# How do I prepaire my puppy for Agility?



## MyCodyBoy (Sep 27, 2008)

I _really _want to get into Agility training with my pup.
The Group in my area starts training at 12 months.

I was wondering if there is anything I can do with my puppy to get him ready for Agility classes.

I do plan on doing the basic obediance classes with him, but what else should I do with him. Should I get him use to going down slids and climbing jungle gyms at the park?


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

Some facilities do have puppy classes. It's important to wait with some agility activities until they are older so they do not get injured. I remember having a younger dog in Tucker's class and they wouldn't let him use the weave poles or jump up and down too much. 

A number of members can help you out on this one. They are so into agility! We only took one or two classes.


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## MurphyTeller (Sep 28, 2008)

*Puppy agility prep*

There are a lot of things you can start teaching your puppy in preparation for one day playing agility...most importantly teach him or her to learn - play training games, teach tricks and both of you should learn how to shape behaviors - for you to break down a big behavior and for your pup to learn to think and problem solve...

Work on your pup's flat skills (turns, stays, recalls, etc) - these will make or break you later. Start with a little board on the ground - I started with a 12" wide strip of plywood 5-6' long. Teach your puppy to walk across it - you can start reinforcing your ultimate contact behavior at the end of the board (2 on/2 off, sit, down, etc). You can also start on a wobble board (ours was a 4' plank with a tennis ball nailed to the middle - teach the puppy to stand on it, interact with it, etc).

Don't be in a hurry to start jumping - but poles on the ground is an OK place to start working at your side, getting some distance, etc - this is WAY before you put the jumps to even 4". Puppies love tunnels and can safely do those too - start with straight tunnels and move to curved tunnels, practice your crosses, send to tunnels, etc- so much to do....

I don't teach weaves until 18 months or so and even then I only do weaves lightly - teaching the concept then asking for speed around 2 years...There's too much compression of the spine in weaves for baby dogs.

If this is your first agility puppy I really recommend finding a puppy agility class or someone to take lessons from to get him (her) started you have the right idea starting him early - but you need to do so correctly and safely - you don't want to fix things later because you trained them the "wrong" way on your own (novice dog/novice handler syndrome)...

Best of luck!
Erica


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## Lego&Jacub (Jul 18, 2006)

We just started our first agility class two weekends ago. It's definitely a load of fun!!!

Definitely take your pup to jungle gyms and have them climb up the stairs, put their front feet (only) onto the bottom of the slide... things of this nature. But I would never recommend taking a dog (pup or adult) down a slide... there is great potential for injury there. And there are no slides in agility at any rate.

Another thing our teachers have said is to get a scrap of board (like a 2' x 2' x 1/2" piece of plywood) and staple a tennis ball in the center of one side. Flip it over and have your dog get used to walking on things that move. Another one is a similar scrap of board (but more shaped like a teeter totter) and attach a piece of PVC pipe below it. Nothing too big... but so that they get used to the teeter totter movement of the board.

You can also get your pup used to targeting. Put your hand in front of your pup and when they touch it with their nose, click and treat! Then get them to follow your hand(s) and again, when they touch it, click and treat!

You can tape a butter lid (or similar) on the wall and teach them to touch that with their noses as well. Once they understand to touch it up close, increase the distance slowly... until they are actually going "out" away from you to touch the wall.

You can get your pup used to walking over a broomstick handle. Place it very low to the ground and throw a treat over the broom handle and coax your pup to go over the broomhandle. Again, if your pup is very young then you want to keep it incredibly low... only a few inches off the ground and only have them jump the stick two or three times (total per day). Much damage can be done to the hips and joints of young pups if they are allowed to jump and run too much.

Obedience class is a great way to get them focused on you and to have them learn the basics. 

Just basically try every new trick you can find to teach lol!!!


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## hawtee (Nov 1, 2006)

Hi Bridy,
If I guess correctly Cody is only 7 weeks old. No slides and jungle gyms at this time, he can injure himself...one thing you can do soon will be puppy pre-K to get him used to other people and pups. Obedience is very important for agility. I would not only take basic but go into advanced obedience.Some fun things I did with Lilli at that age was get a cardboard box and have her come thru it to me lots of treats, got a board and laid it on the ground and let her get used to walking on it, got a very low to the ground tippy board so she could get used to motion...put two poles about 20" apart(side by side) and called her thru them. Played peek a boo with a light weight material to get her used to having something surround her but always treating with everything we did...right now he will not have a lot of focus for he is just a baby but that will improve as he gets older..
Hope this helps some


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## kgiff (Jul 21, 2008)

The most important thing you can do for you pup is give him a solid foundation. Make training fun. Make sure his sits, downs, and stays are proofed, and that he has good focus when you work with him. Work on drive with him, get him toy motivated so you can get him to work for toy rewards as well as treats. There is a lot you can do with them before introducing them to the equipment. I know it takes a lot of patience. I'm itching to get my puppy started, but he won't be on contact equipment until after his growth plates are closed and won't start on weaves until he's well over a year. 

There are lots of good suggestions here for exercises you can start that don't require a lot of stress on his joints. Just remember to make it fun for him and keep sessions short. If you can find a foundation class that concentrates on the teaching skills on the flat, then that's great. If you find intro classes that put them on the equipment, then wait until he's older. Good luck and have fun. It's addicting.


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## Maxs Mom (Mar 22, 2008)

I agree with all the posts above. I made sure Teddi had a good sit, relatively good stay, and came when called (for the most part ) She was 6 months old when she took puppy agility so of course her obedience was not locked in stone but she had an understanding. Most early agility classes (beginner) are done 'on' leash but the more your dog understands commands the easier it will be for you. 

Another thing you can do is get your dog used to "different" things. When you take him for walks if you have the opportunity to take him on different things go for it. Our parks have bridges on jungle gyms that move as you cross them lead him over that get him used to things moving under his feet. Put down a tarp and or a ladder, walk him on the tarp it will make a funny noise and feel funny under his feet. Keep it positive like a game if he is nervous, lots of rewards. Ladders are used a lot in agility training to teah a dog to be aware of his feet. You can do that at home, just walk through the rungs. I agree, no slides no real jumps until he is at least 12 months old, but you can put a pole on the ground between something (like a jump) and practice going over it on the ground. All these things will help him be comfortable with the different obstacles he will be introduced too. 

Another thing I did. I taught my dogs to climb rocks. When they were pups I used small rocks, bigger ones as they got older. Teaching them the up command. Again it helped them feel that whatever they faced in agility was no biggie.

I LOVE agility. I have been doing it for about 3 years with my lab, we are competing in our first year right now. Too much fun! I also have Teddi in agilty. She took puppy agility and a focus class before she was a year. Then she had her surgery, we re took the focus class and started in Competition I where they learn sequences. However she hurt herself and had to stop. We are now FINALLY half way through our first session. She is going to be a fast little demon IF I can ever get her attention :roflmao:We all have our spots we need to work through. ENJOY!


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## goldengirls550 (Jun 12, 2008)

Like the person above me said, lay a solid foundation for training. Train for fast and reliable sits and downs. You will need this on the table. Train sit and down stays. Again, this will be necessary for the table and for start line stays. Socialize your puppy once he has had shots. Take him to strange places. Walk on unusual surfaces. Work heeling on BOTH sides, as you will do lots of offside handling in the excellent classes. I got this from my agility book:

Early Basic Training (2-4 months old)
Teach pupy to come when called. Always have a treat when puppy reaches you.

Go potty on command. This will come in handy at trials.

Crate training.

Enjoying car rides. Drive to the park once puppy has had all vaccinations or to a friend's house or to another fun place.

Basic commands: sit, down, come, stay. Use positive reinforcement training.

Teaching confidence over unusual surfaces. Teach puppy to walk on an x-pen or ladder when it lays on the ground.

Enroll in a Puppy Kindergarten class once puppy has had all her vaccinations

Early Agility Training (2-4 months old)

Puppy in a Blanket-- use and old towel or blanket and begin with a treat hidden in your hand under the blanket. Coax puppy to put nose under blanket and reward with a treat. Encourage him/her to find his/her way out but never allow puppy to get tangled (Preliminary closed tunnel training)

Walk the plank--put a long plank of wood (12 in. wide by 12 ft long) between two cinder block and teach the puppy to walk on it (lift him/her on and off of it) (Preliminary dogwalk training)

by a cheap tunnel (maybe at a children's store)... pups of almost any age can learn tunnel

lay jump bars (or broom handles) on the floor and lead the puppy over.

practice FAST recalls

get a piece of plywood 18 X 24 inches and use a half circle of 1.5 inch PVC to make a "tippy board" (Preliminary teeter training)

Early weaves-- get a cheap set of 6 pvc weave-o-matic style weaves and bend them all the way out. Call puppy through the center. Raise gradually every week or so.

Early Training (4-6 months)

Begin going on longer car trips. Go to fun matches ("practice dog shows"), dog parks, public parks, and other places.

Continue to work on basic commands, add the following: heel, heel position, come, here, get out, go right, go left.

Agility Training (6-12 months old)

Start to introduce puppy to obstacles at LOW heights. Keep A-frame, dogwalk, and teeter low. I wouldn't really jump over 8-10 inches off the ground to protect puppy's developing joints.

Good luck in your training. I have personally used many of these methods in training my pup. She is 18 months old now and unbelievably FAST. Train positivley and hard and it will pay off. Most of all have fun!

Emily and the golden girls: Aubrie and Layla


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

I hope you have loads of fun! Some of the members who have responded have some of their agility photos on youtube. I think you can find a few on MurphyTeller's web site, too!


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## katieanddusty (Feb 9, 2006)

Does the agility training group have a foundation class, or does it go straight into obstacle training? (if it goes straight into obstacle training, there's a lot more foundation that you should do yourself before you start)

The most important thing is that you have a good working relationship with your dog, and your dog is confident and trusts you (meaning you have to hold up your end of the deal by not telling the dog to do something scary like go down a slide). You should introduce your dog to clicker training and shaping behaviors (which is basically clicking and rewarding for taking small steps toward your final goal, like if you want the dog to spin to the left you reward moving the head to the left, moving the head a little more, take a step to the left, two steps, and so on). 

Shape the dog to stand on a bunch of different surfaces and reward the dog for offering behaviors while standing on them. Train some random tricks just to get you and your dog used to communicating with each other (spinning in either direction, waving with either paw, weaving between your legs, rolling over, etc). Get the dog comfortable with standing on something that wobbles (safely), like if you have a board put it over the hose or something so it tips a little bit.

Another really important thing especially for a young large dog is rear-end awareness. Put a ladder flat on the ground and have the dog walk through it (try to keep him from bouncing all around). Walking on benches, logs, etc is also good as long as you make sure they're stable, aren't hot metal benches, etc.

The ladder and wobbly board at least should be covered in an agility foundation class, but it's still good to have a head start.


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## MurphyTeller (Sep 28, 2008)

Kimm said:


> I hope you have loads of fun! Some of the members who have responded have some of their agility photos on youtube. I think you can find a few on MurphyTeller's web site, too!


LOL - You FOUND US!!! 

Lots of agility videos on there - some obedience vids too. Some of the videos show Teller in the learning process of some equipment - his weaves and his teeter - I keep meaning to put together some short "how to's" - maybe this winter when I have some more time!!! (yeah right).


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## katieanddusty (Feb 9, 2006)

Here is a video of what you can do with a wobbly board to get your dog comfortable with the movement (I used a low teeter, you could just put a board on top of something a few inches tall to get the same effect).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjn-BtFeYdA

There are some old videos of Dusty competing too - not many recent ones because he always takes the summer off and then I went to college.


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