8 1/2 months when he starts his class Sept 20th. I hear it is not good to put too much pressure on growing puppies limbs and not do much jumping (or keep it really low) until well over 1 year or so. I assume the training class would know this & I want to start him in tunnels & other fun things that would not put too much pressure on his growing joints.

Are there certain activities/obstacles he can enjoy now & which ones should I make sure to avoid until he is older?

His trainer in his obedience classes (not the same place he will go for agility)says he is a natural for agility & he loves to run through tunnels and has tons of energy playing and prancing around with his toys in our backyard.

Any tips to make sure I keep Bailey safe while having some fun?
 
Tunnels are a great place to start. You can also send him between the jump uprights with a bar on the floor or set to NO MORE THAN 4 inches (assuming he can pretty much step/hop over a bar that low).

You DO NOT want to work on contacts or waves until at least a year old. What you can do is begin to teach walking on a flat board and stopping at the end of the flat board with two feet on the board and two feet off the board (2 on 2 off/2o2o)

Finally FLATWORK! Flatwork is what happens between the obstacles. It's front/rear/blind crosses; recalls to heal, etc.

There are plenty of foundation things you can teach your puppy at this stage of development.
 
Agility at 8 months

Silaria said:
Tunnels are a great place to start. You can also send him between the jump uprights with a bar on the floor or set to NO MORE THAN 4 inches (assuming he can pretty much step/hop over a bar that low).

You DO NOT want to work on contacts or waves until at least a year old. What you can do is begin to teach walking on a flat board and stopping at the end of the flat board with two feet on the board and two feet off the board (2 on 2 off/2o2o)

Finally FLATWORK! Flatwork is what happens between the obstacles. It's front/rear/blind crosses; recalls to heal, etc.

There are plenty of foundation things you can teach your puppy at this stage of development.
Click to expand...

Actually you can work on contacts teaching 2020 or have running contacts teaching them to run on a board or the dog walk set low and just teach them to run across hitting the contact zone.
 
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There is tons of puppy friendly agility foundations you can do. The person I actually am currently training with starts with puppies at 8 weeks. They don't do anything big, but wobble boards, walking on boards, working on turns etc. Basically, they learn the foundations needed for Agility. I'm debating about if I want to put our pup we'll be getting at the end of Nov through it or not. He'd be 16 weeks then though because classes aren't starting til Jan, so we might versus puppy kindergarten. Just as long as your trainer know what puppies can and can't do you'll be fine.

I would definitely ask your trainer though if it's a puppy basic agility class or if it's a basic agility class because there's a difference. One will be puppies only or up to a year, other would be anyone which then you might have to sit out some of the things.

The main ones to avoid is weaves and high jumps (depending on how tall ur pup is 4-8 inches) At 8 1/2 months Ruu was already 15" so for him, it was just stepping over them.
 
Thanks everyone for your responses and suggestions, it is greatly appreciated.

I have emailed the owner of the training school to obtain more info on the age of dogs in the class and requested more info on the types of exercises they will be doing along with my concerns given he is still growing. ( although he is approx 18 lbs & 15.5 inches:-)
 
I just got the agility flatwork book - 'Flatwork: Foundation for Agility' and Enzo (almost 5 months old now) and I have started agility heeling (first thing in the book).

The whole book is nothing but teaching how to effectively communicate with your dog between the obstacles, so nothing a pup couldn't physically manage. I highly recommend it!
 
Sparrow is starting monthly foundation puppy agility classes in October when she will be 6 months. It is very difficult to find such classes around her, so I am very excited.

This video gives a good idea of some of the foundation stuff pups can do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgt7lBLw54w

I know the trainers and they are very good, as are their dogs:smile2:
 
labgirl said:
Sparrow is starting monthly foundation puppy agility classes in October when she will be 6 months. It is very difficult to find such classes around her, so I am very excited.

This video gives a good idea of some of the foundation stuff pups can do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgt7lBLw54w

I know the trainers and they are very good, as are their dogs:smile2:
Click to expand...

Excellent video, loved it, thanks for posting! Bailey had done some of the excercises in his previous training classes however some great ideas to start working on before our first class Sept 20th!:biggrin2:
 
After watching that video, I'm glad I'm on the right track... and that I invested in Fitpaws pieces the last couple years, they will get a lot of use with Flyer!
 
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