Hey all :D

Can anybody tell me about agility?

I can't show him -He is neutered, plus would never stand still :D
Flyball - he would run away with the ball!
Obidience - No comment whatsoever on this one :rolleyes:

Though he loves learning tricks (just not usefull ones) I thought agility might be good for him, lots of fun, exercise etc!

Now i'm guessing there must be some agility people on here that could help me out a little?!

And for anyone who doesnt know, he is a exitable 16ish month old golden retriever!

Thanks in advance all :D !

Beth x x x x x x

I am sure you would both love agility.  But, you would need to have your basic obedience before you start training, so I would join a club that perhaps does both.  Have a look at http://www.agilitynet.com, they have a list of clubs on there.  He is the right age to start agility training.

Thanks for the link, will have a look now :D

I agree with sandrah - your dog will need to have GOOD basic obedience before you can begin agility. 

Our agility club used to let anyone start in the beginners class, and this is what we got: 

Dogs bogging off across the training area, into other classes and across other courses.
Dogs that had no drive and weren't interested or motivated by tuggy (because the owner had not worked to develop drive for a toy).
Dogs which had no idea their owner actually wanted something from them, because they had never experienced working with other dogs around and their owner asking for behaviours.
Dogs which could not wait at the start of a course until the owner told them to go.

Basically, it was a nightmare.  Then the agility club introduced the rule that all beginning dogs had to have their bronze and advisably silver KC Good Cits award before starting and now the classes are a dream, with dogs able to focus on agility and not obedience within an agility class.

He does have basic obedience (sp?) He does sit, down etc, But i'm planning on doing the best i can with his obedience, then taking him to agility classes after :D

Hi there! Agility is one cool thing if you ask me. I've been doing it for 2 years (unfortunately my girl's not with me anymore :( ) and Ory loved it. She got so excited even coming to dog school grounds. She had to do some obedience before that, just to know basic commands. the dog has to sit and stay until you tell him to start.
It's fun, it's great quality time with your dog and it gets quite competitive ;) . And over all, great work out for the owner as well!

:D
My dog is neutered though, is that allowed in agility?

Yes of course :)  Crossbreeds, pedigrees, neuters - doesn't matter in agility... and it is great fun :D

oooo wonderfull :D :D :D

They need to be Kennel Club registered to compete though.  Don't worry if yours isn't, you can register with the KC on the working register, they don't even need to be a pedigree breed.

He is registered allready yay :D

Good plan!  I used to do agility with Remy (can't afford it right now :( ), and he taught me one thing - basic obedience makes all the difference!

A particularly important thing IMO is the recall - your dog must come to you when you call him, not when he wants, this i remy's main issue at agility - he used to do an obstacle then run off to eat horse poo   His stay could use some work as well...

Make sure you check out a club before you join it - I've been to three now, and they each had methods that riled me.  I left the first because the trainer pinned and violently shook a little collie because he got in the way of a fight and got nipped (no damage done), then did it again because she growled at him; the second club taught the a-frame (at full height, even for a beginner dog) by having a person either side of the dog with a lead each, taking a run-up and hauling the dog over the top - scared the heck out of Remy - and the third insisted (in the beginner's class) that you should shout your command to the dog and give it no choice at all about doing it.  Not my cup of tea!

I don't mean to scare you, I just want you to be aware that some trainers do have less than pleasant methods of doing things, so do check them out first.  It's a great thing for dogs that like to move - suits Remy perfectly, he has constant motion issues, can't stand still for long :D Good luck, I'm sure you'll find a nice club and have a great time doing it - I'm going to start Opi on agility soon, she loves it!