When to retire?

L

Lexi

Forums Enthusiast
Seems like yesterday when I was asking you and deciding if a sheltie is the dog for me. And now my girl will be 9 years old in May:eek2:. My other dog will be 8 years old in the summer.
So anyway the sport we do is agility. They are in excellent shape no limping problems ecc
But I was wondering should I put them first in veteran agility class(now they jump 30cm, in veteran it is 25cm and less). When did you know it was time to retire your dog? Doesn't have to be only agility, also other sports.
My sheltie lives for this sport, I tried Rally but just isn't for me honestly. At least until I can run:lol:.
 
Flyball is easy watch their time when it drops a couple of seconds there is something wrong or time to stop. And no matter if you are on the edge of an award STOP when that time comes. We had someone running with us that wanted to get his dog to Onyx, a big deal granted. But the dog was in horrible shape and it totally infuriated me. Many people on other teams were commenting with me saying YEP not something I can control. Though Sca NEVER ran on a team with that dog.
 
At their age technically they’re already seniors (lol) so why not start doing the lower jumps while they’re still in good shape? I stopped doing competitive obedience with my now 10 year old when Covid hit (fortunately he’d literally just gotten his OTCH 3 months prior) and when he turned 8 he was diagnosed with arthritis of his left elbow. He’s relatively good, just occasional bouts but the jumps did take a toll on his joints.
 
It's so individual, I would at least definitely go to the Veteran's class height. And make sure your dog is on a good joint supplement like Dasuquin, and green-lipped mussel supplement like Super Snouts joint powder. I found out about that from some Aussies that do agility. Also depends how much you train and compete. But good to be aware that she's getting older and it's tougher on them.
 
Such a hard thing to decide isn't it? I opted to stop agility for Brodie - we don't compete so it's just been for fun all these years. My boy is 7, does not have those stocky legs you see in some shelties - he has quite a feminine build with thin, delicate looking front legs. He just LOVES speed and flying off anything that is off the ground. I had started him on the Super Snouts already. I've been tied up lots with my dad who turns 93 end of March and who started with some health issues in 2025 for the first time in his life. I missed a lot of classes at the beginning of the year traveling to him a few times and so put it on hold in the Fall more for cost savings from missing so many times. I just decided maybe it was time. He still can run around here, I can put low jumps in the yard in the summer which is kinder for him jumping on ground versus a floor... of course he'll still jump high even if the jumps are lowered but it's on a kinder surface. And we have a tunnel - safer in the yard because in class he flies so fast he really moves their tunnel around and it always bothered me if he hit one of the weights. Sucks for me as it really was my only social outlet, but oh well. Sucks for him because the lack of exposure to dogs once a week has made him more reactive to neighborhood dogs; he does behave when we travel which is good.
 
I forgot there is also the A0 category where there are only jumps and tunnels and jumps are put on 10 or 15cm. Anyway we never did much competitions. Maybe 1 to 2 in a year and also our trainings are 3 to 4x in a month and in the summer and winter we have no trainings for 2 months. At trainings they jump always 5 to 10cm less than it is at the competitions. So they are both well 'preserved'. And they get the joint supplement for 3 years now already. People often don't believe me that they are so old and think much less.
My sheltie girl lives for this sport. More than me for sure. So we will just keep it 'low' and not much trainings. Just for her soul
Thank you all for the answers.
 
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