Puppy Dog Agility Training
Because puppies bones are still growing its best to wait a few months before you do jump training with them. Jump training done too soon can cause injuries. Some recommend you wait until they are a year old. But others start training earlier. Check with your vet to be safe.
Below that you can see Magic Momo Superdog as a puppy learning the "Stop" cue followed by a "Go to your Bed" cue.
At the bottom of this page, in the video by EveryDay K9s you can see a way to start teaching agility turns without using jumps, but using hoops.
Foundation Exercises for Puppies
There are still many foundation exercises you can do with your dog without jumps. One crucial skill you can teach is the ability to respond to verbal and non-verbal cues.
Teach your dogs to turn left, turn right, go straight, stop, wait.
It's amazing how fast dogs can learn to respond to spoken as well as body language cues.
This will be invaluable, later when you do actual dog agility runs!
Here is a list of important exercises you can do with a puppy to prepare him or her for dog agility.
- Nose Touch
- Run in a Circle -- dog on left and then dog on right
- Wait Release
- Race to Reward
- Run to Mat
- Run to Mats placed in trianble formation
- Front Feet on a Stool
- Directionality Training
- Egg Balls -- for balance training
- Trotting Poles for dogs
- Straight Tunnel Practice