Does anyone do any type of agility training/excercises?

That sounds like fun. I want to make an obstacle course in my backyard for the dogs.

Hi Barbara

We do agility, just for fun, not competition.

Most of the equipment is easy to construct, and not expensive.

If you search Google for "agility equipment plans" you will find several helpful sites.

Most dogs thoroughly enjoy agility, but do start off slowly and carefully - one bad experience (eg a fall) can put them off for life.

I'm interested in doing it just for fun too I will search through google, thanks for the tip!

I'll definitely take your advice and start off slowly. I don't want to do anything that would hurt my dogs confidence levels. What do you think the earliest age would be to start?

You can actually start teaching agility to young puppies. But just the gentle things. For example you could lay a wooden ladder on the ground and encourage the pup to step over the rungs. This teaches it to be aware of what its feet are doing. You can also teach the weave poles. See-saw walking is also ok, but keep hold of the pup, do not let it fall or jump off. You can teach it to walk along a plank of wood which is laid flat on the ground. If you buy a child's play tunnel pup can be encouraged to go through that. This is all good preparation for 'real' agility.

Things that you should not do with small puppies are jumps. I would leave proper jumping until 10-12 months, even later if you have a large, slow maturing breed. No dog, of whatever age, should be asked to jump anything higher than their shoulder height. I would also leave the A-frame until the dog is over 12 months as it does put a strain on the body. However, if you build your own A-frame you can adjust the angle so that it is not too steep.

Agility can be a bit addictive for both dog and handler. If you feel you might like to pursue it - 1) join a club & 2)make sure that you get your dog used to working on your right as well as on your left as soon as possible.

Edited to add: you might find this of interest http://www.dogpatch.org/agility/FAQs/faqgen02.html

I still don't think you should encourage puppies to do more than perhaps 'hop' over a VERY low obstacle. All jumps, for any age, should be set up on grass or another soft surface.

Shadowboxer, thanks for all of this great info! I'm going to have my husband construct some things Do you have pictures of your setups? This sounds like a lot of fun!

My set-up looks very amateurish, but will see if I have any photos. When your husband is hopping around having hit his thumb with the hammer yet again, or has spilled paint all over himself, don't tell him this was my idea!

He's a carpenter, so he doesn't hit his thumb much anymore,lol

Hi
I'm going to join our agility club with Luna. Right now I'm number 11 on a waiting list

I've been told they should be 1½-2 years old - or to put it another way - fullygrown. And considering your dogs are pretty big (not in weight, but in breed) I would suggest this age for them too.

Jeanette

Hi Babs - do you call them (carpenters) 'Chippys' over there too?

No, we don't call them chippies, lol. I'll have to tell him that.

I think I jinxed him. Know how I said he doesn't hit his finger with the hammer much? Well he shot a nail through it!!!! His finger was shot with the nail to the wood earlier He had to pull is finger off the wood, then pull the nail out of his finger lol I asked him to fix the puppy gate, that's how it happened.

Bellaluna, good luck! I would look for clubs near me, but I don't think they would welcome bandogs. I'm glad you mentioned the age. I was going to start the puppy on some simple exercises. You don't think that would be good?