Hiya

I know they have to be over 18 months for normal classes, and 16 months for nursery classes, but I mean how do you know when to compete? Do you know when you get to a certain stage in your training that you feel ready to compete? Or do you just give it a go when the dog reaches the right age?

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I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

Just give it a go really when they're consistantly using contacts, jumping cleanly and can do the dog walk etc well then go for it. You can fail the first time it doesn't matter the dog is going to have a lot of fun

I guess for me I started competing once I knew my dog wasn't going to a) do anything that would disturb any other competitors and b) we weren't going to be out of our depth.

I think most places are really friendly with beginners so as long as the dog can do all the pieces of equipment (for agility) or a good run (for flyball) and is quite 'reliable' in training then it would be worth thinking about competing. I'd take mine to a competition first but NFC so we could just watch and see how the atmosphere affects them (just in case they go off their trolley! )

Most training clubs would probably advise their students when they are ready to think about competing - as they're a bit more unbiased about the dog and handler's level!

Sophie
x

Thank you. He's not consistent on his contacts or weaves yet, so we would only do the steeplechase or jumping classes. He's good at the jumps and tunnels and he is really fast. I think I may do a NFC for a few shows and then maybe think about competing.

__________________

I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

Just do the jumpers and weaves the first few times because he needs to run the contacts reliably.

sorry, i don't understand what you mean?

__________________

I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

Just do the competitions that have just jumps, tunnel and maybe some weaves at first. They can't miss the contacts in a competition

oh right yes. I would like to do steeplechase competition first as it only has jumps and tunnels, which he is great at.

__________________

I OWN A CHOCOLATE ROAN COCKER SPANIEL
RIP David xx Run free at the bridge. Love you always xx 19th February 2011
RIP Jack and Mickey xx Run free at the bridge. Love you forever xx 20th June 2011

Yeah that would be the best way to get him introduced to it.

At KC shows, you can't run NFC unless you're entered in the show, so you have to enter and pay. If it costs the same to run NFC or to compete, why not compete? NFC you've got no chance of a place, and often they don't even time your run. Compete, and though you may well get eliminated, at least you're in it! There are dogs running in the high grades who miss contacts - if you miss one, make sure you hold him back on the others. My dog got a lot of weave faults for the first 2 years of competing but it didn't stop me. No-one thinks badly of you if you mess it up, it's supposed to be fun! I've you miss contacts or mess up the weaves, all you get is 5 faults per missed contact and eliminated if you can't complete the weave, not put up against a wall and shot!
As to when you're ready; when your dog stays in the ring with you; when you can get round the course in something like the 'course time'; when you can more or less weave most of the time; when you know how to direct the dog around the course. Club trainers will advise you. Does your club hold internal competitions?
At my first competition, my dog couldn't weave and we got E'd. So what?