27 Weeks - Agility Training

At Maddie's age, she is still too young to do any serious training.  She needs to be fully grown with growth plates closed (about 15 months) before starting to climb big agility obstacles, jumping 24 inches, and weaving.

One of the nice things about working with a 6 month old is that there is no rush or timeline.  If she learns something between now and 18 months, I feel well ahead of schedule as all my other dogs started at 2 to 3 years.  With competitions on the calendar, I feel self-imposed pressure to make sure Seven and Riley do a certain amount of agility and obedience each week.  But with Maddie, it is all no big deal.

I am really pleased with Maddie's cone work.  Basically, it is just a tight turn.  Most jumps have wings so in the future she will need wrap around wings to do tight turns over jumps.  We just do a few of these at a time.  Recently, Maddie started galloping around the cone which I love.

The second thing on the video is an introduction to rear crosses.  I am just teaching her to turn away from me when I use an opposite arm.

And then the last thing is just a little intro to jumping.  I just want to introduce her to running between the jump stands and following my hand.