Agility Cross-training

I would start by finding a trainer in your area that does agility. Your dog basically need to know sit and come but having basic obedience beforehad helps. How old is the dog? I would start the dog in agility around 18 mo. old, when the bones have fuly developed, any younger might be too hard on the joints and cause problems when the dog is older. It really helps when you have someone to guide you on how to do agilty and thats why I suggest a trainer or even a club that does agility with people who can guide you and exchange ideas.

most truly competitive agility people start their foundation training for agility at age 12 weeks, not 18 months. They start full-height obstacles at 18 months. If you start foundation training at 18 months, you're going to be way behind.
 
Go to Cleanrun.com and check out their assorted publications. They have many excellent books and magazine articles on conditioning your agility dog and on foundation training.

I agree.  I took private lessons to help me do age appropriate exercises with my pup when she was young.  You can teach them things like right and left, hind end awareness, basic obedience and going over natural obstacles, like tree stumps, so they lose their fear of those kinds of things.  Dogs that are not exposed to all kinds of surfaces as youngsters have trouble sometimes with the tunnels and planks.  Walk your pup over plywood, plastic, etc.

You also might want to get the dog used to laying down on different surfaces. Max has no issues with this, but I think one of the dogs in his agility class thought laying on the table was weird. 

Training your dog to focus on you and follow your lead (off lead) is something that you should start and work on first of all  and continuously.  The ladder on the ground is a great exercise.  Learning "here" and "out" is important, too.  Strength training isn't really important until you get them use to all of the obstacles and understanding your direction. You have to develop a lot of skills as a handler, too.  It's not easy! I taught my dogs "Left" and "Right" but my skill hasn't caught up with that yet. That is something you will use in more advanced course work at a distance.    I use it mostly to dance with them in the kitchen.    Agility is a great fun activity to bond with your dog really at any age.  You can go to classes without competing and just have fun or aim for higher things if you think that your dog *and yourself* have the talent to do so.

The most important thing is to not stress young joints and keep session fun and short..  YWhen your dog starts sniffing is "zooming" it's had enough.  You can do just about everything with a younger dog but keep jump hights lower than elbow height.  The big problem with really young and adolescent dogs is the inability to really focus and concentrate on the task at hand.  My setter really didn't have the focusing ability to successfully do a whole course until she was about 2. 

I respectfully disagree that starting after 12 months is too late.  I started my rescued pointer when she was 2 y.o. and she's doing extremely well.  I think that she may even end up a better agility dog than my setter who has been training since she was 10 months old.  It depends on your dog's motivation and focus. Some dogs just don't have the drive.  I know one woman in class who started her dog in agility when the dog was 3.  Her dog is now 9 and she has a whole arm load of titles both in AKC and UKC agility.  Her older dog is mostly is retired now but still comes out a does a "preferred" course now and then.  She is also starting an Aussie puppy. 

Most of all, though, have fun with it.

I'm going to add that your "hitting tabs" thing is unlikely to help a lick in the dog's weaves aside from making the dog more limber...honestly I'd stop, because it can throw off the dog's rhythm.  The dog has to find it's rhythm on its own in the weaves.
 
Also, dogs don't weave naturally, so all the back and forth in the world  isn't going to sink in to the dog's brain that "When I see these sticks in a straight line I'm supposed to weave!" The weaves are a very long, tiring, and ONGOING teaching process.
 
Strauss started his training at a year and a half...I disagree with the "Truly competitive" thing.  I'm truly competitive, but Strauss and I didn't have the means to practice until we got to classes (no equipment), and no dog of mine will be running before 2.5-3 years anyway, simply for growth purposes.  In AKC dogs are no longer allowed to compete until 18 months of age, and even then, I wish the rule were two, especially for the larger breeds.
 
Also, while full height jumping can be started at 18 months...it shouldn't be done constantly.  Rarely in class do we jump full heights...maybe once or twice, but otherwise the dogs jump one class lower than normal.  It's better for them, as it isn't constantly overtaxing their joints.
 
Get out, here, and GO! Are the three phrases you'll use the most, along with dog's name.  Sometimes you need to say "DOG COME!" rather than "Here" because the dog's name will catch its attention other than just "here"
 
You also need to learn what your dog is watching when you direct it.  Is your dog watching your knees?  Feet?  Shoulders?  My former agility dog watched my  knees...my currenrt dog follows my shoulders.  I've had to adjust my handling accordingly for the new dog (and it's not always easy).
 
You need to pick your commands and be as consistent as possible.  Don't use commands that are similar.  I was using "Get up!" for the A-frame and "Get out" for get away from me...when Strauss came to the A-frame in class and I said "Get up!" He went around it every single time...I couldn't figure it out until somebody mentioned "Get up" and "get out" sounded the same.  The dog was doing what he THOUGHT I said.  He thought I said get out, so he went around the obstacle.  Not his fault, it was mine.  We now use "Hike!" for the A-frame.
 
Another thing is never EVER yell at your dog during agility unless #1 It is on its way to do something dangerous (confront another dog) or #2 It's eliminating on the equipment.
 
"No!" does not exist in agility.  "Ah ah!" and "let's try again!" exist in agility.  You need to keep upbeat and happy, or you'll end up slowing your dog down because its afraid of making a mistake.  You want your dog to know that mistakes are OK from time to time, you just need to train them so they make as few as possible. 
 
In a trial if you knock a bar, too bad so sad, you're NQed, but all the DOG cares about is that he's getting to run!  You don't want your dog to hear the crash of that bar and have him quit because he's thinking "Oh no...I made a boo boo, mom's gonna yell at me!"  That makes agility fun for neither of you.
 
This sport will teach you to run as a unit, rather than separately, and things will come out in you and your dog that you didn't know were there.  Always remember, speed is great, but control is your ultimate friend.  You need to learn how to balance both without losing one or the other ^_^
 
You've gotten lots of good suggestions, and if you look online, you can find more little tips and tricks.

of course you can start training later. But it's much easier to train a young puppy to not be afraid of moving boards underfoot, to learn hind end awareness, to not care about loud noises, to not care about weird footing, than an adult dog. People who deliberately acquire pups for agility and do this ongoing foundation training from day one can put their dog on full height equipment at age 18 months, and be ready to compete at 2 years of age. One of my dogs, who didn't get any foundation training as a pup, is still uncomfortable about doing the teeter, and probably always will be. I'm sure if we had put her on rocker boards and exposed her to loud bang=fun as a 12-week-old pup she would have no fears about these things.

Wow, Xeph,  what a good post!  Funny you should talk about what body part the dog watches.  I recently discovered that my pointer watches the direction of my feet!  If  I turn my inside (to her) foot to the direction I want her to turn, she turns - even at a fair distance. 

Good point about height, too.  Like good jumping horses, dogs should learn jumping control and agility over lower jumps and jump grids.  By insisting that your dog alway jumps it's height, as a greenie, you make it's task so daunting that it is just put off.

And, as Zeph said "KEEP IT FUN".