BeezSK

We have a female border collie and a male Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. They get along pretty good and have lots of fun and he's not huge like a lab or golden.

You'll be fine. My agility club has about 15 or so people competing and I'd say 3 or 4 of us are under 40, 3 or 4 are 40-50 and the rest are 50+. Like everyone mentioned, distance work is key. Also teaching the dog a left and a right would be very helpful. It's great exercise for everyone but especially for older people and your dog will love the mental/physical aspect of it. You may never go to nationals but not many of us do. That shouldn't stop you from having fun and bonding with your pet.

I don't actually have the pup in my possession yet so she will be around 8 weeks when I do. Looking for games we can play starting when I get her right up until we start actual agility training

What does everyone here do with a new pup to build/maintain that high drive and speed? What games have you found are good to play with the pup?

Hey! I'm not a lady LOL

I'm not too sure what you mean by "working", water trials? A good friend of mine breeds PWDs and competes in agility with them. Hers are heavier and a touch slower than my BC but very quick and accurate on the course. She has one black female pup left from her most recent litter. If your friend is interested PM me and I will get you her contact info (she is located up here in Canada but shipping arrangements could be worked out I would imagine).

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/22...=rss_topstories

We had a fun match on the weekend, not a full blown trial but full courses and full speed/timed runs at our normal trial venue. Training seemed to stick. Full-proof will be in February at the next trial I guess.

What we have done is make a rectangle box (we use the bracket thing for measuring a dog's height) to put at the bottom of a contact. You set it there and have the dog stay at one end of the contact while you go over to the other end then you call your dog over the obstacle. Reward them as soon as the front feet get in the box. If they miss have them go back up on the contact and try again. Once they are in the right position keep treating and rewarding. Eventually when they know where you want them you can wait longer amounts of time to treat. This technique worked on a masters level dog with horrible contacts, within 2 weeks she had a perfect 2on/2off wait on every contact obstacle.

Thanks for the tip Julie, I think you may be on to something. We work outside in the summer in a big field but winter time we're stuck in the basement of a library so we focus on handling and contacts during that time. She was much faster at the end of summer than she is now, perhaps we just need to race around and go crazy again.

No, we've been doing this for over a year now. She is always excited and willing to get out on the field to do this with me. Next suggestion?

What are some good ways to speed up your dog's drive to the equipment? My dog is to the point now where she knows all the obstacles by name but most of the time it seems like she is jogging rather than sprinting towards them. What training tips should I try to get her to pick up the pace?

Ok, ABC has tunnels in red or yellow. 24"x15' w/4" pitch for $247 or 24"x20' w/4" pitch for $303. He said I could also check their supplier's website for more colors, etc. which is www.k9sports.ca

Wow, this is awesome info. Thanks very much, I will inquire with them about price/color/etc. and post back here what I find out. I live in Moose Jaw so we're about 250kms from Saskatoon so I am hoping they ship STC.

I'm starting to think it isn't possible to wear these dogs out physically. Gypsy and I attended an agility seminar on Saturday that started at 8am. We worked until about 11:30. I was videotaping the afternoon session so they said we could join in to work some more if we liked. So finally after about 5 hours of agility she finally was looking tired and her courses were getting sloppy so we decided to quit. All the other dogs looked worn out by then but some people showed up at 5 to work their dogs by themselves since the equipment was out. Gypsy decided she'd impress everyone by running huge circles around the arena for a half hour Then when we got home she wanted to play frisbee :eek: It's hard to sleep on the couch when your BC keeps hitting you in the head with a frisbee