Hi all
I was thinking about starting agility in a few months with my boxer (he's only 16 months at present so I wanted to wait a few months before starting anything too heavy on his joints).  It will purely be for fun as I can see me being totally useless at it but him LOVING it!  He picks things up remarkably quickly and I thought it would be something he could enjoy.
Do clubs tend to mind if you just want to go along for fun, or are they more competitive?
Am I being stupid trying it with a boxer?????
And, are there any clubs around the Leeds area I could get in touch with?
He has a good level of 'pet' obedience and always seems up for somothing new.
Any advice/opinions welcome!! xx

If I can do it with a Setter then you can do it with a Boxer, there are some boxers I know of that are working at grade 4.  look on www.agilitynet.co.uk for clubs, most have quite a big waiting list.  Most clubs wont mind you going along for fun, I bet you will get the bug though and start entering competitions ;)

I''m not sure about clubs in your area, but the one I'm at is very friendly and trains for competitions and for fun. If you are training just for fun there are a lot of friendly agility shows that are more for fun than competitive. The EMDAC shows and a lot of the unaffiliated shows are great for non competitive and you win a lot of rosettes/prices. The EMDAC show's go up to 25th place sometimes and there's usually about 100 dogs in a class.

I was competing for about 4 years with a very accurate but slow dog and she won loads! She even managed to get a 1st place once.

Another thing you can do, before you start training is to teach your dog the basics at home. Teach him a a good 'wait' command and practice it everywhere. You should be able to get to the other side of the field without him moving!

Also you can make your own jumps with garden cane poles and pegs which are very cheap and you can set them up in your garden. Start with the jumps very low to the ground and encourage him to jump over them, not go under.

If you think your dog will be fast and you can't keep up with him you can also teach him the directions at home by making him follow a treat in a circle to the right or left. Only teach him one way first and stick with that for a couple of months so he doesn't get confused. Then when you're positive he knows which way it is, you can introduce the other way.

Another good thing for encouraging the directions (when he knows them both) is to set up the jumps in a T shape. (Like a box but with only 3 jumps, not 4  | _ | ) Then send him over the bottom jump and say either 'Right' or 'Left'.

There are a billion ways to teach the weaves and the contacts so it's best to join a club and see which methods the trainer is using.

I find it easier to teach the weave poles at home with cane poles because they take forever for the dogs to pick up - they just dont get the idea of weaving.

I start with only 2 poles quite close together and set the dog up to go inbetween them. (always left shoulder first). It will take a while for the dog to pick it up so don't add the command until the you're certain the dog knows the exercise. Just use your body language to get the dog through them + try not to lure him too much with the treat as he'll learn to just follow your hand.

By the way practically ANY breed can do agility so don't worry if he's not a collie! The only reason so many collies do it is because they're such a high drive breed so agility is a great way to keep them occupied. A lot of people think that you can get a collie and train it for agility and it'll win but that's not the case! A lot of the top dogs in agility are collies but that's nothing compared to all the collies that do agility that DON'T win...

Hope this helps and good luck!

Oh well that's good news then that places seem quite happy for you to have a go for fun!
He has a brilliant 'wait' command so that seems good news at least. 
I could start doing most of those things at home as there is a lot of spare land out the back (tad muddy at the mo!) where I can put tiny jumps up so he gets used to going over rather then under.
Oooh stuff to start working on rather than just obedience things which he does enjoy but I think something like this would motivate him even more.

I go to EMDAC shows, they are great fun, but you will become competitive! I would still advise to join a club for training purposes. Dogs trained on there own at home generally do well, but it's a complete different ball game in the company of other dogs, it's a different atmosphere & this will affect you dog. My dog is a GSD & there are loads of different breeds competing, it doesn't have to be a collie to do agility. I went to Dog Vegas at Grantham at the weekend, one of the other breeds that really did well was a papillon, she was absolutely brilliant. You will get hooked, I am dissapointed now if I don't bring a rosette home. Managed a 14th place out of a class of 228 runs on Saturday, rosettes only went to 13th place, I was gutted!

Do clubs tend to mind if you just want to go along for fun, or are they more competitive?
Am I being stupid trying it with a boxer?????
And, are there any clubs around the Leeds area I could get in touch with?
Hi yes of course a Boxer is a great dog for agility and will be welcomed in any of the clubs.  Most people start agility for fun but get addicted..so be warned. And no one is any good when they start...and most of us continue not to know our left from our right for many years! So it is a laugh too. There are pet level agility clubs in Leeds but ideally you do want a competitive club..if something is worth doing it is worth doing correctly. Most clubs in the area are competitive but not all members compete and many attrend because their dogs love to. 
There are several agility clubs near Leeds..they are all connected n some was so most people know each other. It all depends what evening s you have free. The clubs I know who are good are at: Halifax, towards Harrogate, near Harewood and near Weatherby. I know all of cos of when my schedule changes I needed to change days. So if you want to know more let me know. Even at competitive level there are different ways of competing and there are some low key relaxed small limit shows and different organisations who run shows that you can enter in the summers that don't have the competitive drive of the KC shows. I am not into competing but did well with a third and 1st at agility and am grade 2 and only competed at 3 open shows because I don't have the time, I don't like the competitive feel at the shows because I am not used to competing but I still really enjoy training at club each week.( lol... well when it goes right! lol! )

If you are just interested in more local pet classes again it depends where you live. They are organised more locally and you really ought to make sure the trainer actually knows competitive agility to be aware of safety and to be able to offer meaningful class. I now run one for a club in the summer and it is very difficult to organise a competitive sport to be suitable for pet dogs and make sure if people want to take it further that they are taught the right foundations and are not miss taught.  People tend to get charged more at pet clubs, get larger class sizes, less instruction less experienced instructor and less suitable equipment. So my advice is to go to a competitive club! You will be fine.

Do clubs tend to mind if you just want to go along for fun, or are they more competitive?

Hi
I guess it depends on the club. I have only dabbled in agility and my experience of the one club I went to was that it was very relaxed in the starters class but as you moved up the levels the classes became more and more dominated by border collies and if you had another breed you weren't taken as being serious about it!  (Suited me fine!)

Cheers

Ok well it looks like we have nothing to lose!!
Tenaj - can you PM me the details, including the pet clubs cos I might just go and have a looksie one evening to see what I should expect, but I agree a competitve club does sound better (esp with the safety aspects).
No I don't think we'll be getting too serious, I can see him being good and me being the weak link in the chain LOL!

Don't worry about taking things too seriously. If I can compete with a Sussex Spaniel, a Goldie and a Dobe, then anyone can - it certainly helps to have a sense of humour! At a competition in September there was even a lady in an electric wheelchair competing!

Have a look at the agilitynet web site.  There is a link from the site which gives you an alphabetical list of clubs all accross the country and contact phone numbers.

Have fun!

Oooh Pedlee, look at your spaniel go!!