You know the saying "You can't teach an old dog new tricks"?  Well Mildred is proof that you can!  At almost 8 years old Mildred Pug attended her first "Pugility" class last week.  As she was being handled by me the lesson was taken at a very slow speed.  Today at a fun show, with my nephew, she completed a "Have a go" agility course, including tunnel and weaves, at a very brisk trot, and loved it!  Only 1 lesson and already loving it and raring to go!  This is 1 old dog who is learning a whole sequence of new tricks.

(((Way to go Mildred!!)))

And here's one in the eye of those that tar the whole Pug breed to be unfit for purpose! :-) My favorite Post of the day thanks Gwen.

:-D Sounds like she has been dying to get out there all this time, well done Mildred, clever girl. :-)

my pug does agility and she loves it and you can see people in the queue nudging each other saying look a pug, and they used to snigger at us, and once we finished our run the sniggering had stopped and the WOW she can really move and i just say to people she is fit not fat thankyou  husband said i should have a doggy tshirt printed for her that says that.
I have even had judges when i have finished the course come across and say that was lovely to see a pug running.
there is a lady up in teeside has a grade 5 pug that is a fantastic achivement
good luck with your pug and enjoy it

brilliant!

> there is a lady up in teeside has a grade 5 pug that is a fantastic achivement

Slight confession to make here, Niko, the pug who is now Agility gr5 and has his Bronze Warrant is actually Mildred's son, so perhaps it is in the genes.  Karen (who lives Tyneside not Teeside) wanted a pug pup who would qualify for Crufts in showing while she was waiting for him to be old enough to train for agility and then go on to do competitive agility.  Niko fulfilled all the criteria of the order! :)  Having said that, it has never before occurred to me to have a go with Mildred, even though her son is such an agility superstar, I just got so fed up with all the digs at pug fitness last week, then someone sent me a youtube video of a Pug in the USA doing agility at 8 years old, so I decided to let her have a go.

Thanks for all the lovely comments, I am very proud of my old girl, and we will be back at Pugility tonight for her 2nd lesson.  Also in the lesson will be one of her great-grandsons, who is 8 months old.

I love it when I see pugs doing agility. There were two who used to come to my club and they loved it and had no issues with stamina at all!

Currently I'm training my little jap chin,also a flat faced breed, and he has his first agility comp in two weeks time. You should see some of the looks we get when I tell people he can do agility and even my fellow club members laughed when I first took him along to training.

One of our trainers at ringcraft is Steve Dean and he had a chuckle when Harry was so sleepy at training a few weeks ago and I said it was because he'd been agility training earlier in the day.He then said he thought it was great that he was doing something that showed he is a dog who is fit for function.

Gwen I,m from the North east and have met Lucy and her band of cavvies at shows up there when visiting my family and I'm so jealous that there is not anything like the group she runs for small/micro dogs in the south where I now live.

also you can definitely teach an old dog new tricks as my 10 year old cav  didn't take up agility until he was nearly eight.
my husband got fed up of watching me compete with my cav poppy and decided to give it a go with Tom as because he had never competed before then both of them could start in grade 1.
They did their first comp last summer at Hare and Hounds and came 2nd in grade 1-3 agility!

my little chin will have to start in grade 3 because my dog is grade 7 so he has a lot to live up to but it is my dream to be able to take him to crufts in an agility event as well as in breed classes.

You are a credit to your breed and I wish you lots of happy times and sucess together.

i am in the process of training my husband bulldog for agility she is good at it and loves it we will not compete but the training is brilliant and hopefully her daughter will be just as good as her and we will be competing with the daughter

It's so great to hear of all the different and unexpected breeds having a go at agility and loving it.

Japmum, yes we train at Lucy's place.  Our "Cavaliers and Roundheads" display team includes Lucy's cavs along with our Pugs, the dogs have so much fun during the "agility civil war battles".  I think it is a case of letting people know that you are interested in meeting up with other small dogs and getting something going, this is how we started "Pugs in the Park", at first with walks, then get togethers and parties.  We progressed to Pugility to see if other pugs wanted to have a shot at agility too, and we did have a Chin who used to join us but he has not attended recently, shame as he had such a great time. 

Brilliant. 

Strange that those who usually call Pugs and similiar breeds on here every given moment haven't posted on here!

Well done Mildred and her son for showing that there are fit and healthy Pugs in the world.

> Strange that those who usually call Pugs and similiar breeds on here every given moment haven't posted on here!

Maybe they just have manners and see this as a nice thread about someones dog and not the place for a debate :)

gwen do you do the hare and hounds shows, just we travel from northampton up to the may show so i can visit relatives etc and will be running my pug there as hopefully she will not be in season she has been for the last two years so has stopped at home while we came up

> gwen do you do the hare and hounds shows,

Karen will be there with Niko & Cedric, and at least 1 of our Pugility pugs will be competing, maybe more, depends on how the training is coming on, I will probably be there to watch (my speed is dead slow to stop due to Arthritis etc.) as hopefully bumble will be having a go by then - lacks self confidence so we will have to wait and see.  Will be great to see another pug, will tell Karen today.  They are at Hare And Hounds this weekend - at least 3 pugs competing I think.

thanks will look out for everyone when we come up in may