Will my sheltie like agility?

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sheltieluvr6

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Hey guys!

So I'm thinking of buying an agility set for my dog. He's now 2 and a bundle of energy. I've taught him tricks galore, frisbee, and now I'm contemplating agility. What traits would you say make up a sheltie who truly loves agility? I don't want to force him into something he hates. He loves to please me and we are a fantastic team. Let me know what you think.

Thank you!
 
sheltieluvr6 said:
Hey guys!

So I'm thinking of buying an agility set for my dog. He's now 2 and a bundle of energy. I've taught him tricks galore, frisbee, and now I'm contemplating agility. What traits would you say make up a sheltie who truly loves agility? I don't want to force him into something he hates. He loves to please me and we are a fantastic team. Let me know what you think.

Thank you!
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No reason why your sheltie wouldn't like agility.There are no traits that make a dog like agility in my opinon.My suggestion to you is go to a school who teaches it .Even if you are doing it for fun I personally think a school would be better because if you are trying to teach him something and he is not getting it you will frustrate yourself and your dog.Who knows you may like it enough to compete.It is a great sport.
 
Answer: YES.

Going to a school that teaches you properly is a good idea though as they will set you up for success with each obstacle and handling.

My fat little 5-6 year old Melli had a blast at agility. She especially loved the dog walk, go figure. In our last obedience class they set up a few jumps and table and tire and they used us as an example. She was thrilled to perform even after having not been at it for 6 weeks. She took off and ran the mini-course and I had to job to keep up with her.

Answer: Ohhh, the dog will have a blast. Go for it.
 
Since you said your dog likes to please you, I have to ask. Is your dog doing these other things to please you or because he clearly enjoys it?

Miko loves to play Frisbee and catch and you could tell. But agility, you could tell he was doing it for me and nothing else. He didn't enjoy the command aspect of agility, rally, nor obedience, but he did it happily for me.

So, I don't think the answer is a simple yes or no.

With training and the other activities, is he having fun doing it? Is he having fun learning and training? With Miko, I realized he didn't like being told or commanded...only then he was doing it for me. With catch and Frisbee, there was no training nor commands involved.

Just my two cents. Not all dogs love agility....even if they're happy doing it for you. IMHO, that's when you, as a handler, is being selfish. And its why I quit doing agility, rally, and obedience with Miko.
 
You won't know until you try. Yes I have met dogs who could take or leave agility, Cadbury being one of them. He liked going to agility class but there was no question if him doing the course properly.

Of course, it can take a while to figure out your dog. Merlin was keen to get on the agility field, but then he froze in his first couple of lessons and ran away from the course. I was really worried, but it was actually due to a lack of confidence rather than him disliking agility. Now he can't wait to be on the course:wink2:
 
k9kreationz: Evaluating his actions, I believe that he mostly does all that he does because he loves it. For training, he seems to love the challenge. Frisbee presents the same thing, only he can run which is a huge bonus for him. How do you know if your dog is doing something because they enjoy it as opposed to for your own personal, selfish desires?

I can usually tell what he prefers, since I've learned his behaviorisms by now. If I have a ball and a frisbee out, he will almost always go for the ball. Though he does like jumping over my leg which is a semi new trick. He seems to have fun with that one so I assumed that jumping through hoops and over obstacles would make him happy as well. I fully agree with everyone here. I will look around for a place that offers beginner agility classes and see how that goes.
 
Sounds like he'll enjoy agility. Especially if he loves the running, jumping and challenge.

I just know with Miko, you could see that he was doing it for me and loved the praise, but did not enjoy the running and jumping....when he'd be told to do it. It's like you could see him say, "do I have to? Okay, I'll do it because I love you". Whereas with Koji he would happily jump and run and have fun and he'd backtalk to me when I'd make mistakes or didn't give him clear directio and wed mess up.

You can tell. And it sounds like yours will enjoy it. But not everyone does what the dog wants. Many of us have seen handlers with dogs who clearly either aren't enjoying it or purely are doing it for their owner. Those are the selfish people, IMHO.

Koji stopped enjoying it as much when he got more reactive and I more serious. Although he loves it, I could see him getting frustrated. So I stopped.
 
am not sure how you looking at the problem... very few people want to go to work just because they want to go to work... majority of people do it because of reinforcement- value they receive from it...
Same with dogs- they do things that are reinforcing to them. More- what is reinforcing today was likely not reinforcing when this dog was a puppy and vice versa etc.
Doing agility is team sport, if you enjoying it and can make it reinforcing to your dog, value of reinforcer eventually transfers to action- agility equipment itself. That it if you are doing it correctly, because for many dogs the value will remain in the cookie or tug or ball. There is lots of topics covered on this in animal training science.
Another part of it- does your dog enjoy being a performer... it is not enough just to do the obstacles, can dog work in crowded loud spaces and still enjoy it... bit of a different story. There are plenty of dogs that get anxious, stressed at trials even if they like doing agility per se. Again am not saying that you are doomed if your dog is getting stressed, BTW there are plenty of top competing handlers that have dogs like this.
And of course, there are dogs that plain should not be performance dogs.
 
I think that he will too k9kreationz. He enjoys being active in any way, shape, or form. So this will just be a great way to get his energy out and have fun at the same time. SheltieChe, I definitely understand that. Thank you for putting it into that perspective. I hope to just do agility for fun. I am nowhere ready to perform in any way myself. I was just thinking as a hobby in my backyard. He's never seemed to mind performing in front of others. But, tricks are different from other performances. As of right now, I'll see how he enjoys it as a hobby. He's very clever and I feel that this could be a great challenge for him.
 
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