# How many dogs have you done agility with? And age factor?



## HyperFerret (Feb 7, 2009)

How many dogs do you _or_ have you done agility with at the same time? I've always wanted to get into agility but my shyness has always kept me from it. However, recently I have been asking questions and talking with Clubs, trainers, and people who do agility. They always ask which dog I'd be doing agility with. I start off with telling them who I think would most definitely love doing agility, though I think most of my dogs would be able to benefit from it. Almost immediately at the start of the conversations everyone stops me and tells me that I can only pick one dog to work with. I can't/not allowed to have multiple dogs. 

I understand it'll cost a lot, as some have mentioned, to include more than one dog but lets pretend money isn't an issue. I didn't realize there was a restriction and, though I didn't really plan on including all my dogs, I certainly planned on included more than one. So I'm rather bummed out to learn this. Most people were just sticking with simply stating "You just can't.", which never helped me understand why. Then while at an agility event, just watching and visiting, one person explained that by having more than one dog, I'd be taking up too much ring time and everyone would be waiting all on me. I saw her point. ...But I'm still truthfully a little bummed out. All the people I spoke to really only had one dog. So I was wondering if anyone here has have more than one dog doing agility?

*And while I'm at it:* 
One guy I've talked to said that he won't compete his dog, Tip, once he is over 2 years old. The guy said he doesn't think any dog should because it's hard on the dog. (I haven't talked to anyone else regarding their dog's age.) O.O ...Yeah, most of all my dogs are 5 years or older.  After what age do you no longer do agility?


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

I am running both my dogs right now. I know plenty of people that run 2 dogs or 3. Several that run 4+. It's expensive of course. But only you know what time and money you have. I will be adding a third in 2015 in the hopes of that dog being ready when I have to retire either Mia or Summer (or both). 

Age... you should not really start training and jumping a dog until their growth plates close. On average it takes 1-2 years before a dog is trial ready. Most venues will not allow dogs under 18 months-2 years to compete. So not competing after the dog is 2 is really....weird to me.

I have seen 14+ year old dogs run. I STARTED Summer again when she was 8. She's 9 with no problems. Generally it is recommended you just listen to your dog. If the dog is still having fun and can physically play the game, I would let them run. Summer LOVES agility. I love that Summer is a fit and healthy 9 year old dog. I will keep her active as long as she wants to be. Will we be the most competitive team ever? Will we have a long, decorated career? No, but she's having fun and enjoying herself. 

I know other dogs that retired at 9 or even 6.... because it wasn't fun for them and they were showing issues to where agility wasn't safe for them anymore.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Also, most people I know stagger their sports dogs by about 5-6 years or recommend it. I know people putting foundations on 3 young high energy dogs and personally, I think they're crazy. With 5-6 years in between you generally have one dog in their prime competing, one dog that is retired/close to retiring, and one dog up and coming that you can really focus on. As always you just never know with any living creature how long their life will be but that is the general thing people do to try to keep numbers in check while still having a dog to train with at all times.

I put foundations on Mia and Summer at the same time and it's a lot. Especially for a newbie. A dog like Summer is a total gem to learn on. She loves it. She's fast and never have to coach her up. Biddable. Easy going and never spooked. She's not over the top hardly ever so you get a perfect amount of drive vs control. She was already great in obedience, had a good hang of clicker training, and was great off leash. Really couldn't ask for a better starter dog.


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## Kyllobernese (Feb 5, 2008)

I know several people who run more than one dog, the most I have run is two. I have two entered in two weeks, one for her first trial so she is only in one class a day. It can get expensive but some clubs give you a discount if you have more than one dog so the idea that you are taking up ring time if you compete with more than one dog seems ridiculous to me. It really depends on your dog how long you compete with them. As long as you and the dog are having fun, go for it, and if you have the time and money to do it with more than one dog you should do that too.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Also, expense really varies depending on how serious you are with your dog. If you are trialling and entering trials every weekend and running every game possible... that's a lot more expensive than just doing classes for fun.


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## trainingjunkie (Feb 10, 2010)

There is absolutely no one who is serious about the sport that would retire dogs at 2 years of age unless there were wildly weird circumstances. Take everything that that person says with a grain of salt. A whole ton of competitors won't START a dog before it's two... (in the ring. Training starts in infancy.)

I run with 3 dogs. They are all super different from each other. I love it. Good handling is good handling and most of what you learn with one will have some level of application with another. The gas and equipment cost the same if you have one dog or forty. Working with one makes you better with another.

I have a fast dog, a stress dog, and a medium dog. It's a riot. They all run different heights at 12, 16, and 20.


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## CoverTune (Mar 11, 2007)

My friend trials with 3 dogs and also has two of them in Superdogs.

As for age, Corona is now 6 years old and we're just getting started (aside from one set of "intro to agility" classes we did two years ago). A gal in one of my classes has an 8 year old Golden she's trialing with. So yeah, I wouldn't let age be a huge deterrent!


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## GrinningDog (Mar 26, 2010)

Gypsy and I just began agility this summer. She's 3.5 years old. Honestly, I think her age HELPS us. She's way more mentally mature than she was even a year ago, focused even with distractions. She's benefited from years of training, thus that she trusts me and knows how to learn from me. 

I think I would get way frustrated doing agility with a puppybrain. LOL.

EDIT: OH HEY. 1000 posts! It only took me, aheh, 3 years...


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## kadylady (Sep 23, 2010)

Many people at the club I train at have 2 or more dogs they are trialing with. Like Laurelin mentioned a lot of them seem to have an experienced dog and a younger dog at the same time. I know a few that have dogs that are 9+ years old and still trialing. Zoey will be 2 next month and we are entering our first trial next month. We started classes a year ago.


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## HyperFerret (Feb 7, 2009)

Whew! This thread has made me feel so much better. Because I definitely have at least 3 I'd like to do agility with. Ever since Tj was a puppy, who is 5 1/2 years old now, I knew I had a dog who would LOVE agility and I really wanted to get into it. Unfortunately, however, Tj is also my fearful-agressive dog, which put everything to a screeching halt. 

Well, now I have Tidbit who shows a great promise. He's 1yr, 11mo old. So I'm finally taking a first step with him. I've signed him up for beginners obedience as you have to have that before you can go towards agility. I am hoping that the class will help tone what he already knows as he's _sometimes_ not so sharp on listening among distractions. Also Tidbit is timid, I'm hoping this class can help with that a little. I haven't received a confirmation of a spot in class yet so I've sent an inquiry e-mail today. Hoping to hear back soon!

If my shyness dies down after participating in class, I'm going to talk to the club about Tj and see if they think they could maybe help with his fear-aggressiveness.

As for the guy with Tip, after reading your responses, I'm going to give him the benifit of a doubt and say maybe he said that he won't run his dog after 2 _more_ years. Either way, Tip is really young and I know I heard 2-something because I was shocked when he said it. That's when I gave a surprised response and he then told me that no dog should do that due to it being hard on the dog.

Thanks for the feedback and glad to hear it!


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## HyperFerret (Feb 7, 2009)

Kirsten&Gypsy said:


> Gypsy and I just began agility this summer. She's 3.5 years old. Honestly, I think her age HELPS us. She's way more mentally mature than she was even a year ago, focused even with distractions. She's benefited from years of training, thus that she trusts me and knows how to learn from me.
> 
> I think I would get way frustrated doing agility with a puppybrain. LOL.
> 
> EDIT: OH HEY. 1000 posts! It only took me, aheh, 3 years...


I've been here even longer and am way behind you, lol. I just don't make a lot of time to get on here I guess. :/ You guys have missed all my puppy pictures and such that I've taken over the years. I should be ashamed of myself, lol.


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## OpieDoodle (Aug 17, 2013)

I just wanted to say this was a very interesting thread  I plan to keep checking back with it. I'm planning on eventually doing agility with my husky (he's only 5 months right now) so its nice to have some answers


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## Indigo (Mar 31, 2011)

Do you have 9 dogs? Wow! Full house.
Well... a flyball friend of mine had 10 dogs, and she runs all of them in multiple sports at a high level of competition, so nuts to whoever said you can only have one dog.

If it's the club rules, that's unusual. There are LOTS AND LOTS of agility competitors that have multiple dogs.

Are you sure they didn't mean you can only have one dog per class? That's actually pretty reasonable, and probably a good idea if you're just starting as your attention won't be divided. You can always start a second dog after you get your first dog started.

As for "taking up other people's time" that's their problem. If you're paying for two dogs you can train and trial two dogs. The person that said that is crazy, and that's not a common belief as I've never heard of such a problem.

On that guy's 2 year comment:
How long a career a dog has is up to your judgement. You have to weigh a lot of things, like how structurally sound your dog is, their breed, how much they enjoy it, and how long you think they'll live.
If someone feels that the sport is too hard on their dog (like a heavy set breed doing agility) it's probably best to keep their career short. My samoyed had a short career because he became ill, and while he could still do it I chose not to push him. Some dogs train from puppyhood to the day the die and have no problems.

And there's no rule saying you have to jump your dog as high as physically possible! If you're just doing it for fun you can jump your dog as low as you want. In competitions there's often special classes for people who want or need to jump their dogs lower for various reasons.


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## Kyllobernese (Feb 5, 2008)

I started Kiska when she was three years old. She was very shy with people and just got better all the time. I started competing with her in 2010 and finally in March 2012 she got her first Q's in Jumpers, Gambler and Snooker at our only indoor trial. I retired her later that year as she was not enjoying herself in the outdoor trials. She still loves doing the equipment at home or at the indoor arena. I think it really helps to build up their confidence.


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## HyperFerret (Feb 7, 2009)

Indigo said:


> Do you have 9 dogs? Wow! Full house.
> Well... a flyball friend of mine had 10 dogs, and she runs all of them in multiple sports at a high level of competition, so nuts to whoever said you can only have one dog.
> 
> If it's the club rules, that's unusual. There are LOTS AND LOTS of agility competitors that have multiple dogs.
> ...


I actually have 10 dogs. My sig isn't current on showing all my dogs. And yes it's a full house, especially after including the cats and ferrets, lol. That's awesome that your friend runs all 10 of her dogs! Yeah I know they only want one dog per class but when the lady told me I'd take up too much time if I had multiple dogs - we were sitting in front of rings watching a match as she used hand suggestions, pointing towards the rings, as she spoke to me. So I know at least _she_ wasn't referring to in class. As far as anyone else, it was a mix of them giving a response with laughter saying it would be too costly, to saying I have to pick one dog.

The guy with Tip - Tip is a really young, healthy, Border Collie who really loves being on the course. So I dunno. I'm just glad to find out here that I don't have to worry about my dogs being older!



Kyllobernese said:


> I started Kiska when she was three years old. She was very shy with people and just got better all the time. I started competing with her in 2010 and finally in March 2012 she got her first Q's in Jumpers, Gambler and Snooker at our only indoor trial. I retired her later that year as she was not enjoying herself in the outdoor trials. She still loves doing the equipment at home or at the indoor arena. I think it really helps to build up their confidence.


Yeah, once Tidbit gets comfortable he'll be having a blast! Oh, and he did get a spot in Basic Obedience, *YAY!!* He was being shy with the mirrors in the facility, no idea why. It was a new place to begin with but I didn't expect to get a reaction from the mirrors. His "being timid" with people is him not wanting people to touch him. He'll sniff you and take a treat from you but if you try to pet him, he'll slink down. That's the part people don't like. Other than that, that's it.


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## MafiaPrincess (Jul 1, 2009)

I have 3 that run AAC agility. Cider is 9 in 3 days, and got her 45th AAC Q on saturday. I made her a veteran this season, but she certainly has no less get up and go these days and still very much enjoys playing. Smudge is 6 and was diagnosed with a cataract in April. We've run master jumpers only this season anyhow. We've taken up canine nosework and I may retire him him from competition now as I have a baby dog, and master jumpers is twisty, and hard for him to keep with me when I am running on his blind side. My baby dog was 2 in July, got his first Q at his first trial on his Bday, and a 2nd Q on the weekend.

I would figure the club isn't telling you that running multiple dogs is a problem. They are likely telling you more than one per class is a problem. 

The guy claiming he's retiring his dog at 2 is a weirdo. While I agree dogs do eventually need to retire, for the most part they tell us when it is time. There are plenty of veteran dogs competing in all forms of sports and doing so happily. There are more vet dogs in master level classes than regular dogs. There is an AAC judge (who I personally know) whose golden was still playing jumpers till 16.5 years old. The dog was still happy, and was playing as a double drop vet in the end. Lucky retired with a Q his last run too.


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## Kyllobernese (Feb 5, 2008)

I know several people who run up to three dogs in the same class at trials with no problem. Usually whoever is running the trial tries to spread them out so they are not back to back but if they are they usually just get someone to hold their other dog and switch when they come out. More energetic that I would ever be!!


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## MafiaPrincess (Jul 1, 2009)

I was thinking training class. That the club's opposition is multiple green dogs in the same class with one handler. Not class at a trial. I've been running two in the same masters classes at trials for some years.


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