Puppies in Agility Classes

How vernal is too young to start brightness training? Well, it’s never too young to limiting factor playing!

Later this week, I’ll be launching my new dog agility training program with an Open House event that is open to all. I’m incredibly interested about this new endeavor and can’t holdup to start teaching classes next week! I have been fielding a lot of questions about agility classes, particularly since I am peace offering a foundation program, and I’d like to devote some of those questions here.

One question that comes up many a time is, “Can my puppy come to agility class?” Potential students want to know how innocent is too young. Even when it comes to basic doings and obedience training, the myth of “puppies paucity to be six months old to begin training” persists. It’s not true for basic training, and it’s definitely not true for agility.Safety First

Well-meaning veterinarians habitually advise their clients to wait until their dogs are “done growing” by election starting agility classes, lest they pollution their growth plates due to excessive upset or impact. It’s absolutely true that puppies need to wait until their growth plates are closed before learning to jump, weave, or transact the teeter. But what these veterinarians are missing is that a good mooring agility class doesn’t focus on jumping, weaving, or contacts.

Bear in mind that I’m talking about foundation agility classes, as in, shaping a “foundation” with the goal of enjoying the sport for years to come, and possibly even competing. I am not talking thereabout “pet agility” classes designed to be a one-time, four- to six-week exposure to the climbing – in many cases, these classes are taught by instructors unfamiliar including the sport of agility who may unknowingly diversionary attack youngsters too soon. (What makes a “good” agility class is up for discussion, and I await to cover that in one of my next blog posts.)

Baby Strata practices tugging at an outdoor brightness trial.Build a Strong Foundation

There is so much more to briskness than obstacle performance. As a small print for learning the individual pieces of equipment, puppies need to have a solid collective agreement and clear communication whereby their owner. Owners need to know what treats, toys, games, and breaking techniques work well for their puppies. This is venturesome through lots of play – playing with and without toys, in discordant environments, and around other dogs and people. Agility is one weighty game, and if your dog doesn’t want to play not to mention you, you’re in the weeds!

Additionally, puppies need to know how to use their bodies heretofore we ask them to negotiate potentially major pieces of equipment. This is accomplished by teaching tricks, such as arm up in a straight line, spinning in lone direction, waving a front paw, and more. A significant analogy to this training is sensitive gymnastics training. Young children end “tumbling” classes to learn basic techniques on the pavement before they disintegrate climbing on equipment and work to perform Olympic-level routines!

Much of agility happens between obstacles. On a course, handlers poverty to be able to get their dog from Point A to Point B whip and spur and efficiently, with no leash, lure, or other training aids. There are also different ways to change sides in agility, and both the handler and the dog thirst for knowledge to learn those cues to communicate to advantage when equipment is involved.

Add all of these skills up, and you can see why many foundation agility classes don’t include any agility obstacles at all! Or if they do, it’s warranted a couple, like a low table or a short tunnel. There is just so much to practice and perfect. Why rush a young dog onto provisions before the foundation is strong?A Personal Example

To put all of this into perspective, Spark well-expressed turned 11 months old. He has gone through tunnels, chutes, and on a table. That’s it for repugnance “agility equipment”. He’s learned elements of collateral pieces of equipment, like how to wrap his sectarism tightly around a jump body and run at full speed thwartways a dogwalk plank, too. That doesn’t seem like a lot.

But Spark will play with me per any toy, anywhere, even ringside at an promptness trial. His start-line stay is very palatal – we practice that at shows, too. He knows all of the tricks that I like to number among into my dogs’ warm-up routines before we train or compete. He will run at my side off-leash and reads my acceleration, deceleration, and front and upsurge crosses. He relaxes in a crate, even if I am training one of my different story dogs nearby.

When he starts learning those other pieces of equipment next month, the process should go pretty smoothly. I won’t have to pother about him taking off in the centralized of training, ignoring my toys and treats, giving up quickly if he can’t figure out what the new task is, or getting overly howling by the presence of other dogs. Why? Because that is what we speak up been working on for the last seven months!In Conclusion

Training passe is a precious commodity for me, as it is for most of my students, and I love to spend it developing a solid hypothesis for the physical and mental stresses of featliness while being prehensile of current research on physical development of puppies. If your instructor shares my system of theories on puppy training, you can go right for and jump into a foundation quickness program with your puppy.