# No enthusiasm for Agility?



## Beanie (Mar 18, 2010)

My pup (4.5 months) has been in agility class since she was 10 weeks old. Her breeder owns an training center so we started agility as well as puppy class. We were doing pretty well but the past 2-3 weeks she really has lost her enthusiasm for both classes. Both classes are full of puppies and not high pressure. We focus on fun. But in both classes she is not turning up her nose at my treats (even meat) and just going through the motions. Weave pole used to be a fun run, now we meander through. It has gotten warm and she hates the hot so that may be part of it but I'm at a loss as to what to do.

When do you know if your dog is just not cut out for agility? Ideas on how to spark her interest? New treat ideas? Ideas in general? 

Staying in agility is not mandatory. I do it only for fun and because I loved the connection it built with my older dog.

Thanks!


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Is she eating or not? (you said "she is not turning up her nose", but I think you meant otherwise!). If she's really not eating, we need to change that.

Does she eat at home? Does she eat in public? 

Does she have a favorite toy? 

If you know she doesn't like heat... maybe find a later night class or an early morning class. Take a crate and all teh cool-weather gear (cooling bed, fan, etc...) for when you're waiting for your turn, or to give her a couple minutes break now and then. Or take off classes until fall, or find an appropriate puppy class at an air conditioned facility. 

Work on active behaviors when she is excited...we want only fast and responsive associations with the equipment and motions/turning cues. If she's having a really bad night, sit out or work on other behaviors at the side of the room. 

What has your instructor recommended?


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## lgnutah (Feb 26, 2007)

The heat really affects Brooks. When we go on walks when it is hot, he will turn around and head back....so I can certainly see that doing agility in the heat would have an impact


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## kgiff (Jul 21, 2008)

At 4.5 months your focus needs to be on fun. Weave poles are hard and stressful for most dogs, not to mention hard on their bodies. 

My 2 year old started in foundation agility classes at probably about that age. Our first foundation class really didn't focus on any obstacles, but just foundation skills. He did everything to please me and he learned a bunch, but I wouldn't say he was enthusiastic for agility at that age. We didn't see weaves until our foundation 3 class 4 or 5 months later and even then we only worked wide open channel weaves (for speed) and a few entrances on 2x2s because the twisting required on weaves is too hard for a growing body. 

My guy shuts down after more than 3 reps of an exercise or so, so I made sure to only do what I knew he was capable of and make sure he was having fun and getting a lot of praise. 

He's now 23 months and LOVES agility. But I wouldn't say we really hit the enthusiastic phase until he was about 14 months and was running courses and sequences and our teamwork had started to come together.

He's also not a huge fan of food at times. He'll randomly turn his nose up at a treat that he thought was fantastic previously, and then other times he'll love it again. I don't rely on training with treats with him. A lot is done with praise and with toys -- he loves playing tug. But a 4.5 month old is probably losing teeth, so tug may not be a good idea with his sensitive mouth. 

Now my 8 year old stresses over weave poles and 9 times out of 10 meanders through them. He does much better when he's got a cheering section (other than me). But I didn't use the same methods to train him and I did my young dog.

With a young pup, I'd be more interested in building the bond between you and the dog, and building up his drive and enthusiasm than worrying about the mechanics of a particular skill. They've got plenty of time to learn the obstacles in the future -- I taught weaves at 14 or 15 months and he was entered in his first trial at 17 months.


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## Selli-Belle (Jan 28, 2009)

Like Kgiff said, just focus on fun for right now, your pup is very young. There is so much going on with his body and brain development, that a few weeks, heck a few months, of not being so into agility says nothing about his future potential. Selli meandered through courses until she was two when she decided doing it fast was fun.


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## Beanie (Mar 18, 2010)

Well Duh - I meant she turns her nose up at my treats at class but at home she will eat any sort of treat I have on hand. She did ok at the beginning of the lessons and really seemed to be having fun and took treats with no problem.

We pretty much just do single obstacles and the poles are wide open with cages around them so they can meander if they want and she is definitely doing that now! There are five other pups of various breeds in her class (two litter mates as well) and they have a ball. We have lots of down time as well especially as the class as gotten larger. But yesterday she just kind of said forget it and preferred to sleep under the chair. I bounced around and got her going (oh boy we're having fun! Yeah!) and then she did her thing but without a bounce in her step.

I don't want her to hate this but now, of course, I just started another class and would hate to waste my money. Of course I'd stop if it is harming her in any way I'm just conflicted on what to do. Just after I signed up I did find recommended place with evening classes which I would much rather do myself than mid-afternoon Saturday! I'm not so much in love with the heat either.

What to do, what to do?


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

How much are you practicing? I find mine gets bored with repetition--and yet some repetition is needed for perfection, oh the never ending battle. 

I was always taught leave your dog wanting more. If you weave once and she runs through it happily, but by the third or fourth time is starting to drag and meander you are doing too many reps. Far better to quit while your ahead, even on the first one, then to end on a third or fourth try where she is starting to think this is boring. You want her last thought to be 'that was soooo much fun!'


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## Selli-Belle (Jan 28, 2009)

My best suggestion is relax! She may have just been tired that day. She is just a baby. I also don't think you are ever wasting your money if you get to spend some focused time with your pup.


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## Beanie (Mar 18, 2010)

We do no more than 2-3 reps on each thing and she has started out bored these past couple of weeks so its not the repetition yet! 

I agree relax - I'm trying to make her have fun - we celebrate every thing!!

But I was just curious your thoughts and experiences. My challenge if her interest continues to wane is do I keep going or maybe stop for a while and let her get a bit older. Concentrate on the puppy classes and leave it at that for now.

Thanks for all your thoughts.


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## kgiff (Jul 21, 2008)

I don't know the structure of your agility class, but it doesn't necessarily sound to be age appropriate. 

I'm not sure I'm familiar with the way you're doing weave poles -- wide open with cage around them so they can meander if they want? Anything that allows them to meander doesn't sound like something I'd want to be encouraging a puppy to do. We did some recalls through wide open channel weaves so that they were really running fast either to us or a toy at 10 or 11 months of age, but honestly, I can't see any benefits of starting a puppy on weave poles that young. 

As others have said, at this age I really don't think you can truly gauge their interest. 

If she's doing better in the puppy classes than agility, they maybe that's what you need to concentrate on for now. It could be that both is too much for her right now. I was really concerned about doing both obedience and agility with mine as a young pup and the advice I got from his breeder is he'd tell me if it was too much. For him even at 23 months, he's only got about 40 minutes worth of obedience class in him before he starts to shut down. I know that and we either take a break 30-35 minutes into the class or I just let him get real silly between exercises to get out of serious concentration mode. Same with agility. 

If you have concerns, you should talk to your trainer as they can observe how she's acting. Maybe she's uncomfortable with the noise and activity level? Maybe it's something in your body language? It's hard to tell. We did a ton of games for motivation and drive in our foundation agility classes and if that's not something in your class program, maybe you can ask to have it added. At that age, it's so much more important than the obstacles.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Beanie -- she is teething now. It is completely normal and predictable for her to be irritable, unenthusiastic, frightened, nervous, apathetic, etc etc etc to things she was once gangbusters for. DO NOT go through lengths to get her to do any sort of competition training right now if she's not feeling it. Let her grow up and then 2-3 months down the line, pick up on it again. In the meantime, take her for walks, teach her tricks or obedience at home where she IS enthusiastic, take her swimming, take her when you go downtown, whatever, just don't PRACTICE being BORED!!! She may have a physiological reason for it NOW because she's teething, but if you continue to rehearse the behavior it will become PSYCHOLOGICAL -- you'll have an uphill battle long after she would have snapped out of it if you had let it alone. Best of luck!!!


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## Beanie (Mar 18, 2010)

Thanks to all for your replies. You are reinforcing how I was feeling. I don't want to push her. This is all for fun! Class is very easy going right now but she is not into it. My question really was do I continue or take a break? You helped me with the break decision. We don't have class for two weeks so we'll try again then and if she is still unhappy we will stop for a bit 

Hopefully my trainer will let me bring my older guy and finish out the class. She knows him and he would love it


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

I agree with Anney completely, and it's such a good insight about the teething. Tally, Tango, and Copley all did/do Foundations Agility with Cindy Ratner, but that meant lots of fun attentions games and cool obstacles like tippy boards, low planks on milk crates, learning contacts and targets, go out sequences etc - definitely not weave poles or jumps. I might be too worried about this, but the joints/ tendons etc just dont seem ready for that kind of challenge at 4.5 months. Maybe she is sore somewhere?


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## Beanie (Mar 18, 2010)

I'm not thinking sore from agility - jumps are at 6" and the weave poles are set as wide as they can be. If she is sore it's from wrestling with my senior Golden!

Honestly we are not pushing her hard as far as speed and we do each thing no more than twice, but I too thought it was early to start. The breeder assured me they do pups all the time and the trainer is very cognizant that the pups are different. But having said all that - it is the real obstacle that we are using. (we didn't start there, we started with small versions)

I don't know where to find the classes you are mentioning - foundation type but I like the idea much better.


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