Agility
Agility is one of the fastest-growing dog sports in the country—and for good reason. It’s incredible exercise for both you and your dog, and it forges an even deeper relationship between you. Plus, it’s exhilarating to watch as your dog nimbly and quickly crawls through tunnels, weaves around poles, and leaps through tires! That is what AKC has to say! Click here for an interesting HISTORY OF AGILITY!
There are several organizations that offer agility titles and these are the ones I'm familiar with:
2023.7 It's been a year since I've posted here but we've been "playing" in agility in the yard. We left some jumps, hoops and a tunnel out for the winter and had fun with that in the small area. Daily (weather permitting) now in the summer we go out to hang out and do fun stuff with the equipment out there since the snow melted! I've said he'll be ready to take it on the road when he has a reliable "wait"!
Looks a lot like last year with a little less stuff but the rest is available when I want it!
2022.8 Agility practice, or I should say play, happens OFTEN. Easily 5x/week we go to the training area and do something... get comfortable with the equipment, do figure 8s around barrels.... go through hoops and over jumps... or just simply practice WAIT at the start line! The Schutzhind blinds have been removed as has the wood chip pile and it much more open. Fencing separates the hoops, barrels and jumps at this time but no fence yet around the course. It's a work in progress, for sure!
2022.7 The big news is AGILITY!! Build it and they will come! I put the word out asking if anyone had agility equipment they weren't using and got lots of responses! A few years ago I distributed what I had (which was a lot!) because I didn't think I was ever going to use it again! Well, Karma kicked in and look what we have!
The equipment has arrived from various sources and the yard is beginning to look like a training field. People are coming to train with us and help with Mookie and his agility career even though it's a long way off! Mookie loves to do the dog walk (on the ground), low (6 inch) jumps, the teeter and especially the TUNNEL!! I remember seeing an agility tunnel in his play area in Hungary for the puppies to play in!
He demonstrated his enthusiasm for the sport one evening while watching agility run-thrus and got the opportunity to do the tunnels on the course. Thanks to his new best friend, Bethany, he ran through them all and returned to where I was standing multiple times to let me know how exciting it was!! Check out this fun video!