Agility Classes

Tequila was in Agility and she did great. She placed first in the two beginner classes we were in (actually beat out a Border Collie!! )
It was during class though that she hurt her knee....well agrivated an already existing knee problem and she had knee surgery. She has since been cleared by the vet sports therapy clinic to go back to agility but I havent done it yet. I still worry about her injuring herself even though the knee injury she had was a luxating patella she was born with.
Its tons of fun and a great way for a chi to build up self esteem, confidence, and get exercise. My dream was always to have Tequila run in the AKC agility trials...maybe someday...she is still a young girl Let us know how you like the classes!

Oh and a bit of advise...once your pup starts to actually run the course stretch her out before hand. Just sit her on your lap and do range of motion with all of her legs (stretch the leg out for 10 sec. then tuck the leg to the body for 10 sec. then extend the leg back for 10 seconds)....do it slow and only go as far as is comfortable for your dog. Hold each stretch for 10 seconds. Agility is a sport for them and we all know us humans stretch out before we exersize. Do about 10 stretches on each leg...takes about 25minutes to do. People might look at you oddly but trust me this will cut back on potential injury. Do the same thing when she is done after class and maybe do some ligh massage on her muscles. She will love you for it :wink:
Have fun and please share the stories!!!

You have a great instructor then. I had no clue that I needed to stretch Tequila out until I started working at the therapy clinic. I felt so dumb for not realizing that they needed to be stretched out like we do but a lot of people dont realize it.
She really loved it. She would be timid while she was waiting for her turn but as soon as we got out there she turned into a different dog and really shined. I think she liked to show off....her jumps were so beautiful...she would fully extend her legs with each jump like she was posing for a picture. The instructor always laughed when she watched her and joking would call her a little show off. The only thing she HATED was the weave polls....god she really was scared of them. Since she is small the instructor told me to buy a bunch of toliet plungers and set them up at home like the weave polls and practice at home. Man did that help. I know weave polls are the hardest for the dogs to learn so maybe you would want to do that too...its great having small dogs because you can really substitute a lot of the equiplement at home with smaller versions.