# What age?



## Yellowjacket (Sep 5, 2011)

At what age is good to start traing for agility? I have a 7 mon old and she has done realy good in obedience classes. Right now our only problemes is down and far recall(working on that). Right now it would be just for fun no comps.


----------



## wildo (Jul 27, 2006)

Agility training can start as a very, very young puppy (5 weeks). Jump training shouldn't start until the growth plates are closed. Remember there is so much more to agility than the obstacles themselves. Impulse control, focus in heavy distraction, body awareness, and conditioning are things that come to mind that are fundamental to a good agility dog. These are things that can be worked in a very young dog.


----------



## Emoore (Oct 9, 2002)

We started right after puppy class, around 3 months old. "Jumps" were poles laid on the ground and all the obstacles were ankle-height. Most agility schools know how to make allowances for a physically immature dog.


----------



## kbella999 (Jan 6, 2012)

You could do ground work now and there is a lot you can do. I've heard different ages for jumping and weave poles as you really want the growth plates closed. Some people say 1 year but that is for smaller dogs. I've been told by a lot of people that bigger dogs take 1 1/2 to 2 years for the growth plates to close. I've also had a vet orthopedic surgeon tell me it was a year and they should be closed. So you could play it on the safe side and wait till he is much older for any jumping or weaving or anything not on the ground. You could also have xrays done if you wanted to be sure before you started to see if the growth plates are closed. 



Yellowjacket said:


> At what age is good to start traing for agility? I have a 7 mon old and she has done realy good in obedience classes. Right now our only problemes is down and far recall(working on that). Right now it would be just for fun no comps.


----------



## LuvourGSDs (Jan 14, 2007)

I started doing training with Skyrah at 3 months, when I got her. Like others said, so much you can do besides equipment. 

I have tried to watch jumping, but hard to contain this monster at times.


----------



## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

If you have found a great club/classes that give age appropriate 'agility' classes, then I'd sign up. Love how they start with tons of foundation work and just a teeny bit of equipment (be patient  ) but then add more and more of what we THINK of as 'agility' and we can then see how the foundation work fits in!


----------

