Puppy Agility Equipment

This is so timely. After reading last nights posts about the Little Tikes Climbing Centre, I wondered whether or not an "at home" agility would be good for the boys! We're not planning competition, but I do need things to keep them busy!

This may be a dumb question, but once the pups are trained in the equipment, do any of them ever work it "on their own" i.e. just for the pure fun of it????

Same question with the Little Tikes Centre....I'm curious if they roam it on their own or whether or not you have to coax them through (I assume, yes - at the beginning - but afterwards????)
 
I have tunnels, a teeter, table, jumps, weaves and dog walk set up in my back yard. The shelties will take the tunnels on their own... especially if they're busy playing. They'll also occassionally do the dog walk. Teeter, weaves, and jumps are something they won't do alone. Table... eh, if they're playing, maybe.
 
I brought a few tunnels from toys r'us (Dora the explorer) and the reject shop. The Dora one was a good starter as it has mesh on one side so the pups could see through it and it wasn't so scary going through the tunnel. I leave the tunnels outside all the time, pinned with tent pegs, and they love running thru them (the kiddie ones are shorter than agility ones). I made a low table initially - they love to get on it and bark from it so I have now made a higher one as well so they wont argue over who gets the table!

I also have weave poles (cane plant stick with a piece of pvc pole over the top) but when I leave them out they become Deska's personal pee poles! I know someone who put the mesh guides around the weaves and put branches through the mesh and turned it into a little jungle and my dogs loved it - so thats my next project.
 
Bentley will only do jumps and tunnels when he's really excited and chasing after or running from other dogs. He probably wouldn't do any weaves or contacts by himself.

For some reason, we never see him out there "practicing" by himself ;)
 
Edan will sometimes randomly run through a tunnel. He'll take jumps on his own if he thinks I have treats to try and figure out what I want him to do. The weaves he won't do on his own.

I don't have a large enough yard for any of the contacts but if I had a dogwalk I wouldn't be able to keep him off it.
 
BarbV said:
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This may be a dumb question, but once the pups are trained in the equipment, do any of them ever work it "on their own" i.e. just for the pure fun of it????
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Yes, and this is also the reason that my agility instructor told me to put it all away IF you ARE planning on going into competitions. The dogs learn to 'play' with the equipment, instead of looking at it as 'work' and 'drive' to, through, over it. (for example, when I had mine set out, Chinook took a love to the tunnel. He would saunter through it, sometimes he'd take a toy or a bone into it, lay down and chew! - not good in a competitive dog, luckly for me, he's not going into agility) or the equipment becomes self-reinforcing, so the dog does not wait for you to tell him/her where to go and what to do, he/she just does it because they love it so much, and then you have to find something that they love even more to get them to focus back on you.
BUT if you are not going into agility competitions, obedience (as they do use jumps) and/or Rally-O (CARO rally uses agility equipment) I think it is great to have these for the dogs to play with! So enjoy watching them - it is entertaining!
 
I wouldn't say it hurts a dog who is being geared to compete to have equipment in the yard that they can casually do at will.
I have some of the better 12" shelties in my area speed wise, and them having equipment in the yard has not hurt their speed/drive on/over/through the equipment. They also do not ignore what I ask them to do because of it.
They do seem to get the difference between just playing in the yard, and being asked to work.
 
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