All about Agility

Jacqueline O'Neil

Description

Would you like to build a better bond with your dog? Make new friends? Travel to new places? Accept new challenges? You can do it all through the sport of agility. Agility blends desire, control training and athletic ability into a rip-roaring good time. All healthy dogs can enjoy agility work, releasing their energy constructively and learning how to be under control even when they're in high spirits. All About Agility explains how to get involved in this exciting canine sport, including training tips for every challenge on the course. Learn how the sport has evolved, how the courses differ in different organizations and what the rules and titles are. Find out what to expect at a competition and how to prepare. Get training tips from the top pros, including:

• Stuart Mah
• S. Shane McConnell
• Harry and Pat Guticz
• Mike Bond
• Richard Budny

The Revised Edition includes the new AKC Jumpers With Weaves classes, revised USDAA jump heights and all the latest information on the fastest-growing sport in the canine world.

"Written in an easily readable, upbeat style, this book has much to offer both the agility novice and the experienced competitor…Chances are you will be tempted to start out as soon as you can with your own agility star." —AKC Gazette
Foreword (Stuart Mah).

Introduction: The Most Fun You Can Have with Your Dog.

Chapter 1: What Is Agility?

Chapter 2: Agility Organizations.

Chapter 3: Meet the Obstacles.

Chapter 4: Getting Started.

Chapter 5: Agility Events.

Chapter 6: Training Tips from the Pros.

Chapter 7: What's Next?

Appendix A: Organizations and Clubs.

Appendix B: Recommended Reading.

Index.

Sujets

• Practical Guide
• Pets
• Training
• Dogs
• AKC

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 05 mai 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780470354988
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

All About AGILITY

Howell Book House IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. An International Data Group Company 919 E. Hillsdale Boulevard Suite 400 Foster City, CA 94404
Copyright © 1999 by Jacqueline O’Neil
All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
Howell Book House is a registered trademark of Macmillan General Reference, USA, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.
The IDG Books Worldwide logo is a registered trademark under exclusive license to IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., from International Data Group, Inc.
ISBN 1-582-45123-0
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Dedication
To my daughters, Peggy and Sunny Fraser.
You were delightful little girls when I wrote my first book. Now you are charming and independent young women. Thank you for socializing puppies, for being Obedience posts and for riding in the wagon to help the dogs prepare for weight pulls. And thank you especially for blossoming so beautifully, even though you shared your formative years with my dog hobby. Of all the things I have done or won during my life, I am proudest of being your mother.
Acknowledgments
Thank you, agility gurus Dr. Mike Bond and John and Patricia Loomis for sharing your clear, sensible and sensitive wisdom. Both new and seasoned handlers will find your insights indispensable.
Thank you Sharon Anderson, Richard Budney, Harry and Pat Guticz, Charles L. “Bud” Kramer, Stuart Mah, Dr. S. Shane McConnell and Jane Simmons-Moake for answering my questions and sending information and photos. Without your expert help, I could not have completed this book.
Thank you Marilyn Bain and Jean Carter for bringing your enthusiastic dogs to a photo shoot. And special thanks to my husband, Tom O’Neil, for shooting the training photos and cooking super spaghetti sauce when I was glued to the computer.
And a second thank you to Sharon Anderson, AKC’s Field Director for Agility, for keeping me up to date on the changes that constantly occur in this new sport and for providing some of the pictures.
Table of Contents
Foreword By Stuart Mah
Introduction The Most Fun You Can Have with Your Dog
Chapter 1 What Is Agility?
The origins of the sport and where it is today.
Chapter 2 Agility Organizations
How the various agility groups compare, classes and scoring for beginners, titles and more titles, and how to find more information.
Chapter 3 Meet the Obstacles
Getting started on all the obstacles, from planks to hurdles to pause boxes, with advice on how to progress at your own pace and important safety tips.
Chapter 4 Getting Started
Knowing when your dog is ready, willing and able, how to find a good class or start your own, and using sequence training to get ready for the real thing
Chapter 5 Agility Events
How to enter a trial, what to pack, what to wear, what to do at the event and how to tame those butterflies in your stomach.
Chapter 6 Training Tips from the Pros
Top competitors, instructors and judges answer the questions novices ask most often and discuss the mistakes most frequently made at trials.
Chapter 7 What’s Next?
What else can you and your agile, well-trained dog do? Therapy visits, fly ball and just being pals.
Appendix A Organizations and Clubs
Appendix B Recommended Reading
Index
Foreword
I was first introduced to the sport of agility on a cold New Year’s Day in 1989. There was an agility demonstration at an obedience match I was attending, and for $2 you could introduce your dog to the equipment. I put my first dog, Shannon, on the course and through the equipment, and at the end I knew we wanted to do more. I was able to attend an agility class later that year. Shortly after that we began competing in agility shows. The rest, as they say, is history.
During that time there were only two organizations that promoted agility: the United States Dog Agility Association (USDAA) and the National Committee for Dog Agility (NCDA, now UKC agility). Both had different performance and judging criteria. There were only a handful of events a year, and you could often go three or four months between events. Agility titles easily took a minimum of a year to complete, and that was only if you almost always qualified. When you went to an event, there was always much to be learned and you almost always “winged it,” never knowing quite what to expect.
Today things are a bit different. In the United States alone, we have no less than four organizations that sponsor agility programs. Each program has its own set of rules, regulations and judging criteria. In most parts of the country you can find all four “flavors” of agility on any given weekend, and you could conceivably go to a different type of agility event each week. In addition, the number of events that one can go to has increased at least tenfold. Add to that the fact that countries like Canada and Mexico, our two closet geographical neighbors, put on agility events, and the number of agility events that any person can go to is limited only by finances or time. To earn a title now takes only a fraction of the time that it took 10 years ago.
With the many types of agility and the number of events that you can now attend, things like rules and judging can get to be a bit confusing. Which organizations let you knock down a bar and still qualify? In which organizations is it a fault to miss the up contact of the A-frame? How much time do you have to complete a course? To agility handlers that have been around for awhile, all the agility organizations with their rules and regulations can be merely confusing. To the handlers new to agility, keeping track of all this can be a downright nightmare.
The book you now hold in your hand, All About Agility, takes the guesswork and confusion out of keeping track. Jacqueline O’Neil has made it easy by offering concise information on all the organizations, rules, regulations and titles, and offers comparisons of each organization.
In addition to organizations and rules, Jackie offers bountiful information on obstacles and equipment, how to get started, where to go to get started, and what to do once you get started. Chapter 5 , “Agility Events” is especially helpful to people new to agility. Jackie tells you what you need to know to start participating in agility and what to expect when you go to an event. Knowing what to do, where to go, what to expect and what to bring to agility events is something I wish I’d had when I began showing. It would have taken away much of the guesswork and headaches that I had to go through in my early years. Now, new agility handlers can go to an agility event with the confidence of a seasoned competitor.
Finally, Chapter 6 , “Training Tips from the Pros” is nice in that you can “talk” to a few more experienced competitors and get answers to some frequently asked questions.
All in all, All About Agility, is a one-stop agility book, covering much of what you need to know before you get hooked! Happy reading and clean runs to all.
Stuart Mah Jacksonville, Florida 1999
Active in agility since 1989, Stuart Mah has excelled as a competitor, an instructor and a judge. He has represented the United States five times in international competition. He is a noted author and a leading expert in course design. In 1996, Stuart was voted the USDAA Agility Person of the Year.
INTRODUCTION
The Most Fun You Can Have with Your Dog
Agility is the epitome of exciting teamwork. Thrilling to participants and spectators, it blends desire, control, training and athletic ability into a rip-roaring good time. The object of agility is for a handler to direct his or her dog over a timed obstacle course without the dog making a mistake such as bumping a jump or missing a weave pole. Dogs leap colorful hurdles, hustle through tunnels, take a turn on the see-saw and hasten up and down ramps on courses that resemble playgrounds and are never the same twice.
All healthy dogs can enjoy agility. It doesn’t matter if they are purebred or mixed-bred, large or small, young or middle-aged. Through agility training, dogs release their energy constructively and learn how to be under control and in high spirits at the same time. Agility dogs and their owners are better than best friends. They are partners.
Every dog owner can enjoy agility, too. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, quick or slow, graceful or clumsy. If you have a sense of humor, or wish you could find the one you lost, a world of fun awaits you. Would you like to build a better bond with your dog? Make new friends? Travel to new places? Accept new challenges? You can do it all through the sport of agility. Best of all, you can set your own goals and accomplish them on your own schedule.
Welcome to agility, a game so captivating that a short demonstration spawned an international sport.
How much fun is agility?
Ask anyone who’s tried it and you’ll get the same answer: Agility is the most fun you can have with your dog.

Judy Iby sends Cory through the tire. When agility first became popular, Judy wanted to try it but didn’t think she could because she has a herniated disk and has had knee surgery three times. But the sport looked like so much fun that she couldn’t resist. Since then she’s put nine agility titles on her dogs (of course, the fact that they were already dog show champions with obedience and tracking titles helped). “Yes, you can teach old dogs new tricks