Does anyone do agility with their Yorkies?

[Dougal&Little]

Dougal baby has just passed his first agility course and the second one starts this week!! (Dixie'll be starting in July).

I was hoping to talk to other yorkie owners about their experiences at agility because there doesn't seem to be any other yorkies in my agility club.

I went along to a training evening and there wasn't even another terrier there! It was all collies and gun dogs. sigh.

[MyTrixie143]

I have not done agility with my yorkies but I am starting them in agility in summer. Yorkies tend not to do agility do to their small size. Especially if you want to compete, your yorkie has to meet a size requirement to do so and most yorkies do not meet that size requirement because they are so small. However, there are alot of yorkies that compete in mini agility that is designed for these small dogs. It is such a fun sport, I know my yorkies are going to love it, they love to run and man they are so fast!!

[Dougal&Little]

Both my yorks are big ish anyway - Dougal's a whopper. There's a mini class in New Zealand but they're thinking of opening up a micro class because there's such a demand from small dog owners to do agility. My Dougal dog is really big and would be in the mini class anyway so there's no problem there. But Dixie would really need to compete in the micro class. At the moment I'm training her mostly so she'll have more confidence. She's quite timid.

Dougal loves agility. They just love to work and please me. (Or may be it's all for the love of S. C. H. M. A C. K. O. S. (Sorry have to spell that or the yorkies'll be pulling "oh please treat me - I'm sooo adorable" faces.)

Do you get schmakos in the US? They're an australian product and my babies just love 'em.

Do you clicker train for your agility?

[yorkieskater]

I plan on doing agility when mine is old enough. He is only 5mos now. I guess there is something called the "preferred" agility course and that is for small dogs? How did you start yours? did you obediance train them yourself first or take them to a class?
suzie

[Jaxon's mom]

I'm currently doing obedience with Jaxon and then we'll start the agility class. There are 2 Yorkies in the current agility class but they're a bit bigger (around 9 pounds). I know Jaxon is small (4 pounds) but I think he'll love it. He loves to run! I'm checking into flyball too - they often need a little dog as part of the team.

[Dougal&Little]

I did quite a few different obedience classes with my babies. Largely it was for socialisation and stuff but all the things you learn at obedience come in really handy for agility. Eg sit, wait, down and heel. It’s a great way to start building a working relationship with your pooch before they’re old enough for agility.

But the first course I went on was old fashioned obedience training. Their idea of teaching heel was dragging the doggy around by their neck. Dougal never quite got the hang of it that way. But with clicker training he sticks to me like glue without a leash (well when I’ve got s. c. h. m. a. k. o. s at any rate.).