Wahoo! At the end of Nino's puppy-K a few months back, we put him on the waiting list for the puppy agility class at our training school. Their main focus is obedience, but they do occasionally bring in an instructor from another school if the demand is high enough. We got the call today that enough interest had been shown, so Nino will start his agility training at the end of this month. I'm incredibly excited; he is so in tune to me and loves performing tasks, so I think this will be great fun for our confident little man.
Nino is starting agility on Tuesday night, and I'm very excited to see what's to come. When visiting the puppies, I talked to our breeder about it, and she said, with his drive, trainability, desire to please, and unending energy, she thinks it will be good for him and he will have a blast doing it. I'll post updates post-class.
I think that's great. Just PLEASE don't get talked into doing things his young body isn't ready for. At his age he shouldn't be jumping (poles on the ground to get the idea are fine) and he shouldn't be doing weaves. Put both those activities off until he's a year old, and all his joints and ligaments are mature. It's fine to start learning about contacts, as long as care is taken that he can't possibly fall off the side of the dog walk, A-frame or teeter, and that he doesn't get scared on any piece of equipment. It's really hard to undo any fears he develops at this age. I'm honestly not a fan of puppy agility. Please keep your adorable boy safe, both physically AND mentally.
I'm a bit jealous. I have a severely arthritic ankle, so any kind of running is out, but I'd love to do agility with my dogs, and i know they'd love it.
You are free to live vicariously through us One thing you could do is teach various sends. To prepare Nino for class, I have taught him "go out" and "go around". I just use a dining room chair for the go around, but sometimes Nino will take the whole entire table multiple times before he decides he's done. It's a (small) job for them, but you don't have to move an inch. It's easy, but Nino thinks it's the best game.
We just got back from a very fun time! We did some attention games, distance obedience work (mostly stays and recalls), rear-end awareness exercises, and then we got into the obstacles. Just a tunnel, a dog walk only 5" up, and a recall between jump uprights with the bar on the ground. Nino LOVED it, and I'm very excited for next week's class.
Nino had his second agility class last night, and he's already been "fast tracked". While the others were still warming up to the obstacles, the instructor guided us on practicing his two on, two off technique for contacts, having him hold on the table from a distance, and beginning to discern obstacles with commands. I had a classmate come ask us what obedience classes we had taken to get him to behave so nicely (puppy k and nothing else, LOL), and another was asking about the novelty tricks I do with him. I must say, I was a proud dog mom last night. I really do wish I had gotten Mario into a class back when he was younger. It would have really helped with his confidence.
I do think this agility thing will be really good for him. He has the drive of a Border Collie and loves to G O, and he just gets it when it comes to the class. We are still working on handling on both sides; it is very clear that both of us feel much more comfortable working on the "heel side". The instructor said he had the makings of a dream agility dog and commented on the rapport we have with one another. I am walking on air right now.
We have a puppy agility graduate! Nino had his last agility class tonight, and our breeder came, so he got to meet his new little sister. Very fun The pups got to navigate a mini, ground level course and we got to try our hands at handling a set of obstacles. Nino got all clean runs Looking forward to furthering his agility career once he is a bit older. Our instructor said she saw a star duo in us.
I will post a video of our run in the next day or two
That is so great! I bet he is a little show stopper out there doing his runs. I love that our Havanese are doing so well in all these diff sports. Great ambassadors for the breed! Excited for the video.
I think you have every right to brag, congrats to you and Nino for having such a successful first round of agility. I hope he continues to love it.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Havanese Forum
659.8K posts
22.7K members
Since 2006
A forum community dedicated to Havanese owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about breeding, health, behavior, housing, adopting, care, classifieds, and more!