Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 11:58 am Post subject: Do you do agility/flyball for you or your dog?
I've been pondering this as most of us seem to have become agility addicts. How can we be sure that our dogs enjoy it as much as we do and would we stop if they weren't?
Agility training is very much work in progress, more so for the handler than the dog and I think we all endeavour to improve each session with aspirations to become great handlers. Do we take our challenge to get it right further than our dogs want to?
I'm pretty sure that Coco enjoys agility, she does everything I ask her to and sometimes chooses to do more besides (running off to do an extra obstacle ), she is always really excited when we arrive and she sees the equipment etc. But towards the end of a session her enthusiasm wanes and she doesn't seem to try as hard, she might duck under jumps or miss tunnels, won't wait at the start etc. She might be too tired, hot or just bored, I don't know. I've often wondered if dogs do agility to please their owners or because they like doing it - if they had a choice would they prefer to just have a walk instead?
Flyball - we've had 4 sessions now and ran with the team last night. Most of the dogs were so eager to run that they were straining to go and barking in excitement. Coco is certainly very ball orientated and couldn't get enough of it. Does the novelty wear off? I'm so proud of her, she has picked it up so quickly and was doing startline cross overs last night (I let her go before the previous dog got back so that they crossed at the startline), she didn't look out of place running with our club's second team so could possibly do demos, if not competitions later this year.
I hope I can know when she doesn't want to do it anymore but I can see that I would be terribly disappointed if that happened. She's 3 in August so hopefully we will have a few years to go yet.
It's one of the things I worried a bit about when I started back up again with Basil post a back injury. I knew he would do it as I was asking, but was he enjoying it and was he finding it strenuous? I think I satisfied myself he was choosing it and enjoying it as much as me.
Nellie, would go and go all day. As a young dog, running and jumping is her thing and it's what she chooses to do in any case on a walk.
Basil though, is now 5 and chooses to pootle on a walk, only running if I play a game or throw a ball. He will do 3 maybe 4 agility rounds (they're sometimes 20 piece courses though!) in a class and then as you describe with Coco sometimes loses a bit of momentum, I might lose him off for a sniff on a complex turn or find myself almost ahead of him on a run of high jumps. I usually take that as my cue to stop as I want him to be 'in to' it
Mine don't strain on a leash or whine for their turn (unless they're made to wait while I run the other ) they both seem to enjoy mingling and rolling on the grass while they wait.
I'm pretty sure they enjoy it as much as me, they both sit upright when we arrive and they realise where they are and the couple of times i've had Basil videod he just wags his tail the entire way around the course
I'm sure Coco will continue to enjoy it for a good few years yet, while it's fun and within their physical capabilities I think most dogs do
I would really love to do Agilty with my Boy pointer Charlie Brown, I show the girlie, but have always wanted to do agilty as well. Hes 9 months old this week and was wondering what age do you start training? Sorry about Hijacking and if this is abit off topic x
My little Springer Spaniel Obi and I do agility. I really enjoy it and definately so does he but he has gone off the boil recently
Agility can be quite a difficult and complicated sport (especially to me-I have two left feet ) and we have both lost alot of confidence recently trying to run courses that are to advanced.
Obi is 'Medium', and there aren't many in that category in Jersey. This means that at some shows the classes are just medium G1-7. At a show we went to a couple of weeks ago we got eliminated 10 times out of 11 courses! (Although, the one course we didn't get an E was a Grade 6 Agility course and we came 2nd ).
Anyway, it is very demotivating for Obi to be nagged around horrible trappy, difficult courses when we are in Grade 1, and demotivating for me for it to go wrong all the time!
I have decided to go right back to basics and just make up my own course if the one laid out is too hard because, if Obi isn't enjoying it there really isn't any point!
I do think that if the dog isn't enjoying it, there must a reason and usually a solution. I guess there are dogs out there that really don't want to do it, or can't for physical reasons, but most healthy dogs really benefit from the exercise, stimulation and pure joy of working with their owners
XX
____________
Georgia XX
"If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane.
I would walk right up to heaven,and bring you back again"
I would really love to do Agilty with my Boy pointer Charlie Brown, I show the girlie, but have always wanted to do agilty as well. Hes 9 months old this week and was wondering what age do you start training? Sorry about Hijacking and if this is abit off topic x
It depends on the club - if they run puppy classes you could start now with poles on the floor and basic equipment like tunnels and open weaves iei nothing that is too strenuous or bendy for them. Otherwise i think at about 1 is recommended - that's when I started with Poppy but I was careful that she didn't jump too big too quickly. We now jump full height but she is 2.
Going back to the topic - I'm pretty sure Poppy loves it as much as me, if not more! She is soooo excited when she gets there and just flies round the course and has never seemingly got bored or tired of it (she has bags of energy). I get lots of comments about her jumping as she just flies over the fences with complete joy on her face! I too would hate to make her do something she didn't enoy but I'm confident this isn't the case with agility
I've been involved in Agility for 10 years, both training my dogs and then I learn't to instruct. In that time I have honestly only ever met one dog who really was not up for it and stopped.
As for if the dog does it because the handler wants them to or because they naturally do enjoy it too, I think it's prob a bit of both.
My first lab used to be 'off his trolley' when faced with agility equipment and would be barking and pulling at the lead to get his turn! He would do anything to fly around a course of equipment! My youngster enjoys it, he is calm at training but gets very excited at shows! He just loves working .
I retired my middle Lab because I could see she was beginning to have problems jumping and we have just found out she has HD/Arthritis , so those were signs for me. She now does obedience, as it's more comfortable for her and she really does enjoy that, again she loves to work.
If I had any doubts about my dogs enjoying an activity, I would stop it.
When I first started Agility training, the minimum age for the dog was 18 months, it's commonly now 1 year (and that is low impact, basic stuff), some start a bit younger, which is ok if you know what you are doing and don't put the dog over anything high (poles should be on the ground)etc. Definitely no weave training until the dog is 1 year old because of their spine and it's not a normal movement for them.
____________ Linda Layla and Taboo (never forgetting Scoobie my big brown bear 23.2.2000 - 21.1.2011 xx)
very topical for us! I took Frankie to agility from about 9 months old - he 'quite' liked it - but used to get really bored at the wait between runs - he used to fall asleep, and the morning would be spent going 'wake up frankie - time for your turn'. The dogs would get 3 or 4 runs around the course and he was so slow in the later runs.
He hurt his leg at the end of last year, winter came, other training came, and we just never got back into it, and was hoping to start again, but I'm not sure if if going back is for his or my benefit! We have some very wooded areas near us, so he gets plenty chance to jump on fallen trunks, run along them, jump over gates etc, so I suppose we do a bit of outdoor agility - its a lot more fun!
I am fortunate, Gillie absolutely adores agility. From the moment we get there, he is desperate for his go and if I let him off the lead he will run off and have a go by himself We are not planning on doing it seriously and if ever I doubted he was enjoying it I would stop but at the moment, it is his favourite thing ever!
I did Agility with Mojo because she simply LOVED it. She still does get very excited about it if she sees me building jumps in the garden. But of course her poor elbows and feet prevent her from doing it anymore. Pood also really liked it, but when we realised her kneecaps were loose, we stopped before we made them worse.....And I did try it with Pickle, but as much as she did everything I asked, you could just see her heart wasn't in it. There was no "Spark" behind her eyes saying "Can I have a go NOW?" no desperate eagerness like there was with the other two, so I stopped taking her.
I'll only ever do what the dog enjoys doing, because if they aren't enjoying it, then neither am I.
Moss loves it, absolutely loves it. His eyes shine, he has a big grin, he tries really hard, then gets excited when we do well (obviously if we don't do well that's entirely *my* fault!). He does it for the love of agility.
Indy, on the other hand, is pretty much just there for the social side! In our previous club the focus was very much on competing which didn't suit us at all. Indy got tuned off with everything having to be so precise so he retired at age 5. When I moved to our current club 3 years ago the energy was much different so I tried Indy again and he's much happier - he's now 9, only jumping medium height, but he's happy with that. He's officially the slowest dog in the club (always gets clears, though!) but he potters round, showing off to the youngsters, has a bit of chicken, then allows everyone to tell him how wonderful he is
so yes - they both enjoy it and if they don't then I don't make them go!
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), she is always really excited when we arrive and she sees the equipment etc. But towards the end of a session her enthusiasm wanes and she doesn't seem to try as hard, she might duck under jumps or miss tunnels, won't wait at the start etc. She might be too tired, hot or just bored, I don't know. I've often wondered if dogs do agility to please their owners or because they like doing it - if they had a choice would they prefer to just have a walk instead?
) they both seem to enjoy mingling and rolling on the grass while they wait.
x
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