In a message dated 1/31/2003 4:03:17 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> I have an 8 mo old Berner who is quite smart. We would like to > start training him for agility. Hi Denise, My thoughts follow, but I do agility for fun and not competition so this is a pretty inexpert view. There are so many skills involved in agility, it's never too young to start working on many of them. You just want to keep in mind that Deuce's joints are still developing and therefore somewhat vulnerable and...that he's a teenager so his brain can go 'out to lunch' at any time without notice <g>. So, my approach to agilty with a young dog is to work heavily on my relationship with the dog, teach them to work at a distance, follow my body, that kind of thing. I'll do the obstacles with my young dog BUT no where near competition height. I'd do low jumps, set the A-frame wide open (just prop up the center a bit if the chains won't go far enough), lowered dog walk, lowered teeter, etc....and avoid a lot of repetition. What you're training for is the dog to do each obstacle in a FULLY controlled manner...not as a wild eyed hot shot. It's those flying leap moments that I think pose the most risk for youngsters so preventing them is the real challenge of doing agility with a teen. Agility puts the most stress on the front assembly of the dog, less on the hips. To get an idea of why this is so important to know, take a close look at a dog's skeleton. You'll see that the front end is made up of a succession of bones that aren't held together by much at all. No nice, tight, full contact support like you see in the ball and socket joint of the hips. In the front, it's bone to bone with little holding things in place but ligaments. Keeping that picture in mind will help guide you in deciding what and how much to have Deuce practice. And the decision IS up to you... some teachers are more knowledgeable about working with a large dog than others but the final decision on what to do and not during class is yours. Drop an email to Kris Osojnicki, [EMAIL PROTECTED], for info on the Berner Agility elist. I'm sure there's lots of experience there to take advantage of. ~ Sherri Venditti
