Q for dog agility people

[patandchickens]

In search of reality-check, or calibration, or whatever you want to call it.

In the program that you learned (or teach) in, how long would a person typically take to go from starting taking a foundations type class to starting the dog on contact equipment. Like, how many classes or weeks would it typically involve (working on focus, drive, handling, jumps, tunnel, learning 2o2o or whatever contact type you do, that kind of thing) before the person would appropriately be in a class where the dog begins actually getting onto actual contact equipment.

(e.t.a. -- for a reasonably apt, eager-to-learn dog, with a good basic obedience and off-leash work background, and an owner who does plenty of 'homework')

Thanks for any input, please do not try to infer why I am asking this because you would almost certainly be wrong LOL it isn't what it might seem like, I just would like to know,

Pat

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Pat,

When I was training my dog for agility and obedience, we had a few classes of just obedience and then started right on the equipment. I would say you should come in contact with the equipment fairly soon so the dog can have a chance to get used to some of the weird things you want them to do! I would say pretty much as soon as the trainer sees the dog is obedient otherwise, the equipment would be introduced.

 

[Akane]

We are required to take one or two (instructor determined) full obedience courses before enrolling in the agility course. We might have a day of learning specific agility obedience like crossovers and sending them through jump standards then the equipment is introduced 2 or 3 obstacles at a time. The last dog I started we went jumps, tunnel- class 1, A frame, dog walk, tire- class 2, table, teeter, curved tunnels-class 3, chute and weaves-class 4. Now we are putting short series of obstacles together while working on contact points and putting crossovers in to practice.

 

[patandchickens]

Thank you! -- bumping for more replies?

Pat

 

[breezy]

Ive trained 10 dogs now with the same person. After graduating the basic 8 week obedience class the next level of class (Novice) alternates each week between obedience and agility or rally.She alternates each week so that dogs dont get bored. So basically my dogs all started equipment by week 10. My dogs all thrive on the alternating schedule, it seems to keep them mentally engaged and excited about working.
edited to add: My trainers focus is on getting dogs titled in obedience for each dog that goes to the second level of training. Shes been doing this for 50 years.

 

[Brindlebtch]

When we do pet dog agility classes (NOT classes for people who want to be on world team) we put the dogs on the contacts the first week. About the third week I demonstrate and carefully go through how to teach a dog 2 on 2 off, but because that is so tedious and time consuming, it generally isn't what a person just coming into agility for the first time with a pet wants to do. Once they decide they want to show they will usually get a little more serious about the 2 on 2 off. A lot of folks want running contacts nowadays, too.

To do the dogwalk properly via back chaining takes about 3 months. I have a 14 week old pup that I have have already put on the dog walk at the end and will start back chaining her shortly.

There is a method (I forgot whose) where you do all sorts of extensive ground work and pre training and all sorts of what not before you put your dog on a contact. Another person at our facility tried to do a class like that and had to stop because people lost interest because it took forever to actually get on a contact.

I do agility to have fun with my dogs. I don't want to go out there and look like a fool, but since I'm 51 with 2 knee replacements and have AmStaffs, I understand I'm not going to be beating the border collies very often.

Some of the training methods nowadays can really take a lot of fun out of learning agility, in my opinion. It all depends what you want out of it. Somebody that has purchased a world class border collie is going to train differently than somebody who has a nice pet dog they want to have fun with at the local shows.

Pat, I'm so sorry I haven't gotten that stuff into the mail for you, yet.

 

[Brindlebtch]

Just to mention - most of the local high caliber agility people do not do formal obedience, period. They do what they need for the agility ring and that is it. We get many students that don't have formal obedience training but still have a fairly obedient dog. To be able to continue past the beginner stages the dogs need to have recall, stay, sit and down.

 

[welsummerchicks]

There seems to be a bewilderingly large number of training philosophies on agility and it seems like emotions run very strong about which is the best(I even abandoned an order of curly fries to get away from one such discussion!!!!!). I'm glad to hear some of it is explained by the 'world class' vs 'fun' dichotomy!

It sounds like what my class was like was much more towards the 'fun' side.

 

[Windrider]

My experience is the same as Brindle's. The dogs are put on the "real" equipment right away. We start training with the down ramp of the dog walk and the A frame attached to the table instead of the full piece of equipment to give a less scary, more stable introduction and to begin teaching 2 on 2 off. But soon it is on to the full contact. I should mention that all our contacts are adjustable and are put on the lowest settings for the new dogs. There is also a lot of back chaining involved, even though the whole piece of equipment is there.

Our training club doesn't offer different agility classes for "fun" and "serious" agility handlers; they are all in the same classes. But you can get as much out of the class as you want. The trainers always suggest "homework" for the serious people and those of us who are serious do a lot of work at home, instead of those who take it just for "fun" to whom it is a once a week thing. (I should clarify that I think even serious agility should be for fun - it seems odd to refer to it this way).

One thing that seems to be very different here - not just in our club, but the others close by - is how classes are structured. Akane said they went through: "jumps, tunnel- class 1, A frame, dog walk, tire- class 2, table, teeter, curved tunnels-class 3, chute and weaves-class 4." We just offer plain old "Agility Class." Our trainers run classes in one hour increments all day - total newbies start in the last hour in the afternoon, as they improve they are moved up to earlier and earlier classes. While we pay for classes in 8 week sessions, in reality our agility class is an ongoing class that never ends. The people who join the classes for "fun" may not move up very quickly, but eventually they do move up allowing us to add another class of total newbies. We get so few dropouts in the earlier classes that we can only add a new class about twice a year - our waiting list is very long. The nice thing about this method is that the trainers, when moving up people/dogs, tend to group them into classes that are at the same level and need to work on the same things, no matter how long that dog has actually been in agility classes (no getting stuck in "intermediate" just because you haven't had x amount of hours). So those of us who are serious tend to accumulate in the morning classes - our newly aquired pups often don't have to be put in the newbie class either because they are already beyond that point by the time they are old enough to be enrolled.

Total newbies just have to have a decent recall and sit/stay, no formal obedience required. And yeah, some of us start our pups pretty young. My little Windy, 11 weeks old this weekend, has already been started on the concept of jumps (with the bar on the the ground because she is a puppy), LOVES tunnels and will go in one even without prompting (yes, fully extended and even curved tunnels), and has been put on the down end of the contacts and given treats in the 2 on 2 off position. Granted, at 11 weeks she has the attention span of a gnat so this is all just "fun" introductory stuff - done between being socialized with my friends and our club's advanced agility "pack."

 

[Akane]

By class I meant each week not the entire 6 or 8 week session. By our 3rd class/week we were stringing obstacles together and having relay races through tunnels and over jumps. We usually progress together. So there will be 4 or 5 agility classes and every time you sign up you get put with the same people so that everyone has the same experience. Rather than signing up for beginning or advanced agility. It's just agility and the instructors group everyone how they think is appropriate. You might get shuffled if you are no longer even with your group. There are 2 week breaks between each session of classes. There is a class called advanced competition agility for those running akc agility very seriously. This class does change who is in it since the number of people with purebred unaltered akc registered dogs is fairly low in our club. The club is connected to a shelter so no more than half the dogs are purebred and far less are not neutered.