Agility Training for Older Springer Spaniels

A ten-year-old Springer who's still keen on agility — that's a dog worth keeping active, but the setup really does need to shift as they age. Good training tools amplify good technique rather than replace it, but the right equipment genuinely matters here, especially when joints and recovery time are starting to factor in. To point you in the right direction: what specific elements of the agility setup are you adapting — jumps, weaves, contacts? And has your Springer shown any signs of stiffness or reluctance on particular obstacles, or is this more about getting ahead of things preventatively?

That hesitation on the weaves is a classic early sign that the lateral spinal flexion is becoming uncomfortable — Springers are brilliant weavers but it does load the lumbar spine and hips, and by ten that starts to accumulate. The enthusiasm is great and worth preserving; you just need to reduce the mechanical demand without pulling the activity away from her entirely. A couple of things I'd want to know: are you currently using fixed-spacing poles, and are the poles rigid or does she have any give if she catches one? And roughly how many poles in your set?

You haven't done anything wrong — competition-spec gear is fine until it isn't, and ten is exactly when you reassess. The single most useful change you can make right now is switching to adjustable-spacing weave poles, ideally ones that let you widen the channel between poles. Wider spacing reduces the sharp lateral bend each stride demands, so her spine and hips do significantly less work per pass. You can gradually narrow it back down if she's having a good patch, and widen it on days after harder exercise or in cold weather when she'll be stiffer. The product I'd point you to is the Trixie Dog Activity Agility Weave Poles set — it's available on Amazon UK, well-built, and crucially the pole spacing is adjustable rather than fixed. It won't feel like a demotion to her; she'll still be weaving, still getting the mental engagement she loves. Pair it with shortening your pole count from 12 to 6 for now, and keep sessions to two or three focused runs rather than repeated full sequences. That combination — wider spacing, fewer poles, shorter reps — will likely cut next-morning soreness noticeably within a couple of weeks.

Weaves first, definitely — they're the highest-impact element for spinal and hip load in an older dog. Once you've made that change and seen how she responds over two or three weeks, the next thing to look at would be jump heights. If she's still doing full-height jumps, dropping them by one height category takes a lot of impact out of the landing, which is where you get the concussive load on her front assembly and shoulders. But I wouldn't change everything at once — you'll lose track of what's actually helping. Sort the weaves, watch her closely, and come back to the jumps if the stiffness hasn't resolved. The goal is keeping her in the game at 12 and 13, not just managing her out of it.

Good plan. One last thing worth doing: run her through the new setup on a day when she's well-rested rather than after a walk, so you get a clean read on how she's moving through the wider spacing. If she goes through fluently and without hesitation, that tells you a lot. And if your vet hasn't done a musculoskeletal check recently, it's worth booking one — not because anything is necessarily wrong, but a baseline at ten means you'll catch any progression early. Enjoy the session this weekend.