Dog sport competitors, how did you get into your sport?

Im in the uk and I have always trained my dogs with trainers that have worked their dogs in some sort of discipline so when i had a good dog and the trainer kept saying to me that i should enter him in Working Trials competition because he would do well i just gave it a try. I`m not someone who likes performing in front of an audience and to do so in front of a judge who would be "marking" me was quite daunting and Im sure my "nerves" did not help my dog at all sometimes. But the dog was really good and the greatest confidence booster for me, was qualifying in UD and coming 4th out of 30 entries. I was on cloud nine for a week. After that there was no stopping me and My dog qualified many more times. Dog sport is great fun and its a really great incentive to train a dog to a high standard. A good hobby to have and a great way to make new friends along the way.

I think everyone makes mistakes along the way and can see where they went wrong. I made some daft mistakes once or twice which cost me 1st place at a couple of trials. Like not reading my dog properly and letting nerves get in the way but I learnt well from the mistakes.

My advice for newbies. If at first you don`t succeed, don`t give up, try try again...as the saying goes. And do find a really good trainer who knows your chosen sport inside out.

Once you have your first qualification or placing and rosette it`s worth all the effort of training and competing.

Agility is Addictive!!! Aussies kick yet at it too. fee: Its as high priced as you're making it. I in many circumstances do interior sight trials by using fact there is relatively no could commute the place I stay. The club that I prepare with hosts a contest very very nearly each month so its nevertheless ordinary to earn titles on the canines. It relies upon how lots you decide directly to get into it. some human beings purely have the undemanding kennel and backyard chair and do agility very casually, and then theres people who're completely nuts approximately it and spend alot of money buying all styles of canines kit and fancy stuff and are very aggressive and commute and such. Our trials are many times around 60 $s in case you establish to circulate into all the rounds. they're positioned on by utilising AAC "Agility Asociation of Canada". My classes are fifty 5$ for a set of four classes. HOW no longer ordinary IS IT? in case you're bodily able, its relatively ordinary to coach. canines %. it up very rapid, you have gotten some bumps right here and there, yet you many times get with the aid of it. It purely takes some months of instructing and the canines are already learning finished classes. you're able to do doggy agility classes, then artwork your way up and by utilising the time the canines is eighteen months old they're sufficiently old to compete. it relatively is amazingly valuable for the canines to have all the undemanding obedience instructions down, considering which you will at last artwork off leash. you will learn alot from different "canines human beings" in agility classes.

25 yrs ago, I had a big Airedale b*tch that wouldn't stop jumping on the kids. I tried everything I knew at the time to get her to stop without success. I sought out the help of a trainer for problem dogs. She turned me on to our local AKC Obedience club for classes. I took the classes, had wonderful success training the dog & LOVED it. I was hooked! I had her about ready to compete in fun matches when I lost her to a freak situation. I quickly got a new dog to train, a lovely Miniature Schnauzer boy who became my Novice A Obedience dog. I got his CD & High Scoring Terrier. I started training for his CDX. This was back in the day when the only way to teach a retrieve was with a forced ear pinch. He was a soft dog. He turned off & stopped having fun working. I wish I had known then what I know now about how to build a positive retrieve, but I didn't. My dog wasn't having fun, so at that point neither was I. I stopped doing Obedience with him & enjoyed him as my beloved pet. I was plenty busy with my daughter training & showing Hunter Jumper. I stayed a member of our local AKC Obedience club as I enjoyed the people & worked at our trials. When Agility came to our area I was intrigued. I went to some trials & I wanted to do that!!!! I took a Beginner's class with my Mini Schnauzer boy who was 10 yrs old by this time. It was too much to pursue with him at his age, but I loved it. I took my daughter's Border Collie pup to Puppy Agility, but he was her dog. I needed a dog of my own to train for this wonderful sport. So I got my first Agility dog, a fabulous little BC girl. She was the sweetest most forgiving first Agility partner a handler could ask for. She helped me learn. Together we earned over 60 Agility titles in 4 different Agility venues. We earned an AKC MACH & went to AKC National Agility Championships together. This little dog took me places I had never dreamed of before. I am forever grateful to her. I'm now training & competing with my 4th & 5th Agility dogs. I know I pay to play, but I love the game & so do my dogs. I love the training & I love the special relationship I have with my dogs because of it. I love challenging myself & my team to constantly become better. Agility is my passion. There is nothing else like it.

I've trained my own dogs & dogs for other people. I learned a long time ago that all dogs are different. There is no cookie cutter way to teach anything. You have to find the way to teach different behaviors to each dog that they understand & not only learn, but keep enjoying learning & playing with you. In Agility it's all about turning a dog on & building their drive for the game. Some dogs are more challenging this way than others. I embrace the challenge. I take this approach to my Obedience training now too. And because of it I have very happy working dogs.

My advice: Obedience classes at your local AKC training club. Find an experienced Agility trainer that has trained many different kinds of dogs & that actively competes in the sport.

Loving this question & loving reading people's answers. Share your story Diva Pom! I know you have one of the top Agility Poms in the US. :-)

I started out 20 years ago with a mixbreed, she was a 30 lb beagle mix and I needed better control with walking her because she's drag me down the street. So I enrolled in a basic obedience class run by a local AKC obedience training club.

She was a very smart dog, quick learner and very biddable. I stayed in classes and another member told me about AMBOR (American Mix Breed Obedience Registry), UKC & ASCA. How to register my dog with them, how to find obedience matches & that mixbreed can compete and title in obedience and how to enter shows.

I entered my first ever obedience match, it was sub-novice, so everything was on leash and we did great. From there I just started entering UKC & ASCA shows and qualifying. She was about 7yo when agility came ot the area. I right away enrolled in agility classes and by the next year, we were competing in UKC, NADAC, ASCA & USDAA agility.

That mixbreed dog retired from obedience at the age of 13 with her UKC Utility Dog title. She retired from agility at 15 with her UKC Agility Champion title and we were working on our Superior titles in NADAC.

Since she was my first dog, I made many many mistakes. I'm fortunate that she was a very forgiving dog. I learned that if someone tell you to do something to train your dog that your not comfortable with....don't do it. I was once told many years ago that I could not get a relaible retrieve without an ear pinch, that how it was back then. I simply couldn't do it and felt if I had to hurt my dog to get her to retrieve something, then this sport wasn't for me. Luckily a well known obedience instructor told me that I could definately get a reliable retrieve just by using food and not force. I followed her direction and I had a dog that would retrieve anything and loved to retrieve.

I've learned to be fair to my dog in training. To help them when they don't understand something. That when they shut down, it's because their unsure of what you want and don't want to make a mistake. They're not blowing you off. I've learned to not take it all so seriously, because you only have that dog for a short amount of time. That sometimes, if your having a problem its not due to the dog being stubborn, but can be a relationship issue, a trust issue.

It goes without saying that I am a competitive person and I do like to do well. Especially since I never did own and run Goldens or BC's. I had a mixbreed and now dachshunds, so I consider myself an "underdog". I've had gate stewards at obedience trials make a comment about how my dogs were going to perform before I even entered the ring. People don't expect much when you walk in with a "non-obedience or agility" breed. So I love showing off my fabulous working dachshunds and we do quite well.

I remember, back in the day, people chuckling and making negative comments AS I was walking into the ring with my fabulous mixbreed. They weren't chuckling when we beat them and I took the placements.

Find good instruction. Someone who understands and competes with different breeds, not just golden's, BC's and shelties. Find someone who is good to their dogs and is a good competitor. Find someone who doesn't look down on the breed you own or tell you that you can't do ________(fill int he blank) with your breed.

Most important, this is part-time. Training and competing isn't your whole life with the dog, it's only a small part of your life with that animal. Choose a breed or mix you want to live with on a daily basis, not because you think it would "win" in sport. Go and have fun with your dog and keep competition all in perspective.

I saw my first obedience trial in 1972. My folks took me to a local dog show because I was crazy about dogs. I watched the conformation for about two minutes and found it booooooooooring. Then I saw obedience. I saw dogs working with their owners by heeling; coming when called; jumping 1 1/2 times their height over jumps; scent discrimination; etc. The thing that amazed me the most was the stays. There were probably 25 dogs in the ring doing sit and down stays. I was amazed that the dogs could sit or down next to another dog without moving or going to it. I was even more impressed when the owners left the ring and the dogs had to stay by themselves (most did).

A month or so later, I found a book in a bargain bin for $1. It was called "Training You to Train Your Dog" by Blanche Saunders. I started training from that book with the family mixed breed. I was really excited that my dog learned this stuff really fast. I dreamed of taking him to the dog show and winning but mixed breeds were not allowed to compete at that time. As an adult, I bought my first registered dog. I started taking obedience classes and started competing. I got a high in trial with my novice A dog on her third leg. After that I was hooked. Since then I have expanded into other dog sports as they became available. Currently I participate in rally, agility and hunting tests as well as obedience.

The best advice that I can give is to take a class in the venue that your are interested in from a trainer that actually competes in that venue. Go to events to watch the dogs and the handles if there are any in your area. Train your dog to the best of your ability. Above all have a good time interacting with your dog. You are building a relationship while training and competing. The rough parts in the road will make you a better trainer. Mistakes is what teaches learning in both people and dogs. So expect to make mistakes and learn from them. Remember every venue starts with basic obedience.

I started agility classes with my one dog because I heard it helped with shy dogs. Then I did a trail for fun and loved it. I started doing rally because we do conformation with our other dog and they only have rally and obedience at those trails so it gave both dogs something to do at the show.

We found a great trainer that helps and answers a lot of our questions up until about a year ago I had never been to any kind of dog show so my husband and I had a lot of questions

Got into it at the suggestion of the breeder, never really thought about doing it. Do it now just for the fun of it. No mistakes. As far as newbies, I say try it, you may like it. I have two JRT's, only one of them competes and has been Champion for three years in a row. He does racing (flats & hurdles), and lure coursing. We do enter his sister in gtg & barn hunt just to give her something to do but she doesn't seem to be interested in competing. She has ribbons for 2nd through 6th place only one 2nd, the rest are fifth and sixth. [IMG]http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e224/GLLNTKNIGHT... I will be starting him in agility next spring just to see if he will do it and whether I can do it as I am disabled.

I was 12 and living in Europe when I was first exposed to my sport that has served as the foundation basis for all my training since then. I was amazed at what the dogs I saw could accomplish and wanted to learn everything there is about it and how to do it. Since I have a genetic ability with dogs and training, I absorbed like a sponge and I am still learning and refining ideas that were learned 40 years a go. As far as getting into my or any other sport...well, mine is not popular or available in the USA due to how hard it is and the time commitment it takes to compete, but, for the rest, I find them useless and a complete waste of money.

I realized about 10 years a go, after having a very serious discussion with a one of the top trainers in the world, that training to compete does nothing for ones pocket and the money you need to spend to get to the point of competing is a lot and there is no return on that HUGE investment, so, until dog sports become professionalized and start awarding big money to those who win, I will train for those who pay me to do it. Great question by the way, its refreshing to actually answer something intelligent in here.

Everyone makes mistakes when starting out, and even after having been competing for many years as every dog learns differently and trainers/owners have to figure out what makes each individual dog tick in order to train it. Thus, mistakes will always be made, especially if you are the kind of trainer that thinks there is only one way to do it.

A dog owner that wants to get into competition in any of the performance rings, needs to find a qualified instructor to show them how to train in order to limit the number of mistakes that we all know will be made. Petco and Petsmart are not the kind of training you will need for competition.

Find you local AKC affilicated club and take lessons there;

http://www.akc.org/events/obedience/training_clubs...

I did this for over 40 years and still make mistakes even after putting OTCH titles on my dogs.