Hi all,

My Border Collie pup Maggie is just coming up to 6 months now (I don't know where the time has gone!) and I am keen to get her into an agility club that does pre-beginner/puppy agility training. I know that she won't be able to do any jumps etc until she is more like 12 months + and wont be able to compete until she is 18 months, but I have heard about these pre-beginner classes which work a lot of the equipment at ground level and teach more about control on the equipment/on the course etc.

Has anyone done similar puppy agility/pre-beginner with their dogs?

We have already taken her to puppy & graduate training classes from an early age and are now doing competition obedience training classes to improve her attention etc, so she has all the basics and more already.

I live in Camberley, Surrey - can anyone recommend a good club that would be nearish to me (Surrey/North Hampshire/Berkshire)? I dont mind travelling a bit further out if it is on a weekend?

I have seen lots of club details on agility.net etc and looked them all up (there are loads), but it would be good to hear recommendations from people that have been to them/are a member, as it seems that the quality varies greatly?

I know that there are usually waiting lists for the good ones so want to get in now and start looking.

Thank you!

Katie

PS: if you could recommend a good agility club nearby that doesnt do puppy classes I would be interested too, just in case I cannot find what I am looking for near me!

Hi everyone, I just thought I would post to say that I found a great Agility place near me in the end that takes puppies for beginner classes from 5 months.

So if anyone else was looking for something in the area I would strongly recommend them. The club is called Millbrook Agility Dogs: http://www.madkathagility.com/

Maggie is now 7 1/2 months old and we have enrolled her on a 15 week course (although they range from 5 & 10 to 15 weeks), which will take her up to the age where she can start doing the equipment raised off the floor.

I spoke with the owner, Kathri Tasker, who is great and all her trainers are very experienced and train using motivational and reward-based methods.

The venues are really nice (they have 2 local to me - one indoors, one outdoors) and we had great fun.

Now all I have to do is try and get Maggie to calm down and pay attention to me in class instead of everything and everyone else! :-)

http://www.pawfectdogschool.com/
Check out her website.