How old was your dog?

[ortegah]

It has become very common to hear the "not till 12 months" or "not till the growth plates close" or not till <your choice>.

What some "experts"/trainers/top handlers say in public isn't necessarily what they do in private. I've been surprised more than just a few times as to the differences, and by whom.

There are differences in opinion & approach - there are trainers jumping their dogs before 6 months of age and up. There are handlers who can start their young pup at 15 months & stride through novice to Masters with few if any NQ's. There are some who have taken their pups & won Regionals Tournaments before doing Starters. There are some who regularly train at international level before their pups are 2 years old.

Not saying any of this is right or wrong, just that it does happen & there are different opinions - and so it is plausible that some students are doing things earlier than what others consider to young.

In some ways I think it is sad to be pushing pups too young knowing or disbelieving what others might offer as advice.

Most of the experienced handlers that I know won't start training their dogs until at least 6 months old in any agility at all. I know of one very good handler(competes in Nationals, teaches classes, etc.) that got a new puppy not too long ago and refuses to train agility with him until he's a year old. She thinks he needs time to be a puppy without the added pressure of agility expectations.

I don't think I can wait that long though with my new puppy. I'll be doing tunnels and jumps with the bars on the ground soon as a fun activity, but I'll wait on weaves and contact equipment until he's older.

 

[Justicemom]

Most of the experienced handlers that I know won't start training their dogs until at least 6 months old in any agility at all. I know of one very good handler(competes in Nationals, teaches classes, etc.) that got a new puppy not too long ago and refuses to train agility with him until he's a year old. She thinks he needs time to be a puppy without the added pressure of agility expectations.

I don't think I can wait that long though with my new puppy. I'll be doing tunnels and jumps with the bars on the ground soon as a fun activity, but I'll wait on weaves and contact equipment until he's older.

I think it is all how it is introduced to the puppy. If you are training like you are going to compete in nationals next month with a 6 month old puppy yeah you are going to burn them out. If you handle it like a game, they will be more and more eager to learn.

We had tunnels down for Birchs' litter at 4 weeks , we let them explore and check it out without expectations. We had tippy boards for them to walk on, stuff for them to climb on. I started teaching Birch to touch, get up on a wobbly air cushion, stand on a plank, 2o2o, come, down or whatever he offered from the day he came home with me at 8 weeks. We learned to play-tug, retrieve and bond. The key was they are babies and there is no pressure/expectations. I think it took Birch 6 months to down on command regularly. I just didn't reward what I didn't want. I didn't care. My dogs tell my what they are ready for.

You can train a puppy and still let them be a puppy. Heck , Birch is still a silly idiot puppy somedays and he is almost 18 months. but he loves to play the games.

There is so much more to agility than the equipment and running courses that I can teach before a year. Frankly I think if you don't teach your puppy something before a year you are wasting vaulable time. puppies are like sponges and their love of learning starts early. To let a puppy do whatever they like for a year and then try to buckle them down at 1 yr is likely to be alot more difficult.

I agree the big stuff like jumps(beyond bumps) and weaves and high contacts are for atleast those pups 1 yr or older. This is just my opinion. Once Birch got to 1yr old, all I needed to do was take the thousands of little pieces of foundation I had taught over the previous year and start putting them togther. I didn't have to reinvent the wheel.

 

[3Stars]

I think it is all how it is introduced to the puppy. If you are training like you are going to compete in nationals next month with a 6 month old puppy yeah you are going to burn them out. If you handle it like a game, they will be more and more eager to learn.

We had tunnels down for Birchs' litter at 4 weeks , we let them explore and check it out without expectations. We had tippy boards for them to walk on, stuff for them to climb on. I started teaching Birch to touch, get up on a wobbly air cushion, stand on a plank, 2o2o, come, down or whatever he offered from the day he came home with me at 8 weeks. We learned to play-tug, retrieve and bond. The key was they are babies and there is no pressure/expectations. I think it took Birch 6 months to down on command regularly. I just didn't reward what I didn't want. I didn't care. My dogs tell my what they are ready for.

You can train a puppy and still let them be a puppy. Heck , Birch is still a silly idiot puppy somedays and he is almost 18 months. but he loves to play the games.

There is so much more to agility than the equipment and running courses that I can teach before a year. Frankly I think if you don't teach your puppy something before a year you are wasting vaulable time. puppies are like sponges and their love of learning starts early. To let a puppy do whatever they like for a year and then try to buckle them down at 1 yr is likely to be alot more difficult.

I agree the big stuff like jumps(beyond bumps) and weaves and high contacts are for atleast those pups 1 yr or older. This is just my opinion. Once Birch got to 1yr old, all I needed to do was take the thousands of little pieces of foundation I had taught over the previous year and start putting them togther. I didn't have to reinvent the wheel.

I agree 100%. I love doing foundations training - so much fun, and it's cool to see the lights going on in their heads. As long as the training is kept safe and positive, it's a great way to start dogs off.

 

[Noregrets]

I think we did do lots of foundation in the beginning and it has just been a very slow progression. I don't feel like there has been any pressure on me our my pup at anytime. I really only got into the agility class because there wasn't an obedience open at the moment and he was hesistant/ shy sheltie when I got him and I wanted him exposed to people and other dogs to help properly socialize him. Well, he started loving class and really came out of his shell. At the end of six weeks I thought why not try another class and then it just continued from there. We were also in obedience class after 6 months and at 8 months he earned his cgc. He like obedience o.k., but he was always wanting to go to the other room (agility) to play:smile2.

We have done weaves poles from the beginning though. I have a smaller guy though and he really doesn't have to bend his body much. We started learning crosses right away too rear, blind, and front. Flat work first then it got incorporated with jumps as we progressed.


Thanks for everyones answers. As a newbie, I just really wondered lengths of time and ages of dogs.
I really don't have a time frame set for us,we just take it class by class. Right now we are just having a blast in class and having loads of fun.

 

[SheltieChe]

We are currently repeating Silvia Trkman foundation class and there are lots of puppies 6 months old or so. There are some dogs achieved their MACH too but that is different story
Silvia´s approach is bit different from many, she teaches A LOT of handling to young puppies at GREAT speed but with limited obstacles- lots of tunnels, stanchions without bars, wide open channels and carpet for DW runs. Cik and cap taught to puppies 8-10 weeks old as a trick but Silvia takes about a year to raise the bar on the jump while doing cik and cap on the jumps.
It has been most fun to work on foundation this way.

 

[seashel]

I'm finding this a fascinating thread. I didn't start training with Epic until he was 15 months, I had intended to start at 12 but he had to be rehabilitated for a couple of months after being attacked before he was OK to be near running dogs. I'm very pleased with his progress but we haven't done a lot yet on contacts. I didn't know it was possible to start 'agility training' younger than a year old, had I known about Foundation work I would definitly have done it on the lines of SheltieChe and JusticeMom. Epic is doing Foundations now and it is really paying dividends. I will add that during his first year he was being shown and I had been doing obedience/htm basic training so it wasn't a wasted year.

If we do compete, potentially it may not be until next year. I 100% agree with JusticeMom about the 90% correct in training and with distractions. I also learned this (the hard way) through obedience by rushing to compete with a dog that wasn't mentally ready for competition although he was technically fine. I applied far too much pressure and the element of fun disappeared. It is the single biggest personal regret I have because had I waited, the whole experience would have been a lot better. I'm in no rush to start competing with Epic. My aim with him is to train him to perform to the highest standard he is capable of (i.e. to achieve his potential) but I'm not setting any competition goals. For the first time ever I'm thoroughly enjoying training just for the sake of training a skill without thinking about competition and it's so much more relaxing.

Something else I'm discovering as an agility novice is that I have to have mastered the skills. I have a feeling Epic will be a lot more competent that me - it's just a pity I won't be able to rely on him to memorise the course Even if he is ready for it, there won't be much point if I've not come up to scratch!!

One last thing I've found with the training is the upside of starting a little later does mean he has a higher degree of focus than he did as a 6 month old pup which has meant he has picked things up very quickly and we can work through training issues.