Anyone else in dog agility? Those are my two mutts in the picture there. Kelly (in front) is a Siberian Husky cross, 14 years old and is retired from agility much to her disgust. Chase is mostly Border Collie, 6 years old and highly food and agility motivated. He's a rough and tumble type boy who has taken numerous spills without ever looking back. Kelly was always slow and perfect, Chase is a moremoremore kind of boy.

I started in dog agility about 12 years ago after I adopted Kelly from the local humane society. It didn't take me long to discover that I had a whole lot of dog on my hands. She was much different from my previous very mellow cocker spaniel cross. I knew I had to find something for her to do so I went down to watch a trial and spent the whole time sitting in the stands thinking "My dog could do that!". Signed up for a class the next day, it was a lot of trial and error, but eventually I got it right for her. She on the other hand had no problem catching on. She's never forgiven me for retiring her, it takes a lot of bribery for me to make it out of the house with my younger dog for practice.

Chase came into the picture several years later, he was a give away, part of an unwanted litter. I knew he was going to be a whole, whole lot of dog the minute I met his mom. But, I had always wanted a higher drive dog for agility and BC's fit that bill. Wow, did I get more then I bargined for! Chase was a 90 mph, 26" jumping whirlwind! And because he's a totally different personality then Kelly I had to learn how to train agility all over again! He has mellowed some what since he's gotten older, but it's still like a light switch being flicked on when he's on course. Off course you have this big lug "love me, love me!" type of dog, on course you can see him tense all of his muscles and tighten up like a spring ready to let loose. I definitely got my high drive dog!

So... anyone else?

I would like to get my IG into agility or lure-coursing. She loves to run and jump and is pretty smart, but is a bit dog shy now. I am working on that first. I have heard that IGs do okay in agility.

IG? Really any dog can do well in agility, that's a big part of why I love it so much.

I used to do agility when I was a teenager- I'd love to get back into it, but I've run out of weekends.

I compete in Flyball with 2 of my dogs. It's the only canine team sport out there- it consists of a team of 4 dogs running a relay where they go over 4 jumps, trigger a box to launch a tennis ball, catch the tennis ball mid air while doing a 180 on the box, and then come back over the 4 jumps. My Aussie Jordan has been competing since 2006, and his fastest time is 4.2 seconds. My mini poodle WhoBe just started competing in August and is already running 5.2 secs (really fast for a little dog who's still new at the sport)

We also compete in Lure Coursing with our Whippets. I've seen some Italian Greyhounds (IGs) run, but they're not that common.

I think it's kind of ironic that all 7 of my dogs are in way better shape than me- especially the Whippets, they're like models on 4 legs!

~tunealoo

Flyball is fun too. My oldest dog used to like to throw the ball herself then chase after it so that's why I never really got into it.

I was thinking exactly the same thing just a few days ago. I've always made sure my dogs stay a healthy weight and eat only good food... I take better care of them then myself in some aspects!

We are starting training soon for agility! Super excited!

^ Great stuff! What kind of dog do you have?

He is a corgi mix. When we go to "school" he always likes to look at the agility course. I don't know if it is b/c of the other dogs or a general interest. This should interesting! lol

I just found out that the IG group that I belong to will have agility training paraphernalia (Ramps, tunnels, weave poles) at our next IG meeting on the 18th April. I am so psyched. My little girl will be able to try her jumps and so on. I don't expect much but it will be fun.

-- I have a groovy agility story I just remembered!!!! We were hiking in the lonely woods and came upon spooky old ramps and so on from an old Boy-Scout camp from the 50's. My IG was running up the ramps without even being told.

My IG is more like a racer. She is serious about running in a straight line and going after her goal (her friend, chihuahua Carlos). I have a dog blog, carlosandgiselle.blogspot.com Right now my camera does not work and I am unemployed and won't get a new camera for a while. So I can't post new photos.