Hi I'm thinking of starting up fun dog agility evenings for our village.  Can any of you 'peeps' offer any advise about 'going about it'

First thing to get is third party insurance

My first thought would be that you would need to be quite experienced as an agility handler/trainer even if it is a fun event. I say this because there are a lot of do's and don'ts that need to be understood when first starting out at agility - how to introduce a dog to each  piece of equipment, what age a dog should be to start agility, the stresses it can put on joints etc which are not always obvious when starting out and those apply to both fun agility and those who wish to compete at the activity.

You would need a surface suitable for the dogs to be jumping on - lots of agility clubs hire indoor riding schools for the evening but some have better sufaces than others and that can make a lot of difference to the handler as well as the dog. Equipment is pricey and needs to be erected correctly for safety reasons and the distance between pieces of equipment also needs to be correct.

Just a few things to ponder - although you may well be very experienced at agility and have considered all these things already :-)

All the above to be considered and then making sure, if you get going, that it is a controlled environment! Many people have set up 'fun agility' type things and it's just chaos and dogs running around, and their owners, with no clue as to what is required and no sense of safety. There is potential for big injuries in agility. If you get it going, good luck with it and I hope it's a great success. Agility is a great sport and a tremendous way to build up bonds between dog and handler and confidence in a dog ... if done safely and correctly, the opposite can be said if it's not!!