When To Start Agility Training With Your Puppy: Insights From A World Champion #277
Shaped by Dog with Susan Garrett
DogsThat
4.8 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2024
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
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When is the right time to start agility training with your puppy? That's a popular question I receive, and I'm sure other world champions also get asked! So, to answer, I’m covering everything you need to know about starting agility with a puppy, including the most important factor, and when and how I begin training. Even if you don't do agility, what I'm sharing can apply to a wide range of activities we enjoy with dogs, including being amazing members of our family.
Free eBook
Get your free Agility Cues eBook for the insider info on the cues I use - https://dogsthat.com/agility-cues/
In this episode you’ll hear:
• When to consider starting agility training with your puppy, beyond growth plates.
• The factors I consider before starting a puppy in agility.
• How to create success, safely and fun for agility puppies.
• About the physical and mental readiness needed for agility obstacles.
• The four R’s - Relationship, Recalls, Retrieve, Reinforcement Zone.
• What’s important about agility handling, verbal cues and discriminations.
• How to use jump grids and fitness exercises to prepare your puppy.
• My personal experiences with my own agility dogs as puppies.
• Why I love forest fitness for a puppy's development.
• How to manage the intensity and frequency of agility training for puppies.
Download Your Free eBook:
Susan Garrett’s Agility Cues eBook - http://dogsthat.com/agility-cues/
Resources:
1. Podcast Episode 186: 2 Types Of Connection With Dogs: Dog Agility And Daily Life Case Studies - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/186/
2. YouTube Video: Understanding Your Dog's Reinforcement Zone (RZ) with Susan Garrett - https://youtu.be/OaUAScgaFAg?si=OKGOlAB1pqGU60ap
3. YouTube Playlist: Exercising Your Dog's Body and Mind: Tips and Games with Susan Garrett - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy1ISzbaoCNh0NyLg3qgDG58
4. Podcast Episode 203: Reactive, Unmotivated and Fearful: Finding Resiliency For This! Beyond Dog Training Part 1 - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/203/
5. Podcast Episode 204: Dog Behavior And Diet: Recovery For This! Beyond Dog Training Part 2 - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/204/
6. Podcast Episode 206: First Dog Agility Competition: Creating Joy For This! By Maximizing Reinforcement - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/206/
7. Podcast Episode 114: Dog Agility Training: 3 Big Mistakes All Dog Owners Should Avoid - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/114/
8. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/kMJ0e7HYvPk
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The sport of dog agility is an awesome one for dogs of all shapes and sizes and handlers of all shapes |
| 0:05.5 | and sizes. The most common question I get about the sport is how do I know when my puppy is ready |
| 0:12.4 | to start doing dog agility? That's the topic of today's podcast episode and spoiler alert. |
| 0:19.2 | The answer is probably going to surprise everybody. |
| 0:22.4 | Hi, I'm Susan Garrett. Welcome to Shape by Dog. You know, dog agility is fast. It's fun. The dogs get |
| 0:40.7 | great exercise, but there's more to the sport than their first appears. Yes, the dogs go over jumps and |
| 0:46.8 | in tunnels and they weave poles and people say, well, I just want to do it for fun. So, I don't |
| 0:52.1 | need to know what you as a world champion |
| 0:54.5 | would be doing with your dogs. But the truth is, just as with anything, the more you learn, |
| 1:00.0 | the easier the sport becomes and the safer it is for both you and your dog. |
| 1:05.0 | Most people, when asked, when is it a good time to start doing agility with a puppy would say, well, it depends on |
| 1:12.5 | when the puppy's growth plates are closed. I personally have never cared when my puppy's |
| 1:18.2 | growth plates are closed because that is not a deciding factor for me. I think more |
| 1:23.4 | importantly than growth plates is how physically strong, the soft tissues, the things that |
| 1:29.5 | support those bones, the muscles, the ligaments, the tendons. You know, there's a lot of small dogs |
| 1:34.9 | whose growth plates could be closed by six or seven months, but the puppy doesn't have the supporting |
| 1:40.6 | musculature to do anything that is taxing on that body. So then what is it? |
| 1:46.6 | Is it the breed of dog? Yeah, that could have an impact because bigger dogs grow a lot longer |
| 1:52.1 | and they mature a lot slower. Mental maturity, physical maturity. All of those things are |
| 1:58.0 | important for things that are very stressful on a dog's body. |
| 2:01.6 | Things like teaching them weave poles, having them running across a full height dog walk, |
| 2:07.9 | teaching them how to go over an a frame because so many dogs, when they hit an a frame |
... |
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