Dog agility?

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LauraWheeler

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Does anyone on here do dog agility? I wanted to have a go with Charlie Brown. He is 1 years old, so i think he is old enough to do it now?
I was wondering how do i get started? Where do i look to find a group in my area? I tried googleing agility dog clubs but i had no joy.
Or does anyone know of a club near Fordingbridge, Hants?
Any help much appreceated. I just seem to confuse myself :confused: :confused:
 
Thanks CaveCanem I've reg on the forum hopefully someone will know of a club near me. Although i think i'd better work on our re call and especaly heel. He's a typical JRT lol. His manners around other dogs are quite good he just seems to become deaf sometimes although he is getting better. :)
I think he'll love it and it'll be good for him to have a job to do. (get rid of some of that energy) Although i hope they have small jumps as he would prob go under the big ones :D;):D
 
Betty and I did it for a while and she loved it (mainly because she likes showing off in front of people!).

Your local vets might have adverts from agility clubs, also try under dog trainers/dog clubs in the yellow pages, something might come up.

With Betty we started a lot later ( I think she was about 5) and one thing I found really helpful was that she already had a lot of commands and it was just a matter of applying them to new surroundings.

Just a tiny word of warning: if anyone suggests anything you are not happy with, take your dog and walk away. I totally regret I allowed the 'instructor' to plonk Betty on the see-saw and let it drop to the ground on her third lesson, it completely terrified her! Just because she knew 'sit, stay, come and jump' does NOT mean she was ready for the more advanced equipment. It took a ages before she would even go near the see-saw again. Turns out the 'instructor' had no kind of training whatsoever, she was just another member who pointed people at equipment.
 
Thanks booboos. Sorry you and Betty had a bad experiance to start with. The trouble is you trust that someone knows what they are doing. I will not let anyone do anything like that to Charlie I will just walk away if they tried. I've had similar expereances when letting people deal with my horses and unfortunatly we only lurn from our mistakes. :(
 
My fella just can't do the seesaw at all, BB, even with a very sympathetic trainer and all sorts of techniques, I think he is so big, the sensation of the ground disappearing beneath his feet just doesn't compute. He doesn't like walking in deep snow, I think for the same reason. Interestingly all the females and smaller males at the club have no problem with it, but he and the other few large males just freak out.
Loves all the other equipment though.

I've seen a couple soured by being launched over the A-frame. B launched himself off it himself, the muppet :p
 
yep, you have to be really careful.

the problem is that clubs rely on volunteers to keep going. Hence why they end up with inexperienced people offering to 'train' beginner classes etc when they haven't a clue.

get yourself along to some shows if you can and have a watch:)
 
I left that club after that session. In retrospect they had no plan for training, they just pointed dogs are equipment, but at the time I thought they knew what they were doing. Oh, well, live and learn I suppose! :)
 
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