# New and curious!



## PiperPuppy (Nov 28, 2010)

I just adopted a Boston Terrier puppy. I have never trained a dog for sport, but am very interested in getting into it. 

How old should your dog be before training her for a sport?

Can you point me in the direction of a good book and/or website to help me get started?

Thanks in advance!!


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## Aussie27 (Sep 25, 2010)

Well, since I'm currently researching dog agility, I could give you a few pointers on that.  And information is generally easy to find through google.

First off, you should never start the jumping work, or whatever else may put extra pressure on the joints, until the dog is at least a year old. Usually, people stick with hind end awareness and tunnels and such until the 1 year mark, which is when the joints are mature enough to handle the demands of the sport. 

You can find a bucket load of information on puppy agility and agility just by typing it in on google, and there are many people who do agility on here that could help you.


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## MissMutt (Aug 8, 2008)

The AKC has some nice pages talking about performance events.

Here's their agility brochure, for example: http://www.akc.org/pdfs/events/agility/Agility_Brochure.pdf

Do you know what kinds of things you're interested in? Something fast paced, or maybe something laid back and beginner friendly, etc. The three most widespread dog activities outside of the breed ring are probably formal Obedience, Rally Obedience, and Agility.


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## RaeganW (Jul 14, 2009)

With a puppy, don't worry about skills. Teaching skills is the easy part. Instead, try to find a good puppy class preferably one that is geared towards the pre-sports puppy. A good pet class is better than nothing, and a great one will still give you a good foundation, but foundation is the most important part of any sport, IMO. Set a good foundation and teach it right the first time and everything will go a lot smoother and quicker. Make haste slowly.


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## petpeeve (Jun 10, 2010)

PiperPuppy said:


> Can you point me in the direction of a good book and/or website to help me get started?


There are many books available, depending on your area of interest and your current level of knowledge.

*"The Power of Positive Dog Training"* by Pat Miller

*"Purely Positive Training -Companion to Competition"* by Sheila Booth 

I don't know your level of knowledge or what sports you hope to compete in, but these two books should give a good start to the basic fundamentals of general training and competitive obedience... if that's where you stand / where you're headed.


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## LynnI (Mar 27, 2010)

Agreed, good instruction focused on a future sports dog is best. If you do a lot of Obedience training, make sure you do agility foundations at the same time. Too much obedience without agility flatwork and skills can have a dog that sticks too close to you.

www.cleanrun.com has the latest and great agility stuff, tons of excellent dvds and such.


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## DJEtzel (Dec 28, 2009)

You can start training him as a puppy just to be a good all-around pup and move on to classes once you have a good relationship and he has the basics down. There aren't any sports that don't involve sitting or walking on a loose lead, so starting there is great.


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## TonyBaby (Aug 24, 2007)

Yeah, start with some basic obedience as a puppy. Most agility clubs won't let you start a dog without a foundation and the dog has to be a certain age according to it's breed. I think Border Collies have to be at least 1 year old...it might be 18 months. I'm not sure what the requirements are for smaller breeds. BTW, kudos for looking into this now while yours is still a youngin'


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