2 Dogs, 1 Class?

[Laurelin]

Er so... as many know Mia's agility class dwindled down to her and one other dog. The school has a rule that 3 dogs must be in a class for the class to still be held. So we were put on hiatus until they could combine us with another class.

Summer's class restarted fine with 4 dogs returning from the pre-agility. Then suddenly we're down to Summer and one other dog now. So my trainer asks me and Avi (dog in Mia's class) owner if we wanted to combine with the other class. I said sure then realized we'd be combining with Summer's class. They usually don't allow one handler to have multiples in one class except I do know some of the competition level class are running more than one dog.

At any rate, I'm going to try it for the remaining weeks. Summer's class has just done the first pre-Agility class. Mia's class is 12 weeks beyond that. So she said we'd be altering the exercises for Summer and the other dog (I forget his name) and then Mia and Avi will get more complicated stuff.

Anyways, I've done two dogs in one rally class before and it was fine. But it was sitting down and waiting your turn to go whereas in agility we do more activities where everyone is working at once (although not as much now).

I asked the trainer if she thought it would present problems for us and she just said that it would make me have to run more. I'm a little concerned they will bark the first few weeks while they're waiting their turns in the kennel. But maybe it will give me an opportunity to work one in the kennel more.

I do think there is another pre-agility class that just started out so if this doesn't work out maybe I can hold summer back a session and stick her in there.

Any tips?

[JessLough]

If nothing else, it'll get them used to being in their kennels while other dogs are playing agility?

[Kilter]

If you can handle it, I'd go for it! Most of my training these days consists of three dogs in the van, taking out one, running that one on whatever we're working on, putting that dog back and getting the next one ready while someone else trains, and so on. In an hour we train agility and obedience/rally with 2-4 people and up to ten dogs.

Takes longer to do field...

[BostonBanker]

We have plenty of people at our training center who will run more than one dog in a class. We only have one dog out at a time during agility classes though, so that part isn't an issue. They pull one dog out of the crate, run them, and bring the next dog out when it is time. It's sometimes hard on the owner when it is a small class and we are running full courses, just from a physical standpoint, but otherwise works just fine!

[Red.Apricot]

There's a few people in my rally class that have two dogs; they have different solutions. One lady does half the class with each dog while the other waits in the van. One lady brings a crate and switches them out each turn. One gentleman brings a helper to hold the leash, lol.

[Saeleofu]

I regularly take both dogs to classes. One gets crated while the other works. Usually I get a bit of a discount on the second dog in the same class, whether it's for a full term or just drop-ins. I've never had a problem with it.

[Shai]

Yeah I do it a lot with two or three. It's fun and the dogs love it, just gotta be sure to keep your head clear so each dog gets what s/he needs.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Joining the crew, 2 at a time regularly.

[monkeys23]

I take two regularly and the one I'm not working is crated. My clicker trainer has a bunch of vari kennels on her back patio for just such occasions.
When I fostered Spaz I also took him to our semi-private clicker lessons a few times. Both he and Lily tend to throw little fits about not being the one getting worked, but its good practice for them!

I only took Lily to reactive class with Scout once, but it was really good for her to practice hanging in the crate while I worked with Scout. And a good distraction for the other dogs since she's super vocal (they all did awesome with her obnoxiousness!). Traded them out a few times and used both as neutral dogs for BAT setups and parallel games during the hour and a half class.

[wildnout14]

I have found that dogs that spend alot of time in a kennel tend to be more hyper.