A good plan

[Shadows Mom]

I had always intended to put Shadow into flyball... but after 4 months of emailing the ONE club here I have yet to get a response. What to do? *googles agility* I found an agility club thats only 15 minutes from my place! I signed Shadow up for "Puppy socialization" classes first tho, need her a little more calm around other dogs hehe. After that is over she is signed up for beginners agility classes. Hoping this will help with her 8 million gigawatts of energy! Sound okie to you guys?

[Sue R]

The thought of flyball leaves me cold (sorry to those of you who love it) but I have done some agility for fun with several of my dogs and find it to be very enjoyable for the dogs and myself.

 

Your plan sounds good to me!

[RaisingRiver]

Sounds good to me. I find agility is a great way to bond and further train your dog. I've never tried flyball, but to me it seems a less bonding experience as you interact less with your dog - I could be wrong, but that's my perception. I prefer the bonding.

[Alaska]

Obedience first, agility second.

 

You don't need to put an obedience title on your dog before starting agility, but you do need a good working relationship wherein your dog is focused on you and will do what you ask when you ask it. Otherwise you two won't be learning much about agility, and you may be making it harder for others in the class to do so.

 

Unless, of course, "beginning agility" is actually a foundation class and not just running dogs over equipment. That would be ideal.

[Tassie]

Sounds like a good plan - but as others have said, make sure it's a real fouindaation class, and not going straight onto equipment. She's still a pup, I think? So you don't want to be getting onto equipment in a serious way until she's about 12 months at least - stuff on the ground is OK.

 

Try looking for articles and so on on puppy agility, and agility foundations for puppies. As Alaska has said, it's about doing the groundwork and building up a really good working relationship between you and your pup, and doing plenty of work with her to met her "back-end-aware" and as two-sided as you can - you probably know most dogs, like people and horses, are 'handed/pawed/hoofed' - show a preference for one side rather than the other.

 

Basic obedience, rally-O, trick training - are all good.

 

BTW, how is Shadow's health?

[Aquarius89]

I love flyball, but I actually prefer agility. Flyball may be cheaper, but I think agility is more fun.

I'm going to be enrolling my two in it shortly!

 

HAVE FUN!

[Shadows Mom]

It is a foundation course =) Her training is actually doing well, sit and lay she knows verbal and signals for... stay is a little harder for her so fa LOL. And come works great unless she is looking for a place to "big-potty" then she ignores the universe LOL. Her attention span is still that of a gnat, but we're working on it!

 

She's fine now Tassie, she passed a wad of bun bun "guts" (stuffing from her toy she ate) and she's back to her puppy self! She won't be left alone with stuffed toys ever again! I'm going to invest in a kong in December (when I have money again).