How long did you train....

[Duke'sMommy]

I was just curious to how long everyone trained before they entered their dog into there first agility competion? I know every dog is different but just curious. Im getting Duke back into agility and as long as his hips hold up, Which Im sure they will, I really wanna get into it. One day I would like to compete with him. How do you know when your dog is ready? As well does anyone have dog aggressive dogs they compete with? How do you really makre sure that they are ready for it. Duke is dog aggressive but when he does have a task he is focused but there is always that what if in my head. My biggest fear would be he'd lose complete focus and go attack another dog. That would be no good.

 

[manymuddypaws]

I would ask your instructor- they know you and your dog, and will have a better idea of when you should trial.

In my opinion it usually takes a full year of classes- and then a few extra months to proof at funmatches etc...Each dog is different though, and it will depend on how often you train, and how you train.

If your dog has dog issues you need to do lots and lots and lots of proofing- go to funmatches, pop into classes other than his own so he can see other dogs, practice your recall, and make sure that when he is off leash he will still choose to stay with you...not many organisations are very tolerant about aggressive displays at a trial.

Agility wise your dog should be able to perform all pieces of equipment- even weaves, and you should have a basic idea of handling. The more practice the better!

 

[Dekka]

I trialed Kaiden too early. But we lived lol. I find at least a year depending on the dog. And it depends a bit on the venue.

CPE starts out with uber simple flowing lines and no teeter and no weaves. AAC starts off a little harder so you need to have mastered more skills before you enter.

 

[SisMorphine]

I think it also REALLY depends on the dog. If Teeny and I had been training regularly we would have been able to start competing the second she turned 16 months, but she is a natural. With the right handler she could FLY through the levels, unfortunately I'm her handicap

 

[adojrts]

I agree, at least a year of regular classes but depending on you and your dog towards the end of the year, start going to funmatches and entering. If you are serious, get your own weaves, it will take forever to train them if you are only going to class once a week, even twice a week.

A good rule of thumb for when to start competing is when you and your dog can successfully handle courses at least one level above the level that you start at. If your going to play in AAC that is really important, because its easy to pick up legs in Starters and Title, the game changes once you get into Advanced. And people often bottle neck in Advanced.
In Starters, refusals don't count on weaves or contacts but do for everything else. Once you are in Advanced, all refusals count. So if your dog misses a weave entry or pops you have just joined the 5 fault club which means no Q.
I know someone that Titled out of Starters quickly but since then for 3 YEARS has not been able to pick up 1 Q, let alone Title. Thats a lot of money in entry fees and training, not to mention the frustration for both them.

Yes, it is suppose to fun and not about Q'ing and Titling but I think people and their dogs can only take so much of near misses before they give up and quit.

I have a dog that is fear aggressive/reactive and it hasn't stopped us from trialing. Having said that he is also not a dog to leave me to engage another dog, he only reacted if they got to close and within his comfort zone, then he lunged, snarling and snapping, looking and sounding like the biggest bad a$$ going but it was only show. Although he did nip a dog once, his biggest fear, big and black and too close with me not with him.

I worked on his reactivity, he can now walk through a tight crowd of strange dogs and not react. I also manage our surrounds or at the very least be very aware of the dogs around us, because its not the reactive dogs you have to be worried about for the most part..........its the dogs that are friendly that are often rude about greetings and owners that are not paying attention to their dogs bc their dogs are friendly.

 

[AgilityKrazii]

It was a probably about a year and a half or so before I started competeing with my lab.
Of course it will be different for each dog in how fast a dog is ready for competition but I feel the dog needs to know all the equipement used in the org. of choice, like if you only plan on competeing in NADAC teaching the teeter, chute and table before his first trial isnt needed because he wont have to complete thos obstacles.
I feel the dog also needs to understand his job on the equipment, the dog should know 100% his job on the contacts along with every other obstacle. They should also have been practicing full sequences for some time now so they have a good understanding of front and rear crosses among other handleing moves, the same goes for the hander
The dog should also be used to being crated, he should be used to working in different invironments under distractions without a treat or toy in hand. He should be able to get into 'work mode' and focus without going and leaving the ring or sniffing.
I probably forgot a few other things but I thos are the ones that pop up in my head right away.

As for the dog agression, I wouldnt compete untill that is able to be managed or taken care of, all agility org. I know of do not allow agressive dogs and if there are any displays of agression they will tell you to leave.

 

[BostonBanker]

I trialed a bit too early - Meg was very generous to me and I never really paid for it. Probably 9 months or so after I started training; she did know all the equipment, including the weaves as long as I sort of baby-sat them.

As for the aggression - obviously it depends on his level and your ability to control it. I do know that in some venues (possibly all) a serious display of aggression can get the dog banned for life. I was terrified about that before I trialed, until a friend explained that it means much more aggression than I had to deal with. I will say, agility trials are one of the BEST places for Meg's dog issues. Almost all agility handlers are fantastic about keeping their dogs focused on them and under control at all times. I rarely have to deal with dogs pulling on their leashes to reach us, or owners holding the end of the leash and not watching their dogs.

 

[Duke'sMommy]

Thanks for all the responces. Before I stopped agility with Duke we did about 3 months and he was coming along really nicely. Was doing small courses with no problems. We almost had the weave poles down before we stopped. I was very proud. We have been working really hard on his dog aggression the whole time we have been out of agility. So hes on his way. When we did have agility classes the trainer brought her dog out and had her sit at the side lines a few classes and Duke stayed completely focused on me and never bothered with the dog so that was a great sign.

 

[cinnamon]

I remember taking a couple of private lessons last winter and the instructor would bring her dog in the arena just to get my dog used to having another dog nearby. Then the next time, she'd get the dog excited and barking so Breezey would be used to excited dogs nearby.

A year later she is great in the arena. Other people can come in and she doesn't start barking and jumping. I've taken her to a couple of fun matches at our training arena and I was quite surprised at how well she did around all these strange dogs.

 

[MafiaPrincess]

I took a year of classes with Cider before entering an AAC trial. We weren't ready. I thought we were, but there were things I didn't know to practice. Ring crew are still a horrible distraction to Cider at times.. But having entered no dog event ever I really was unaware.. Cider was marking occasionally in the ring and I'd been told to just keep going which was rewarding her. All in all it could have been worse, but I got the insight and knowledge we needed to improve from it. Also became closer to Dekka who had some insight into solving our marking issue. 2 months later we managed to get 4 Qs and had solved many of our issues. We've been trialling for two years as of next month.

We take private lessons these days during most of the warmish months, and Smudge participates. I wish he'd had group foundation classes, but anyone I'd like to take classes from never had anything we could make it to. He's had less formal training, but I know more these days. He's had 2 summers worth of small amounts of Cider's private lesson time. He trialled a jumpers and a snooker AAC run in December. He's not ready to trial, but I pushed it out of excitement to see. He Q'd snooker, he missed jumpers by a 5 fault for popping out of the chute. We just got the okay this week post back injury from the chiro to start light training again. I've promised no frame no weaves till his back is stronger, but we have much we can focus and work on now that he's been cleared to play. My winter goal with him was 2x2 weaves as I have 4 bases, but with the injury I had to put it on hold.

Now that I've got two dogs both playing rally and agility it has really shown me that many things are dependant on your dog. What has been horribly difficult for one has been easy to the other and vice versa. Some of the easiness is personality too. Smudge is a clingy mama's boy who runs a touch slower so we can run most of a course together. Cider is more of a challenge to keep playing with me. Both have their pros and cons though and these days I can appreciate their differences.