Getting started in agility?

My OH and I think that 'Ella was born to do agility She loves running and jumping and clears everything she puts her mind to (I hasten to add that we have never encouraged her to jump things!). In April we spent a weekend in a holiday cottage, and discovered she could jump the fence without any apparent effort Last night she took a running jump at the bed, and cleared a basket of clean laundry, and the laundry hamper at the foot of the bed, landing in her appointed spot by my feet.

Fortunately, we have a six foot wall around our garden, and I don't even think superdog herself is going to get over it, but we'd like to encourage her to enjoy jumping in a safe environment and give her a bit of mental stimulation. My OH and I have never trained for agility before, so I'd love a few pointers on getting started.
Is 'Ella too young at fourteen months?

You can start training the agility equipment at a year old, so 14 months is ok. If you want to find a club in your area look on www.agilitynet.com then click on Clubs A-Z. Most clubs require the dog to have basic obedience before they start, a good recall and maybe a wait.

Deff worth finding some kinda class
Its great fun, the dogs love it and it is such a great bonding thing
Only problem is you will then spend lots of time trying to find garden agility equipment, find yourself driving miles for comps
and I never ment to take it seriously (and we are just started) - but my living room currently is filled with the inside weaves! and I have had to miss 2 classes so at the moment I cant wait to get to class on thurs!!

Mine is starting on Saturday at about a week and a half short of a year old. The club instructor has a very good reputation and we're starting with a 6 week introductory course to see how she goes.

This is the club we're joining - there's lots of info and some video's on the site:

http://www.clearrunagility.co.uk/

We're really looking forward to it. We plan to take video and piccies of her first class so I'll post them up. Not sure whether it will impress or give us all a good laugh

My 10mth collie pup practically cleared our 6ft brick wall after a fox the othernight, she didnt even try to scale it her toes only just touched the top as she dissapeared at 3.00am!!!!!!! (dont worry I'm not normally out at that time but madam asked to go out)


Jeanette

We don't have enough of a garden to have equipment out there.. will that be a problem? I don't think we're planning on getting seriously involved, but I think the classes would be good fun for 'Ella and give her a chance to socialise with some new friends!

Her recall and "stay" are very good when she is out on walks or at home, but as soon as she gets excitable it all falls apart. I don't know whether to work on that at home some more, or whether I'm best off letting her jump in at the deep end and get used to classes (maybe on a lead) as once she stops finding it quite so madly exciting, she suddenly remembers what English words mean!

Sez and Amber, Beanie had her first agility class today (aged 11.5 months) and we all had a fabulous time!

She's enrolled on an initial 6 week 'introduction to agility' course, which is designed to just teach the basics and give an idea of what it's all about.

Ours is like yours - great on obedience....unless there's something more exciting to grab her attention. Well, in this class we had leads on unless we felt our dogs were really tuned into us. And amazingly mine was as good as gold and giving me her undivided attention.

Here's some piccies as promised:







Some info from the instructor on starting ages:

Small dog (approax 13 inches at shoulders) 8/12 months
Medium dog (approx 17 inches at shoulders) 14/16 months
Large dog (20 inches and over) 18/24 months

However, foundation skills and introduction work can be started at an earier age.

aww fantastic pics Love the flying ears!!

Excellent photos!

I shall have a ring around and try to find our nearest class. Wish us luck!

we go to a great class in stockton-on-tees with two very good trainers and a great bunch of people. Feel free to PM me if you want the info, theres a new beginners class starting in a couple of weeks that i'm planning on taking Felix on! (Indys already training) x