Dog Agility

Do you love dog agility, want to get involved in agility, need info on agility? Check out this lens, it's packed full of some of the best agility resources we could find.

Some folks call me Johann, some folks call me JoJo (YoYo), and some folks call me Rocket Dog. I don't care what they call me as long as they call me to do agility!

As you can see I take my agility job very seriously. Seriously fun!!!!

Here we bring you lots of dog agility information for beginners and those that have been doing agility for years. Everyone can learn something new!

We have resources for training and equipment for both dogs and handlers; information on how to get started, as well as details on how to compete, health and fitness for both dogs and handlers, and much, much more!

The handler can touch neither dog nor obstacles, except accidentally. Consequently, the handler's controls are limited to voice, movement, and various body signals, requiring exceptional training of the animal, and the human.

The courses are complicated enough that a dog could not complete it correctly without human direction. In competition, the handler must assess the course, decide on handling strategies and direct the dog through the course, with precision and speed equally important. Many strategies exist, to compensate for the inherent difference in human and dog speeds, and strengths and weaknesses of the range of dog and handlers. The handler tends to run a path much different from the dog's path. So for the handler, there can be extreme amounts of mental planning, for what turns out to be a quick run. Many things can go wrong though, and for any course, it is rare to be able to predict which team will perform best on a given day.

In its simplest form, an agility course consists of a set of standard obstacles, laid out by an agility judge in a design of his own choosing on a roughly 100 by 100 foot (30 by 30 m) area, with numbers indicating the order in which the dog must complete the obstacles.