# 19 weeks old, too early to start?



## mikeymport (Aug 16, 2015)

I did a small agility course at a local GSD club and my (17 weeks old at the time) 19 week old puppy was very good at it, so i am considering making a similar course I'm by backyard to train him on. But i am wondering if he is too young for this because things like weaving between the poles might not be good for his back at a youngish age? Should i put it off for a little bit and if so what age is safe to start?

Thanks


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## gsdsar (May 21, 2002)

He is too young to weave and jump. But he is not too you to learn handling cues from you, to learn "touch" to learn to go between jump standards(with no jump), and other stuff. 

But find a coach and learn the right way. Agility is awesome, but can be dangerous if you don't know what your doing.


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## gsdheeler (Apr 12, 2010)

Good age to start foundation training, Mary Ellen Barry has a good DVD set out for starting puppies. If you have never done agility before it would be in your best intrest to work with a trainer, better to train it the right way than to spend time retraining .
Best of luck, have fun....


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Too young for most obstacles, but if you are serious about agility, no harm is starting to put together some equipment now. I am always slowly adding. I now have 5 jumps, a set of 2x2 weaves, a flyball trainer thing I use to train agility 2o2o contacts, and now I have a teeter I am borrowing (last obstacle my dog needs to learn before trialing). With a young dog, you could build a wobble board, some sort of contact trainer or contact obstacle that can be set at a really wide/open angle, and start making jumps but not have your dog jump yet, just learn flatwork by running through jumps with no bars. I've seen some young dogs running full jumper courses with some really great handling and crosses and never actually jumping because the handler spends so much time on foundation and flatwork. There is so much you can do without obstacles. My new agility dog started agility class when he was 15 months so we were able to start on normal obstacles as he learned them (he is now 23 months and just put together a full set of 12 weaves a few weeks ago, polishing up the tire, and just starting on teeter this weekend).


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

Check your local training clubs and see if any of them offer puppy-specific agility classes. They teach foundation skills (touch, targeting, etc.) as well as introducing the basic obstacles in a safe way - going through jumps with the bars flat on the ground (or no bars at all), everything very low, wobble planks/mini teeters, ladders, and playing games to work on focus. I'm in one right now with my ~5 month old pup, it's a blast. I didn't start my other dog in agility until she was about 2 years old, but I wasn't aware at the time that puppy classes existed.

I agree with everyone above that recommended learning from a good trainer. He/she can also give recommendations for things you can safely work on at home. The one I'm in right now gives us "homework" via email every week for fun focus & body awareness things you can do around your house, without risk of physically straining the puppy.

I have a tunnel, a small chute, and a practice plank at home that we play around with. If it wasn't all so incredibly expensive, I'd build my collection a little bit faster. :crazy:


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