agility

AGILITY

Agility is one of the the fastest growing sports and although considered to be a fun event is highly competitive at the top levels.

Agility consists of a course of obstacles which your dog must negotiate around following your commands. These obstacles normally include jumps, tyres, a dog-walk, a see-saw and an A-frame.

Agility is a great sport to try with your Springer as it is fun and fast, but be warned your Springer may turn into a racing lunatic so you must have your basic obedience up to scratch before attempting agility. Your Springer must be one year old or over (and some clubs may ask for older) this is because their joints have to be fully developed to take the strain of jumping and avoid injury.

If you compete in agility with your Springer and would like to help us out by telling us about you and your dog, and a picture would also be great then please e-mail freya@itsaspringthing.co.uk

TRAINING FOR AGILITY

SPRINGER'S AND AGILITY

Lara with Sweep and Tilly

Lara and Sweep Competing
(photo buy Fiona Hulse)

"We started agility training with Sweep in November 2003 after having a go at a fun dog show. Tilly started in January with Michael but their partnership did not work out so I trained Tilly as well. We started competing in May 2004 at Dartmoor DTC Agility Show but didn't get a clear round until August 2004 with Tilly, Sweep got his first clear round in November 2004 which turned into a 2nd in Agility and 4th in Beat the Clock.

Sweep won out of Elementary in May 2005 at the same show that we had started competing at the previous year. The year carried on with plenty of clear round and places and then to finish the summer season off Sweep and I won out of Starter at Cornwall Agility Club and also qualified for the ABC Semi Final.

2006 started of with us now competing in Novice, we have had a large number of lower placings as we are still working on our technique but we got a clear round in the ABC Semi Final and got 12th place, just out of qualifying for The Horse of the Year Show.

Towards the end of 2006 we got a 6th place in Novice Jumping, which finished our year off with a big bang.

We are looking forward to the following year and yet more shows all around the country." (Lara)

Lara and Sweep win out of starters

Fran and Missy

"Missy loves agility, we only do a few bits in the back garden now because of lack of facilities.
Her favourite bits were the see saw and the dog walk, the hardest for her to grasp was the weave poles, and it seemed like the learning process was going on for ages, then suddenly, after sitting out for one session and just watching - she seemed to grasp what was required.
We found agility great for confidence boosting as she was a very submissive rescue dog when we first had her. Because of this we had to ensure that there was as little hands on training as possible, as this just freaked her out, and concentrated on luring techniques to encourage her to make the right decision and then reward her for it - which also boosts dogs confidence.
I'd recommend any Springer owner to try agility, you don't have to be 'super fit' (Hey - I can only just get jogging bottoms to fit me!) as by careful training you can run a much shorter course than the dog, but most Springer's find it a great release for all that 'boing'!" Fran