Agility Foundations Before Equipment: What Puppies Really Need To Succeed

When it comes to preparing your puppy for dog agility, success starts long before any equipment enters the picture. I’m sharing what puppies really need to succeed, including the key foundations that build confidence, connection, and joy in the sport from the very beginning. Transcript Summary: Most people, when asked, when is it a good time to start doing agility with a puppy would say, “Well, it depends on when the puppy's growth plates are closed.” I personally have never cared when my puppy's growth plates are closed because that is not a deciding factor for me. I think more importantly than growth plates, is how physically strong the soft tissues, the things that support those bones, the muscles, the ligaments, the tendons. You know, there's a lot of small dogs whose growth plates could be closed by six or seven months, but the puppy doesn't have the supporting musculature to do anything that is taxing on that body. So then what is it? Is it the breed of dog? Yeah, that could have an impact because bigger dogs grow a lot longer and they mature a lot slower. Mental maturity, physical maturity, all of those things are important for things that are very stressful on a dog's body. Things like teaching them weave poles, having them running across a full height dog walk, teaching them how to go over an A frame because so many dogs when they hit an A frame with speed that has a lot of impact on the dog. So, those skills, I don't believe anybody should introduce their puppy to those types of skills before they're 14 to 16 months of age or older. But let's talk about handling. Having a dog go over a few jumps. Surely that can't matter, right? When can we do that? Now, let me preface this by saying in the 90s, I started doing flyball, competing in the sport of flyball with my puppies when they were nine months old. Now as crazy and outlandish as that sounds, I'm going to tell you that all of those dogs lived a very long life, well into their teens. They didn't have limps and gimps. They weren't horribly arthritic, and they were playing a sport where they sprinted and smashed into a box, not with the level of grace we have with dogs now. But had to tight turn in the small surface of a flyball box and speed back to the handler. Now, it doesn't make sense that we would do that to nine-month-old puppies today. And I will say the sport of flyball takes a lot longer before they introduce the sport to dogs. Most of them are well over the age of a year before they even start doing any serious training. My point is what people say is the reason we shouldn't start agility dogs young because they're going to have a short career, they're going to get injured. That may not be necessarily true. We don't know that for sure. There is no science studies to support the age. Common sense has got to come into play. But for me, the most important deciding factor before you should start thinking about teaching your dog how to go over jumps and follow you on a little agility course, the most important factor. It comes down to two things. It is number one, the foundation that you have. I'm talking about your relationship with your dog. If you were to take your dog off leash, would they look for something else to reinforce them? Or would they look to you to reinforce them? That's a great indicator of reinforcement. If there's other dogs running around, would your dog be deaf to you? Or would they want to play with you? That is the most important thing. Our Recallers program, I'm always promoting because that's what builds an amazing relationship. So, relationship, number one, before I would consider doing any agility skills. Number two would be the recall. Yes, it goes hand in hand. A dog with a great relationship with their owners often has an amazing recall away from distraction. Why? Because they have so much value running to their owners. So, can you call your dog out of play? If not, that's what you should be working on. Not focusing on how to get your dog to run a course in agility. And this, honestly, it doesn't matter what your goals are in agility. If you put in a solid foundation, you have more success, the dog stays safe, and the dog has more fun. It is possible for you to have fun in agility and your dog not having fun. I've seen it happen. Dogs are walking, they're leaving the course, they're looking for other things to do. It's a sign they are not finding joy where you are finding joy. Having a solid foundation ensures that the dog is having fun as well.