kids are great with dogs! And agility is great for dogs and kids!

My daughter started agility training with a club when she was 11 years old….and was competing with the adults a year later. blah blah yadda yadda We both now have been training students (some kids) for about 13 years now.

Seriously now.

As you know, it is not really that hard to train a dog but it is very difficult to “untrain” one.

You can’t train a dog if you don’t know what it is you are supposed to be training.

There are rules and regulations in agility on how the dog is to properly maneuver the agility equipment…and various ways to train a dog.

Also, agility is not really so much the dog doing the equipment (relatively easy to train the dog if you know what it is you are striving for) but controlling and guiding the dog from one piece to the other.

It would be a shame to “train” the kids wrongly, get their hopes up just to find the dogs don’t enter the weaves correctly, jump over the contact zones, etc.

Do some research first. Ideally you should: find a reputable trainer in your area, go to some agility trials to watch, maybe find an experienced local competitor that would be willing to help you, look up rules and regulations and equipment lists on agility orgs. websites

AKC
k9CPE
USDAA
NADAC
DOCNA

good luck! We all want to see more Jrs out there!!!

the best advice I can give is find a place that teaches agility. Its more than just training your dog to walk and jump the equipment, there’s a lot more involved than that. I’ve been taking agility now for 18 weeks and I am only just learning how to control and train the dog, she’s already learned the equipment now its a matter of training the handler. There’s a lot to learn and a lot involved especially if you want to compete. Take classes don’t go it alone, without knowing what you are doing your dog could get injured. I’ve seen dogs jump off of the A frame and last week my dog took the see saw too fast it came down hard and she injured her pad pretty badly, so even a dog that knows the equipment well can make a mistake if the handler isn’t on top of things.

Good luck

Hi how old is your dog?
You are not allowed to enter them into agility until they are at least one years old. Do not start teaching agility until he is one or older either. Otherwise his bones will get damaged.

I’ve done DIY agility using brooms and lawn chairs for jumps, blankets tossed over a large moving box makes a good closed tunnel.

You might want to consider finding agility classes near you. It would be hard to train your dog on the contact obstacles without using the real equipment. Local kennel clubs sometimes offer classes.