Agility Blog with discussion about 'Internationalization' on the sport
 

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For those of you that haven't joined the free 'agile' list (and why not :) )

My concern is not so much about the training and learning new moves, that's a good thing:)

Mine is more about the very twisty tight courses that would be easier for all those lighter mid-sized agile dogs like the BC's. As it is they structurally tend to do better, heck 'agile' and smart to work with a human is what they were built and bred for. Just seems that at the extreme levels these courses really are much 'easier' for a body type like that to get through than say a GERMAN SHEPHERD :)


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It seems to me that the tight, collected type of courses are actually easier on my dogs. I find the things that make me cringe are when they are extended going over jumps at full speed. I think the trick with these big dogs is to teach them how and when to collect properly. Odin is a very tight, bendy dog on these types of things and honestly it doesn't bother me in the least, what does bother me is when he is doing a straight line of jumps at full extension and is bending his back upward to make the jumps:( Or when I cue a turn super late and he tries to contort himself in weird ways to make it (bad handler!) I wish they made german shepherds more agile and less substantial (I've been complaining about that a lot lately lol, everyone seems to want GSDs to have great substance and dark pigment. Doesn't work out so well for us performance sport people.)

Thanks for sharing, I have been lookin for something like this to subscribe to so that I can feed my obsession lol.

Oh my gosh, you all go into the blogs yet?

…And Hitler Was a Tweeker | The Global Warmers

That's my favorite so far, alligators at the Olympics WOULD make it more challenging for the athletes AND entertaining for the fans!

:)

I agree that it is easier for the smaller dogs to do these courses and it is easier for the handler too. In my agility class we practice this type of course all the time and my instructor always has to teach me a different way to do it for my big dog. If I were to do the things the handlers do with a small dog then we would have lots of problems.