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I am seriously consitering taking up the sport
- Thread starter SSBGSCKSKLDLSW
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Watch how much you let your puppies jump when they are younger than a year old. I'm talking more about height than anything else when it comes to jumping if their muscles and bones aren't fully developed yet (which takes about a year). The sport is hard from the stand point that the dog has to really listen to you and obey the commands. My older dog has alot of fun with it and now that my younger dog is a year old I'm thinking of training her as well.
Agility is a good mental workout for a Border Collie (the obstacles themselves are not that challenging to the dog, but watching you and taking direction while they are hyped up and running requires a lot of focus on their part)
Basic obedience is a must. Your dog will eventually be offlead while doing agility so at the very least you will need reliable "come" and "stay" commands. I wouldn't worry about agility classes if your puppies are very young. Maybe get some of the easier obstacles - a tunnel or two, and a plank (just to set on the ground and get them used to walking on it. Don't raise it up when you're working with young, clumsy puppies) and work on that at home a little bit with them. You can do jumps with puppies, but keep them VERY low to the ground and don't overdo it.
Both of my dogs love agility, it's a lot of fun even if you don't want to compete.
Basic obedience is a must. Your dog will eventually be offlead while doing agility so at the very least you will need reliable "come" and "stay" commands. I wouldn't worry about agility classes if your puppies are very young. Maybe get some of the easier obstacles - a tunnel or two, and a plank (just to set on the ground and get them used to walking on it. Don't raise it up when you're working with young, clumsy puppies) and work on that at home a little bit with them. You can do jumps with puppies, but keep them VERY low to the ground and don't overdo it.
Both of my dogs love agility, it's a lot of fun even if you don't want to compete.
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C
agility
Hey if you have trained and rode horses the agility course should come very natural to you. I have always trained my dogs myself and had loads of fun doing it. It is amazing what you can do with your dog when there is that total 200 % bond.
Once I have my dogs started I then take them to class. But remeber that is just me. Good luck with puppy's
Hey if you have trained and rode horses the agility course should come very natural to you. I have always trained my dogs myself and had loads of fun doing it. It is amazing what you can do with your dog when there is that total 200 % bond.
Once I have my dogs started I then take them to class. But remeber that is just me. Good luck with puppy's
We started Morrie when he was six months old in agility classes. So far he has jumped 22" ONCE (by accident), which is where he will end up jumping when he is the correct age, by height default. We usually jump 10" and not very much since he is still only 10 months old.
We were at our first trial this past weekend (to watch and volunteer since our club was hosting it and AgilityPup was working on her junior handler's title!), and saw a LOT of border collies and dude, were they ever FAST. We watched one in particular who was very very good, circle his owner all the way til the start line and then occasionally in between obstacles, lol, he would get so excited that he would circle again. They seem to do really really well with it if you can focus.
They do recommend obedience classes, but ours didn't. AgilityPup's dog, Zoey had only been on a leash half a dozen times before we started our classes. We had absolutely no idea what we were getting into but our dogs have stayed on track with the rest of the class (several of whom are obedience class graduates!), with a little bit of extra elbow grease. Your basic commands - come, sit, stay, down, and heeling are very good to have - Morrie only knew how to sit and heel as he was shown conformation before we got him!
I do also recommend classes - there were plenty of things we worked on, especially in our foundations class, to help them focus and stay with you that I would never have thought of and it does just that, builds a very good foundation with your dog so you can trust them off leash and work with them easily without them getting distracted.
We were at our first trial this past weekend (to watch and volunteer since our club was hosting it and AgilityPup was working on her junior handler's title!), and saw a LOT of border collies and dude, were they ever FAST. We watched one in particular who was very very good, circle his owner all the way til the start line and then occasionally in between obstacles, lol, he would get so excited that he would circle again. They seem to do really really well with it if you can focus.
They do recommend obedience classes, but ours didn't. AgilityPup's dog, Zoey had only been on a leash half a dozen times before we started our classes. We had absolutely no idea what we were getting into but our dogs have stayed on track with the rest of the class (several of whom are obedience class graduates!), with a little bit of extra elbow grease. Your basic commands - come, sit, stay, down, and heeling are very good to have - Morrie only knew how to sit and heel as he was shown conformation before we got him!
I do also recommend classes - there were plenty of things we worked on, especially in our foundations class, to help them focus and stay with you that I would never have thought of and it does just that, builds a very good foundation with your dog so you can trust them off leash and work with them easily without them getting distracted.
