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Maybe I'm not calling it the right thing. I saw the poles that your guys jumped over outside. We didn't do anything that required jumping hurdles.
He was on leash.. We WALKED through a ladder laying on the floor. We walked over two things, one that was an A frame and one which had two ramps and a middle thing -- not sure what either one is called. We played around with the weave poles and a few tunnels (one of them was probably 15 feet long) and went through some hoops that were close to the floor.
This was a first time and we were going slow - not like the agility trials I've seen - and he was ON leash.
It seems safe to me. Am I wrong?
Last edited by World Citizen; 10-31-2008 at 12:47 PM..
If he's only 8 months then he still has a little growing to do. Hunter topped out at about 90 pounds at 10 months, which we were SO glad because his grandpa was 140! Hunter was definitely the runt of the litter.
He slimmed back down to an athletic 75-78 pounds during agility training but like I said, we didn't start any jumping until after he was a year old. Up to that point I let him do the contact obstacles (on lead so he wouldn't launch himself off the end of the equipment) and the weave poles. He could walk through the jumps so we could practice course work but we left the bars on the ground so he didn't actually jump over them but was able to get familiar with them.
Here's a pic of my boy during an agility trial in Winston Salem, NC a few years ago. I hope we can get his knee fixed so we can get back to it soon!
Thanks! We had taken some time off and I tried to get him back into at a 100% instead of slowly working our way back into it. He was excited and so was I so I threw caution to the wind...oh well, we are hoping for a full recovery, hopefully WITHOUT surgery
The picture of Hunter is him going over the broad jump. A lot of times people just go out there and let there dogs run through the obstacles before actually introducing the dog to the equipment and showing people how to safely maneuver the course. It sounds like your instructor was showing you the safe intro which is good.
With AKC, you usually have either a Standard course or a JWW (Jumpers With Weaves) course. An Standard course includes your "contact" obstacles - A-frame, teeter, dog walk, table - jumps, tunnels, and weave poles. JWW does not include any of the contact obstacles - just the jumps, tunnels, and the weave poles. NADAC has Gamblers and Snookers, which I have not done before but have been told by fellow agility-enthusiasts, are a lot of fun.
Just a little hint - make sure to teach your dog "off-side" weaves. We were able to score some really fast runs because Hunter is an ace at them!
(all this agility talk makes me want to go borrow someone's dog and run some courses! lol)
We took our now 8-month old GSD to a class when he was about 5 months old. He was really good with the tunnels and the tables to sit on but the he just couldn't walk straight on any of the ramps! He didn't know his own size very well, and he looked real clumsy when doing it
The other puppies were all much smaller than him and had no issues on the ramp at all.
I think we will go back for another set of classes, only because it was a lot of fun for us!
We took our now 8-month old GSD to a class when he was about 5 months old. He was really good with the tunnels and the tables to sit on but the he just couldn't walk straight on any of the ramps! He didn't know his own size very well, and he looked real clumsy when doing it
The other puppies were all much smaller than him and had no issues on the ramp at all.
I think we will go back for another set of classes, only because it was a lot of fun for us!
There's a big difference in 5 months old and 8 months old. I saw some younger dogs come in for the next class and saw one adorable GSD baby who showed similar clumsiness... SOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute, though.
After last night, I think you definitely SHOULD go back again now that he's older. My dog and I had a blast!
Both of our dogs are large breed mixes. They are 4 y/o and already been certified as therapy dogs and earned their CGC. We are planning to start them in agility at the end of this month! We are soooo excited.
Our dogs are active and they are exercised daily (running or walking). Obviously, they will not be winning any national events with their speed compared to a smaller dog...but we look forward to the bonding time! I'm sure we'll have plenty of funny stories to share once we start.
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