Brand new and interested in agility - guidance needed!

[marshies]

Amaretto is coming home in about 11 days, and I'm finalizing dog classes for us to participate in when she does come. I'm in Kingston Ontario (which is a tiny tiny little university town), and the options for classes are limited. Since she is going to be older than 16 weeks when we start classes, puppy classes aren't going to be an option for me. My choices were between agility and obedience. After watching videos of both sports on youtube, needless to say, agility was the winner.

My questions mostly relate to preparing both myself and the pup for agility. This is my first dog and I've never done ANY sort of formal classes before, so require tons of prep work and research before I'll have enough confidence to sign up. The instructor is slow to respond to email, and their class schedules for next year won't be finalized until after January, so I thought I'd ask my questions here first.

Like always guys, thanks for your time!

Question 1: Do you find that training in agility or obedience makes a difference in how obedient your dog is outside the sport? For example, would a dog taking classes in competitive obedience be more obedient than the dog taking agility classes? Or do you think at the introduction level, it really does not matter?

Question 2: I've attached the blurb of the 2 classes that I'm thinking of choosing between. From JUST reading the blurbs, do you think I should take the obedience class as an introduction to dog training before agility 1? Amaretto will be 4 months old, and will have never done any training with me. I've never trained a dog before, so other than some of the clicker training books and dog training books I've bought on recommendation of the forum, I have no idea what to do. Would agility be too big of a step for me? What are some exercises that I can do in the mean time?

LEVEL 1 & 2 – DOGS ARE INTRODUCED TO SMALL VERSIONS OF ALL THE AGILITY EQUIPMENT IN A SAFE ENVIRONMENT AND GAIN CONFIDENCE IN THE PROCESS. THIS IS AN ON LEASH CLASS. BETTER FOCUS SKILLS AND MORE OBEDIENT DOGS ARE THE RESULT. AGILITY IS A LOT OF FUN FOR BOTH THE DOG AND THE HANDLER. DOGS BENEFIT MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY. AN INTRODUCTION TO AGILITY BASIC COMMANDS AND OBJECT IDENTIFICATION WILL HELP YOUR DOG LEARN TO FOCUS THROUGH PLAY. CLASSES PROVIDE YOU WITH SKILLS TO USE ANYWHERE YOU TAKE YOUR DOG. LEVEL 2 INTRODUCES DISTANCE WORK.

PROGRESSIVE OBEDIENCE -Morning Star has developed a training outline that will offer you and your dog the opportunity to learn Focus, Control and Manners in a positive setting. Whether you want to train your dog for Competition, improve your Dog’s Manners or just want a place to play and learn, Progressive Obedience will give you lots of options. Using signs and Symbols as Visual Aids to compliment the information given to each handler will provide them with the maximum learning opportunities. Obedience exercises will be trained on both sides of the Handlers body position from the very beginning to develop the most flexible and versatile K9 possible. Handlers will have the option to work on Leash as long as they want, or Off Leash when they are ready at multiple Class Training and Trialing levels. Dogs will have the opportunity to play on small Agility Equipment including Jumps and Tunnels from the very beginning to compliment the Obedience Training and to add a level of needed FUN while learning. There are Novice Level 1 Classes and more advanced Level 2 and Level 3 Classes available. Handlers completing the Progressive Obedience Classes may compete in the BiAthlete events offered in PDSC – Progressive Dog Sports of Canada.

Thanks again!

[Cassidy's Mom]

Usually agility classes require some basic obedience classes as a prerequisite, or that the owner can demonstrate that the dog has mastered certain skills. Have you checked with the facility to find out what their requirements are? There may be age requirements as well.

[marshies]

I'll email right away! From the sound of the course description, I wasn't sure whether another introductory course was needed or not. Thanks for the advice.

[JakodaCD OA]

You need obedience to do agility..I have always started any of my dogs in obedience classes and then gone on to agility.

Obedience classes are also great for distractions, being around other dogs and learning to ignore them etc. If you jump right into agility, you may see a dog that won't "come" when you need it to, won't "stay", and will be very distracted by the other goings on that it would rather be racing around vs sticking with you..

[BlackPuppy]

I find that any class, obedience or agility, will help you build a stronger bond with your dog, and more compliance in your day to day activities. He knows that you are fun.

[Stosh]

Definitely obedience- you really can't jump ahead to agility without the basic commands down first. Congratulations on your new pup!

[marshies]

Thanks for the answers! I guess I'll be contacting the school for the most basic obedience class class offered then. If I like obedience I'll probably stick with it. But if I get the basic obedience down before summer I'd like to give agility a try over the summer. The school is only a 30 minute walk away so it's very accessible now. If I don't make it over the summer, I'll likely have to stick to obedience. All the agility facilities are going to be super far away once I move back to Toronto next fall.

Again thanks for the answers. Really helped. I had no idea what beginner agility meant and required of me and my dog.

[fuzzybunny]

I agree with the other responses about doing some basic obedience first. Agility has a lot of distractions involved. I did a CGC prep course with Jazz a while back and met another woman in that class. Her dog passed the CGC evaluation which should indicate he has basic manners in public yet when we get to Agility class he can't focus because there is so much distraction. The owner couldn't even call him back to her when he decided to go check other obstacles out on his own.

[gsdheeler]

Obed. is the foundation for everything, I do Obed. class once a week and agility class once a week, Herding is twice a month. I started with basic Obed. and progressed from there. Also I think just getting a young dog out is VERY important. It dosen't have to be a class, as a young dog I taught my girl to put her front feet on all types of things and walk on differant things, this helps in agility, exposure to sounds is important too.
Happy Training.......

[MaggieRoseLee]

marshies.. IF the agility classes are PUPPY agility classes (for dogs under a year) and particularly formatted for younger dogs, then they will also be full of 'obedience' type stuff. Cause all the pups don't know anything and it would be chaos without fitting the obedience type stuff in between the fun agility stuff.

This is a real 1st class Puppy Agility class that I filmed with a bunch of my friends:

Puppy Agility - First Class - YouTube

Puppy Agility - First Class - YouTube

Same class about a month later

Part one - Puppy Agility Class - April 2010 - YouTube

Part one - Puppy Agility Class - April 2010 - YouTube

IF the agility classes given in your area aren't the same, then I'm sure the instructor will recommend some basic obedience first, and then they'll be better able to participate with the other older dogs in agility class. If it's not a puppy class, and everyone else has a fairly obedient dog (a high level of obedience is NOT necessary, just the basics) they will get a bit angry when much of class is wasted running around after the crazy puppy!