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Vol. I - Agility Training for Puppies
By Ruth Hobday
Reviewed by Elise Paffrath
 'Oh
yeah, I know all about that book,' a friend responded when Elise Paffrath, editor of Dog &
Handler mentioned she was reading the new Ruth Hobday book to review. "Well... it's got
jump squares in it, right?' This review is reprinted from with kind permission of Clean Run
magazine. It originally appeared in Vol. 4, #11
No, not exactly. Although close to the name of her
original agility publications - Agility is Fun Book 1, published by Our Dogs in the UK
in 1989, and Agility is Fun Book 2, put out by Our Dogs three years later - the
similarities between her earlier works and this new three-volume series - Agility Fun The
Hobday Way, edited and published in 1998 by Clean Run Productions in the US - end there.
Hobday's early books were extremely well received and
continue to be valuable resources for enthusiasts of the sport. But during her travels to
various agility training schools and clubs, Hobday noticed that many instructors conducting
post-beginner level classes were merely stewarding and not really teaching. Although Hobday
concedes that after learning correct performance of the individual obstacles, what all dog and
handler teams need is just lots and lots of practice, she observed that handlers were becoming
bored doing the same exercises in classes. She, therefore, decided to write a manual of lesson
plans to help guide agility instructors.
 Two
in One
Volume I of Agility Fun The Hobday Way, which covers
agility training for puppies, is really two books in one. The first half is geared towards
individual puppy owners, with Chapters 1-5 offering information that ranges from choosing a
good agility prospect out of a litter of pups to informal training that should be done during
the youngster's first six months of life. Information regarding more formal agility training
begins after that. The second half of the book contains detailed instructor's plans for
conducting puppy agility training classes.
This manual, then, is actually geared toward a dual
audience: individual owners of puppies aimed for agility training and/or competition, and
instructors who offer puppy agility group classes. The two fore-mentioned groups of readers
could very possibly merge into one target audience, however, if puppy owners who were armed
with this book were able to hook up with a few fellow enthusiasts and put together their own
agility puppy class.
Points for Choosing a Puppy for
Agility
Hobday wins points with me on page one of the first chapter, Choosing a Puppy for
Agility, when she states that while 'the (Border) Collies have a monopoly in the UK, many
other breeds can enjoy and do well in the sport.' She points out that in the USA, 'with its
different titling systems, there are still lots of other breeds competing and winning. Long may
this continue.' Hobday also notes that merely getting a Border Collie does not necessarily
guarantee that a handler will win in agility. In addition to choice of breed, Hobday also talks
in the first chapter about choice of sex and temperament of a pup for agility. Hobday relates a
story from her own litters that underscores her belief in the importance of puppy testing. She
outlines several of the typical tests given to pups on the preferred 49th day of life and
comments on how the responses to these tests will be important in future agility training.
Puppy Training
While Hobday doesn't advocate that puppy owners start any formal agility work until a dog is
six months old, Chapter 2 outlines over a dozen very valuable skills that a youngster can, and
should, begin to master during her first half year of life. Most of this important learning,
Hobday emphasises, can be attained through play. 'I can't stress enough the importance of
play,' she writes.
After explaining that not all pups come with a 'built-in
play button,' Hobday offers some guidelines for beginning to build a good relationship with
your canine partner through the use of constructive play times. She advises using toys, titbits
(i.e. treats!), praise and even your dog's dinner to teach him the mandatory skills of
responding to his name, coming when called, getting used to a leash and collar and learning the
basic Sit, Stand and Down commands.
She then goes on to explain positive methods of teaching
some agility-specific exercises such as a wait, send-away, retrieve and turning in both
directions. Hobday strongly suggests that pups get ample contact with other dogs and lots of
people even before the course of inoculations have been finished. Waiting until puppy shots are
complete to begin socialising a young agility prospect "is too late," Hobday asserts. It is
also important during these first six months, Hobday says, to get a future agility athlete used
to lots of noise and accustomed to being left alone. Attending agility events with the
up-and-coming dogs can be perfect for this.
When the pup is six months of age, Hobday begins what she
refers to as more 'formal training' for agility. However, she reminds handlers to continue to
keep it fun, work only in short periods and increase the sessions slowly as the pup matures and
can concentrate for longer periods. Hobday offers an excellent progression of training
exercises and obstacle introduction for handlers to work their dogs through from six to twelve
months of age. She touches on a wide spectrum of skills, from heelwork and recalls to contact
hoops, weave pole channels and introduction of the fly-ball box to help teach a send-away. She
is comfortable having dogs under a year old work on the puppy dogwalk, low A-frame, tunnels and
parallel lines of weave poles, but does not suggest doing more than jump bars on the ground
until a dog reaches one year of age.
The puppy class plans offer both a course diagram and
notes about the specific exercises for each of 24 weeks of classes. While the descriptions of
class plans are well detailed, a drawback of the book's layout presents the notes about each
week's plans on the reverse side of the page of the lesson's course diagram. This forces one to
repeatedly flip the page to read the instructors hints, and then look at the corresponding
layout. Save this minor inconvenience, the book is attractively laid out, peppered with a
wonderful variety of photos and drawings, and spiral bound so as to be durable enough to
survive much dog-earing out on the training field. At $16 (and cheaper, if bought in
conjunction with other publications offered by Clean Run Productions), which is the average
cost of one standard agility class entry, the book is one of the most affordable training tools
a handler will encounter.
 About
our reviewer
Elise Paffrath attended her first Agility
class with her then five year-old All-Wisconsin SPCA rescue dog, Breeze, AAD, JM, EAC, TDI, in
January of 1993. Irreversibly hooked, she soon-after joined the Canine Agility Training
Society, Inc. (CATS) of New Hampshire and has since served on its event and training
committees, as an instructor, and as co-editor of the club's newsletter. She also teaches
agility classes for the Pioneer Valley Kennel Club in Massachusetts and for her own Breeze Thru
Agility in Vermont.
Elise is a USDAA judge as well as Contributing Editor for
the USDAA Dog Agility Report. She made her maiden foray to the USDAA Nationals last summer, not
as a competitor but in the capacity of Scriptwriter and Assistant Producer for the USDAA Finals
film crew. Previously an avowed one-dog-woman, Agility changed all that and in the summer of
1996 she adopted SPCA All-American pup, Scout, who recently took a break from trick training to
earn her AD.
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