We went to Carlton Kennels/Iron Mountain Open Day on Sunday and had a go at at the fun (and small) agility course with my boy. Apart from popping over a couple of the horses showjumps last year he has never been near an agility course but he was amazing and really surprised me! He loved it and even went up the A frame 1st time just following my hand. It took a few minutes of persuasion with the 1st tunnel but was much more confident at the 2nd one. He was flying confidently over the jumps by the end and even cottoned on to the weave poles after a few tries back and forth.

So I was wondering where do you find is the best place to get your equipment from?

The best place is to find a local club and go and learn with guidance and support.  Then you can safely learn the equipment and the rules of the game.  Look on agilitynet http://agilitynet.co.uk/clutch/clubs.htm  under clubs.  Agilitynet is a good place to look in general, but my advice is not to buy the equipment until you know what you're looking for and how to do it.  Enjoy - it's a great hobby but will take over your life.  Before agility I had 1 dog, a sporty type car and no caravan.  Now I have lots and lots of dogs, a massive van, huge caravan and we go away most weekends in the summer, it's fantastic!  Penny

I have large breeds, definately not designed for twisting, turning and jumping. But as well as doing my whistle training and retrieving I thought I would incorporate something else to engage their brain. I just fancy having few 1ft jumps and a tunnel and a small A frame that I can do for fun rather than speed.

Well, it's not all twisting, if you get the right club they'll help you learn.  There are clubs who do giant agility for the very big breeds so may be worth trying a club and then you may be able to do it with similar breeds.  Great Danes etc - they have giant size contacts and tunnels (my biggest dog I've no idea how she gets through the tunnel it's a real disadvantage :-( but she thoroughly enjoys competing, but not training bizarrely!  Good luck.

Ooh that would be great. Ive looked on your link and found one only about 20 mins from me. I'm going to go to watch one of their intro classes and then see how my boy finds it again. I think it would be a great addition for him.

Oh that's great - you'll find quite a few folk do agility for fun and you can take home what you learn and maybe find some big equipment so you can have fun - even better if you can find other similar folk to do it with :-)

I found mine on agility net (google it - they have a fleamarket for used stuff), mine was from a maker of it but I wouldn't use them again - they mucked my order up in a fair few ways and completely denied it, the construction is not great (but minor fixes which I have done so it's fine now).

Always worth looking for second hand stuff though - I'm selling off a couple of bits at the mo and it's usually a heck of a lot cheaper than buying new!

zooplus have got some really cheap stuff if you just want to have a shot in the garden  http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dog_toys_dog_training/agility_sport and on ebay jessejump on ebay http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Jessejump-Agility has some decent priced jumps and poles to get you started.