Our agility classes run Monday evenings and are held as structured 6 week block courses: we do not have space available in classes, only as 1-2-1 training sessions during the week which can be run for you and your dog or shared with a friend or family member.
Agility training is extremely popular and as a result it’s not often that a dog and owner leaves the classes, meaning waiting lists are quite long! We do add dogs to the lists but in reality it can be years, not weeks, before there is a space for a new dog to join the classes.
The Agility training begins with helping the dogs to build confidence around the equipment and from the beginning teaching the dogs to work away from their owner.
In agility, dogs can work a course much better if they are looking ahead and listening rather than focusing on their owner by looking at them directly.
We do not lure train, but work on sending dogs forward. Once dogs have covered the basics we move them forwards to mastering individual pieces of equipment, linking equipment together and building to more complex courses once they are ready.
Our biggest focus during these agility sessions is safety, and therefore we keep our class sizes small, enabling more space to work in and less time waiting for your turn, as well as assessing the paddock after rainfall or whether strong winds may cause equipment to fall. Each dog that joins our agility classes has a health questionnaire completed for them which enables us to keep an eye on the heath and safety of all the dogs we work with and our agility training is taken by Joe Nutkins, who is also a Certified Professional Canine Fitness Trainer so keeps an eye on the dog’s physical health too.
We run two kinds of agility training. We have regular agility, for all breeds of dog, over the age of 18 months. This uses all equipment and will ensure dogs build up to working on the equipment at the correct height for their size, in accordance to Kennel Club Agility guidelines. This means anyone wishing to compete in the future will have the necessary skills.
For dogs under 12-18 months (dependant on breed size) we run Flatwork Agility, keeping every piece of equipment flat to reduce any risk of joint damage or injury. This training is for all breeds, but we do ask that dogs have some basic obedience to ensure you get the most from the classes. Once a dog in Flatwork Agility training reaches 18 months* they can continue with everything at its correct height, but have already learnt equipment names, linking courses, turning left and right etc. (*some breeds can be before 18 months)
Please contact us to come and watch one of our classes or training sessions in action or for more information on the progression of agility training, the way we train or anything else regarding agility!
For details of the next course see the Training Dates page