Agility and Obed training conflicts

[spoteet]

At the trial this weekend I had a very successful and well known Rottweiler obedience/conformation trainer/handler/breeder tell me that the worst thing I could do right now was to have Sajan in an agility class. She claims that she has seen many very good obedience competition dogs ruined by doing agility. The novice agility class that Sajan is in is a lot like playing around in the park. I am having a hard time understanding why it would hurt him in his obedience training since it's not much different than playing.

My question is.....What do you all think about doing agility and obedience training at the same time?????

[Joanne in NJ]

I'll try and answer with my limited experience. I have two dogs I run in agility. A rottie/ESS cross and a doberman. The dobie has alot of formal obed on her, the rottie girl does not. You do, however need at least a good recall for agility.

My rottie girl is faster, has alot of "willing to please" in her and is a pleasure to run. For instance, she doesn't care one whit which side I'm on. She's as easy to run on the right as the left.

The doberman however, glued herself to my left leg. If I tried to run her on the right she would whirl around, or dance around behind me to get back to heel. For a while there, it made things very interesting.

They always liked me to run first, because I was so educational and amusing to watch...

[DNeff]

I currently compete in both agility and obedience. I started Riven in both agility and obedience as soon as he was old enough. We have been doing both, on and off since then.
I have never had any problems with doing both. I also make sure to never mix obedience commands in agility competing and vice versa. To me, that is where you might end up having issues. I know of some agility competitors who actually use a "heel" command to get their dog beside them in the agility ring. That, in my mind, is setting your dog up for problems.
I would use distinct commands for each sport and not mix the two.

Any type of training done badly, can ruin a dog in another sport. If done correctly you shouldn't have any issues. I know a huge number of people who train and compete in agility, obedience, tracking and herding all at the same time. It's all a matter of how you train.

I actually found agility training improved our obedience since it gave Riven an outlet for all that wild child energy he has.

My personal opinion is go for it!!
Best of luck.
Dawn
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[Mojave's Mom]

I had the same question when I was looking at Agility with Mojave. We were two legs from our CD and he was quickly getting bored....my trainer actually recommended agility as a "release" for him. It worked very nicely. His pep came back and we cleaned house the day we got our third leg in the Novice ring :D Just make sure you keep on with the OB and that the rules in agility don't run over into other parts of his world (ie it's still not ok to treat the house as another agility training facility) :p

Enjoy yourself! It's great work for both of you!!

:D

[Elijah's Mom]

Hi spoteet! I really don't think it should be a problem doing obedience training and agility at the same time. I have heard that some people with advanced obedience training have a problem with their dog working on the right side in agility. When Elijah and I go for walks I will have him heel and do obedience commands on about one third of the walk and the rest of the time he has his freedom and can walk on the right, ahead, whatever. This way he doesn't feel like he has to be on my left side at all times and will work well on either side in agillity.:)