Puppy showing agility skills?????

[mayaelena]

Hello. I have an 11 week BC mix puppy. We've had him 3 weeks now and he immediately started jumping over things and rolling. Could he have some hidden agility skills??? There is somewhere locally that does agility and obedience training, I am going to contact them. He looooooves to jump over things. Lately his thing has been falling to the ground and rolling. This is my first go around with a BC who has possibly agility skills. Some tips from those of you out there with BC's who do agility would be appreciated.

 

Mayaelena

 

 

P.S. He is already a master herder!! He can herd the big dogs into a corner and NOT let them out. The look on their faces when he does this is priceless.

[Tassie]

My key word is "patience"! Let him be a puppy - don't rush into any sort of formal stuff too soon.

 

Having said that, there's a lot of foundation play you can do, to build up your puppy's focus on you, and a good play relationship. You can also do lots of things to increase your pup's rear-end awareness, and ability to work both sides. Getting your pup confident to walk on wobbly surfaces is also good. Basic obedience moves, and a really good recall are also helpful.

 

There've been a few threads recently covering this sort of thing.

 

The other key workd is "fun" - - have fun with your pup, and enjoy the puppy days.

[1sheepdoggal]

I would suggest not allowing him to jump on or off things at such a young age. He could and most likely will do himself injury. Stick to ground work, if he can jump now, he wont forget how to later.

[berocca]

I second the no jumping advice. My sister has a dog that developed OCD and it is not fun. Basically until they are 9 months old jumps need to be wrist height (so basically nothing) and then from 9months they can be elbow height. After 12 months you can start increasing them but I still wouldnt do too much jumping at full height until about 18mnths.

 

Mind you, jumping and rolling. Sounds to me like you have a BC puppy at your house I would just let him be a puppy for a while. Keep training sessions incredibly short (5mins a few times a day) and just work on things like going through a tunnel, following your hand, walking on wobbly surfaces, walking on thin planks of wood, ramps, etc. You can also teach him to target a small, clear plastic dish which will help you with contacts later. Message me if you want to know the details of this.

 

Have fun with him, he sounds like a character. Puppyhood is such a fun time, just sit back and enjoy laughing at his antics because before long he will be a teenager and will do everything possible to frustrate the hell out of you

[Shetlander]

I would suggest not allowing him to jump on or off things at such a young age. He could and most likely will do himself injury. Stick to ground work, if he can jump now, he wont forget how to later.

 

I second keeping him on the ground as much as possible, doing foundation work and of course just letting him be a puppy. His little bones are still growing and at risk of injury. Also, I would discourage the "herding" of other dogs. He sounds like a real pistol and I am sure is as cute and fun as all get out. However, cornering the dogs is inappropriate and could become the start of a bad habit of thinking he gets to control where other dogs go and what other dogs do. That could become a problem. There are too many BC's out there who are motion reactive with other dogs to the point of unacceptable or even aggressive behavior. With a smarty pants BC, I've found it really pays to be very proactive about setting limits and nipping controlling behaviors in the bud. It saves a lot of grief in the long run.

[Root Beer]

One of the first things I would work on is teaching your puppy to call off of other dogs. The fun aspect of agility is having the dog jump and go through tunnels and all of the other fun stuff. What is sometimes not so fun is teaching your dog to be calm and focused when other dogs are taking their turn. Or - and I ran into this with the first dog I attempted to train to do agility - even to be calm and focused in the midst of working on the equipment!

 

It's cool to see the raw talent there. I saw the same thing with both Speedy, who loved jumping and walking on things as a puppy, and with Dean, who (at 10 months old) spontaeously cleared the back of the sofa when he got excited and liked to get up on the recliner and tip it back.

 

Are you familiar with clicker training? If I had a young pup now, I would load up a clicker and free shape some random skills for use in agility later using the clicker: touch a target, "go" to the target", "get out" to the target, go through a set of uprights without a bar, go through a tunnel, play with a wobbly board, sit and lie down on a low board, etc. While keeping it all very fun, I would be looking to develop a thinking dog.

 

I think you would do well to get in touch with the local training center, as you said. If they have a good puppy class, that would be the place to get started.

[Mudpups]

My Taj is nearly four months old and we have just started Puppy Foundation class in agility last week. There are three main purposes of this class 1) Learn to have fun with our pup 2) to teach your pup to pay attention and focus on You, even with distractions 3) Getting the pup used to different surfaces. The jumping is virtually non existant - all the puppy equipment is puppy sized and the jumps/ladder rungs are tiny, only a couple of inches off the ground (and we havn't done that yet). The club we have joined encourages positive reinforcement and clicker training.

 

I have to be honest though, Taj plays hard at whatever game he plays - he jumps everything, much to my dismay, and if he is running he will bound over tiny things in his path (like a broom laying down or the garden hose). We can usually prevent jumping in the house onto the lounge etc but outside its much harder to prevent. I cringe everytime he jumps up or down something or when he jumps to catch his ball...and when he slides and rolls over catching his ball....or when he slides into a tree or something, no matter how careful we throw the ball.

 

I think its kind of normal for a BC pup to play for 'sheep stations"