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Agility For Pet Dogs

This page is for people who have pet dogs that might enjoy agility but don't want to compete.  Sometimes people get the impression that agility is only for people who are dedicated to training and competing and travelling miles every weekend to shows.  This simply isn't true.  You can enjoy a bit of agility fun with your dog whatever it's age or breed, providing the dog is fit and enjoys the activity.   

Once she'd learned what we wanted her to do she even developed a bit of style. We also made her a very mini A Frame and a flexible tunnel.

Hazel was an obedience dog but she enjoyed a bit of jumping in the garden.  She was quite fit but we didn't ask her to do too much.   The jump poles were just broom handles balanced on flower pots or anything else that we could find in the garden.

I taught her to jump by stepping over a low pole and encouraging her to come with me.  Lots of titbits were involved and it didn't take her long to get the idea.  The main thing with pet dogs is to keep everything simple and safe and not to ask them to jump too high.  Agility dogs are very fit and supple and they do a lot of training to get to that stage.  When they first start, the larger dogs probably won't do more than 35cm jumps.  The poles are easily displaced and there aren't too many turns.  It takes time to build up the stamina and fitness to do a full agility course.

We also had a bit of fun at a "Dogalong" held at Pencarrow House.  This is a lovely stately home near Wadebridge in Cornwall where the owners are very dog orientated, but they do let humans in as well.  Hazel did well with her first introduction to a pipe tunnel on a cross country course. 

Tilly enjoyed herself and trotted happily through the tunnel as well.  Both dogs were quite elderly at 12years and 11 years, but they were fit enough to go round the whole course.  We lifted them over any jumps that were too high.  In Tilly's case this was every jump.

Pets dogs do like to have a bit of fun and games in addition to their normal routine and it will benefit them enormously to include some simple agility.  Some equipment I wouldn't use for an untrained dog is the tyre.   It can be dangerous for a dog to jump through something as solid as this unless they've been taught by an experienced trainer.  I wouldn't use a weave either as dogs need to be very supple to do this properly.  A few jumps and are ideal as long as they're low and you don't go flat out. A tunnel will soon become good fun too.  Don't overdo it but do have fun in your garden from time to time.