Agility competition?

[11442]

I have never been involved in any competition with my pugs, of any sort. I'm am interested in agility though. I have one maybe two pugs who are very agile and would be interested in how they stack up against others. How do you train for this? And where do you start? I'm in the Massachusetts area, are there any competitions near me? Thanks :)

[Hellas]

I'm far away from you so I can only give you a general answer. What most people would do is to join an agility class with an instructor. Agility is super fun but more difficult that it looks. You need a very obedient dog that is in tune with your signals. The dog will need to learn commands for different obstacles. For many dogs the weave poles are the most challenging and can take quite a long time to master. I do agility with both of my pugs - no competetitions yet, just training with a group once a week -and they love it, as do I. We have so much fun doing it and it's great excercise for the dogs, and me.

Keeping my fingers crossed that you find a group to train with, because you'll have a blast!

[11442]

Wow! That sounds great! I bet my pugs would love that! I never realized there where classes. I think my babies would love it, they are super smart. I'm always trying to kind of invent new trick and things to teach them because they just seem so willing to learn. This seems like it could be right up their ally! Thanks a bunch! I'm going right to the Internet to search for classes, thanks again :)

[ayleash]

Hiya... I like the space offered in Sudbury at Esp for pets... and the instructor there (Angela N.)... that being said, a dog does not have to be agile to do agility... just want to please you... and when they learn how fun most of the obstacles are, and how happy you get, they will love doing it even if there is not a food luring them through!

I think there's a place in Acton that has outside space... but farther out your way, I don't know...

[11442]

thanks, i looked into some classes and was shocked on some of the pricing! i think i may look into building my own obstacles and training them myself. i've got three and i can't imagine paying some of the prices i saw times 3! yikess!

Thanks ayleash for the specific locations i have yet to look into those places, but thanks for refereeing me :)

[Wally 'n' Leto]

We have been going to our obedience school for some time now but she allows people with multiple dogs to register for one space in the class and then alternate week with who goes. That wouldn't work well in the beginning because the skills would build from one class to the next, bet it would work when they are more experienced. One thing we didn't count on is how tiring it is to run more than one dog in a class - Scot and I have each done a few classes with both boys in tow and it's a lot -- especially when you start to run. You might want to sign one of your dogs up for a class, learn how to do the obstacles and train them, then teach the other 2 at home.

Here's our favourite video of Leto doing agility (he's got ataxia and does great -- he's one of the best in the class) but if you browse around our channel there's more videos of both Wally and Leto doing agility. They are currently in their 3rd 8-week session -- it's amazing how fast they learn.

Leto Agility class.mov - YouTube

[Hellas]

I agree with Heather. It's an excellent idea to take the course with one dog. Once you've got the hang of how to teach the various obstacles etc, you can train the other two at home. We have obstacles in our backyard and do sometimes train a little, but it's so much more fun in a group. And you learn so much from watching each other and getting comments. Other people can notice things that you do, such as posture and body language, that can make all the difference in the world. I'm addicted to our agility class. It's so much fun!

[Wonka & Nilla]

i think i may look into building my own obstacles and training them myself. i've got three and i can't imagine paying some of the prices i saw times 3! yikess!

I agree with the others about finding a class and enrolling just one dog, just to get you started in the right direction and learning the obstacles correctly. I don't know how old your dogs are, but you need to be very careful about teaching jumps and some of the other obstacles and you don't want to start them too young/early.

There are also many other fun dog sports that pugs can do: Canine Musical Freestyle, Rally, Flyball, Tracking for fun and much more.