Attended my first agility trial

[wildo]

What did I learn?

• I think my dog is going to do very well at it (sure- probably a very rookie feeling.) And I know she is going to love it based on her past experience.
• Like most competitve sports- there sure are cliques within the agility community.
• I was really bummed to see the average age of competitors (humans) to be well over 45ish, or very young- under 14ish. Mostly female, as well. Kinda sucks for me as a 28 yr old male.
• Border Collies are FAST!!!!!!!!
• Border Collies can be SCHIZO!!!!!!!

First video- a VERY fast BC (who missed the contact on the AFrame, but the judge didn't call it):
http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n...current=bc.mp4


Second video- a VERY fast BC, who looses focus at the end, poor guy:
http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n...urrent=bc2.mp4

EDIT- I guess I don't know how to embed video from photobucket.

[Elaine]

Yes, agility is mostly older people. They are the only ones with the money to compete and their kids have mostly moved out so they have the time too. What youngish person wants to hang out at a trial every weekend when they can be dating, partying, or doing family things?

For a lot of us, this is an almost weekly thing and when you see the same crowd of people over and over again, everyone is going to make friends and hang out with them.

There are some darn fast BCs out there, but they have frequently problems with control and knocking bars if that makes you feel any better.

[MaggieRoseLee]

Originally Posted by wildo

What did I learn?

• I think my dog is going to do very well at it (sure- probably a very rookie feeling.) And I know she is going to love it based on her past experience.
• Like most competitve sports- there sure are cliques within the agility community.
• I was really bummed to see the average age of competitors (humans) to be well over 45ish, or very young- under 14ish. Mostly female, as well. Kinda sucks for me as a 28 yr old male.
• Border Collies are FAST!!!!!!!!
• Border Collies can be SCHIZO!!!!!!!

.

What I learned about YOU??? You are good about paying attention!

The age thing really does have to do with most of being a tad older by the time we have the time and money to focus more on dog training and trials!

If you keep going to trials, you'll start recognizing the same people/dogs. So the clique thing isn't so much intentional to keep people out as that you end up knowing a bunch of people cause you see them all the time. And if you volunteer, are friendly, and start showing up, you will be part of the 'in' crowd in no time!

[wildo]

Had my first Beginner I class today at the facility in the videos. What did I learn?

There is no heeling in agility.
There is NO heeling in agility!
There is NO HEELING in agility!!


haha! The instructor kept yelling at me- "Stop telling your dog to heel!" I said, but how am I supposed to get her from here to there? Duh!

[RogueRed26]

If there is no heeling, then this is the sport for my dog! haha. =)

I can't get her to heel for the life of me. For the most part, she tries to drag me everywhere. Hopefully, we'll get it down before her obedience exam.

[MaggieRoseLee]

Originally Posted by wildo

Had my first Beginner I class today at the facility in the videos. What did I learn?

There is no heeling in agility.
There is NO heeling in agility!
There is NO HEELING in agility!!

Now THAT is too funny!!!

I'd also make a specific effort to start having my dog walk more on my RIGHT side then the left. Most of our 'obedience' dogs tend to default to our left side when confused and that means tumbling handlers when the dog is supposed to be on the right!

[wildo]

Originally Posted by MaggieRoseLee

Now THAT is too funny!!!

I'd also make a specific effort to start having my dog walk more on my RIGHT side then the left. Most of our 'obedience' dogs tend to default to our left side when confused and that means tumbling handlers when the dog is supposed to be on the right!

Yes, I kept wondering to myself if competitive obedience might be a better fit for us as I kept practicing our sits, downs, stays, stands, heels, etc between drills. I can tell you though- I am SO happy to have an obedient dog compared to some of the people there. Wow... seems logical you'd want to have basic obedience control over your dog before enrolling in an agility class. This one lady had *zero* control over her dog as it pulled her around on the lead when we were working some foundation plank-on-the-floor kind of drills. That dog is going to be a terror off lead in competition...

[AgileGSD]

I think you'll find that people will welcome you (the people who you'd want to anyway) regardless of the age thing. Everyone is there because they like doing agility with their dog

I'm 30 and have been competing in agility since I was 15, so I spent a fair share of time being the youngest or one of the youngest at trials. Now I'm kinda in the middle. But it really doesn't matter. Because of involvement with dogs I have friends who are teenagers, friends my age who started training and trialing when I did, friends in their 40s who knew me when I was a teen and friends who are in their 50s and 60s, some who haven't been in dogs as long as me. People I wouldn't have ever gotten to know otherwise. I didn't get the memo about waiting until I had money to get into showing/trialing and to start focusing on dogs

[MaggieRoseLee]

Originally Posted by AgileGSD

I didn't get the memo about waiting until I had money to get into showing/trialing and to start focusing on dogs

You didn't get the memo? Must have gotten lost in the mail. That darn US Postal Service!!

[Runswithdogs]

Agility is so fun! We've only done a very relaxed intro class at the Humane Society (6 dogs, clicker-based, varying levels of obedience and focus) with Regen, but it was great!
I'm nervous to take a "real" class with her though, because we are still working on her obedience with major distractions. I don't think we would ever compete because of the money and time, but there are a couple of groups that have open field practice sessions and it seems like a great combo of mental and physical activity.