How do you know if you have a good agility dog?

[corbinam]

You have a point, but no matter how good of a trainer you are, your dog may NOT like agility. Our class had several teams that either did not enroll in the next class or pull out partway thru. Some were due to the people not being as into as everyone else, some had schedule conflicts, and a few were because the dog did not like agility. It did not matter how good the owner was, or how encouraging or exciting they made it, the dog did not enjoy agility.

A good agility dog does not have to be perfect or fast, but they have to want to work with you and at least partially enjoy doing the obstacles.

That's true, but I think (and we're getting into the unwinnable "nature vs. nurture" discussion) that 99% of dogs, if taught from a puppy, can grow up to love agility.

 

[Sealtainn]

My thought is as long as your dog has no obvious deficiencies to make training difficult, i.e. not malformed, blind, deaf, has no daily seizures, does not crawl in the new place on its tummy refusing to take any treats etc. you just have to find out for yourself if this is your cup of tea

Any vision, physical or hearing problem will likely be limiting if not heartbreaking: the dog doesn't need to be totally blind, or totally deaf, or obviously physically malformed.
Even if it's not been noticeable in everyday, issues like these can present a safety issue if continuing with agility.

In agility the most common problem with jumping early, crashing bars due to early takeoffs tend to be with border collies and shelties. Just about any local trial I've ever been to you'll see how common it is. It is painful to watch sometimes & heartbreaking for those who spend years in training - sometimes a vision problem is the explanation - but usually you can't tell in advance until you put in the investment in training.

 

[helps]

we are completely off topic here but have you noticed that some people have every dog they own achieve titles and ribbons and some other people are always seems to be on lookout for their "next agility dog" and as it seems luck is always against them
Anyway had Sharon asked this question my answer would be different but then again Sharon would not ask it because she already knows the answer.
Some people are intuitively brilliant trainers in their own right and often they come from different training experience, horses or mammals etc. And some people who are much less gifted, seems to go one step forward two step backward routine for most of their training careers, they start competing, achieve something, then things fall apart, they go back to retraining, get another leg or two, fall apart etc. Some even blame dog for their problems...

So are you saying it is more about people, right.... I see I believe that it's important if you put a lot of thoughts into training, plan your training and if you have some experience... but I'm a beginner myself, I've learnt a lot from others and everyone we consider great trainers started from zero, too. Of course, the first question is whether you and your dog will enjoy agility rather than is my dog going to be good?! But I still think there are issues that are not easy to deal with. You can train and "repair" a lot of things, but if your dog is not good and/or precise with jumping, weaves, contacts etc. you will loose eventually.

Other side is what Toffe's mom and I agree on - if you do that for fun, nothing like that matters. I've seen even huge rhodesian ridgeback running agility, he barely gets into tunnel and watching him doing weaves is hilarious. BUT they both have fun. Competing is the other thing, though. One knocked bar etc. can make you feel hopeless if you care about winning. But that's totally different topic and story

So to the topic - everyone just has to try and see.

 

[seashel]

I think that any dog, taught correctly and early, can grow up to love agility.

Herding breeds that are happy and healthy can grow up to be GREAT agility dogs.

Sounds like your pup would be a great candidate--I'd start looking around for puppy classes. There are also some good books (and posts here) with some foundation skills.

Here's a video that I made that show some other foundation skills (outside of obedience, which is also important) that you can try with your pup if you want: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o05xM-dBbzg

Thanks very much for the link, I also am hoping to do agility (along with obedience and confirmation showing) with my new boy Epic. Whereas I have experience in the latter two, agility is reasonably 'foreign' to me, so I'm really looking forward to the learning curve. At the moment, because he will (fingers crossed) be showing in confirmation from 6 months, we are training ringcraft techniques along with basic obedience. I have taught target training basics plus follow the hand, so it's great to have some foundation agility excersizes to work on as well.

 

[Toffee's Mom]

My friend runs a Master Chihuah, a now retired pitbull, a deaf Masters Border Collie and a new a sighthound Love, the Borzoi.
You CAN enjoy agility together with ANY dog,there are Boston terriers at trials here and a out, lots of Labs, some Rhodesians here too. Even a Bernese!
This has me convinced if you find what motivates your dog and you put in the time and positively train, you're going to have fun!

 

[k9kreationz]

I have 2 shelties. My 2 year old, Aili, is a real love, but not terribly athletic. My 4 month old, Doolie, is strong, fast and LOVES to run. I know some of his energy is because he is a puppy still, but how can I tell if he would be a good agility candidate?

Doolie it taking to general obedience training very well - typical Sheltie. Is there some way to "test" him and see if this should be something we should pursue?

I have never tried agility training, but am interesting in learning more.

IMHO, I would work with both dogs. You may find that Aili really enjoys it, even if Aili isn't really athletic. S/he may love it because it's doing something with you.

As for Doolie, I think learning agility would be fun. Just because a dog loves to run, doesn't mean he'll make a good agility dog. But, it doesn't mean don't start either because burning off energy is good, while learning to focus.

I started agility so my dog would burn off energy and learn to focus. He was totally afraid of everything. But once he learned that thing, he LOVED it. It's the only reason I continued. It built his confidence and once he was over his fear, I am so amazed at how far we have come. I'm telling you this because if Koji didn't love it afterwards and always seemed to hate it, I wouldn't have continued. But when he got it and showed me how much he loved it, I had to continue. Now that we got it all down, he loves doing agility.

My other dog, Miko. He did it for me. He was obedient enough and was a willing enough dog that he'd do agility for me, but I could see he wasn't really enjoying it.

You can make that call later when you start training. So, don't leave Aili out. You just never know. Or you might. hehehe.

Good luck.

 

[Two&Counting]

Wow. Lots and lots of really good input!

Corbinam: I LOVE your video! I have started some of these techniques with both dogs and it really is fun to watch their brains ticking to figure out what I want from them next.

k9kreationz: I have done just that, started both dogs on just some real basic flat ground work.

Aili is quick to a target, as long as there isn't ANY obstacle in the way - including just a flat board on the floor! Doolie, Mr. I-am-motivated-by-FOOD, doesn't care about obstacles as long as food is at the target!

I just heard over the weekend that a new agility center just opened in our area that is sponsored by the local agility club. Going to be doing some more digging and trying to make contact with people locally to hopefully find a trainer for BOTH dogs.

 

[k9kreationz]

Aili is quick to a target, as long as there isn't ANY obstacle in the way - including just a flat board on the floor! Doolie, Mr. I-am-motivated-by-FOOD, doesn't care about obstacles as long as food is at the target!

I just heard over the weekend that a new agility center just opened in our area that is sponsored by the local agility club. Going to be doing some more digging and trying to make contact with people locally to hopefully find a trainer for BOTH dogs.

Oh how wonderful! A new center. Keep us posted. I'm curious to see what you find out. Ah, another foodie. Doolie will learn fast with food, just be sure to throw it on the ground at times. You don't want them constantly staring at your hands and pockets (like mine does, hehehe). I'm curious to see what Aili does after awhile with the obstacles (is Aili a she or he? and does Aili mean anything?).

 

[Toffee's Mom]

I am very happy you are taking both dogs! Yayy let the fun begin!!!
A good Instructor will be awesome and help you so much!!

 

[Two&Counting]

It is funny to see them follow your hand around, especiallly my foodie (I like that term!) Doolie! But good idea on throwing it on the ground once in a while so that isn't the fixation.

Aili (pronounced Eye-Lee), is a girl. It is a shortened form of the Gaelic for "Alice". Doolie, is a boy. His name is short for his registered name "Wonderous Doolin Donegal".