# Training Activities



## HerbieHound (Jul 1, 2014)

I'm just curious 

I'm planning on doing agility and heal work to music when he's older does anyone else do this, do your Cockapoo's like it, are they good and how quickly did they pick it up? Xx  this is my boy


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## Datun Walnut (Oct 15, 2013)

HerbieHound said:


> I'm just curious
> 
> I'm planning on doing agility and heal work to music does anyone else do this, do your Cockapoo's like it, are they good and how quickly did they pick it up? Xx  this is my boy
> View attachment 60489


 Don't forget that little 'uns joints are still forming for a long time so too much jumping or strain could cause problems in later life. I'd leave it for a while myself.

I know that our Poppy would love the exercise part but I feel she's too easily led astray by other dogs. Puppy class was liable to be chaos because she couldn't stop being the clown of the class. Maybe in a year she will have the maturity.


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

Ah you must mean heel work to music. I was trying to work out how an active agility dog could be used in heal music therapy and my brain was taxed. 

Rufus would love it now, he loves to dance with us. No way we could have done it when he was a puppy. Puppy class was a nightmare, we ended up dropping out because he would just go completely crazy trying to play. We'd all come out stressed and sweating.

Datun is right though, agility is for later when their bones and muscles are ready, but I do believe they have puppy classes to introduce them to the equipment.


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## HerbieHound (Jul 1, 2014)

Yeah I never know whether it's heelwork or healwork and yeah I wasn't planning on doing it till he was at least one


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

I did a small amount of agility with Molly but she has problems with her knees so stopped doing anything involving her jumping to protect them as much as possible. 

She loves learning new stuff so does a variety of tricks and games just for fun and we also do rally obedience classes which she very much enjoys.

I am doing agility with my other dog and from that I would say from puppy hood you need to be building a really strong wait, plenty of self control and toy focus. It is also good to build your pups confidence with different places and different surfaces.


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## Lindor (Feb 3, 2014)

What is rally obedience. I've done obedience with my shelties before; CD and CDX but have been out of showing for a number of years.


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## Grove (Oct 17, 2012)

Cockapoos are great for agility. Gandhi did a puppy agility course at 9 months i think it was. It's more about the training side of it as they can't use all the equipment at that age, but it's good teaching them the commands to go around an obstacle and go through the tunnel, some small jumps at the lowest setting but leaving out the more physical stuff like the A frame etc until they are older.


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

Been doing agility with Dudley since he was a year - still nowhere near competition level! I know of others who had been within about 8-9 months, Dudley still gets a bit hyper around the course, well not sure if i'd call it that, think he gets frustrated with me as he doesn't always 'get' my commands - its lovely if its a simple course I can keep running and he can fly round but when there are tricky changes of direction he starts barking at me and still jumps and nips occasionally (he never does that any other time now), still often stops at the tunnel and doesn't like the seesaw.....but one day.....
One thing that is good now is he stays by me after our run, at the beginning he would run off the middle of the course to try to play with other dogs, then he was ok during our run but run off at the end, now I can do the course then walk him through the other dogs before I put his lead on, so he has calmed down lots in that way. 
Anyway generally I would say it is a great thing to try with any cockapoo.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Lindor said:


> What is rally obedience. I've done obedience with my shelties before; CD and CDX but have been out of showing for a number of years.


Rally obedience is a bit more varied than normal obedience and you follow a course and do lots of different signs. I doubt we will ever compete but Molly really enjoys doing it and works very nicely at her best 

This gives some links about Rally http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rally_obedience


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## Lindor (Feb 3, 2014)

I don't plan on doing agility with Maggie but she has checked out the equipment at puppy school. The tunnel is a great place to hide during play time. She's been on the teeter toter, the other long board they go up and walk across and last week she decided to climb the A frame. Of course when she decides to go on them, both my hands are within inches of her so she doesn't jump off or fall.


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