Firstly - forget ever even considering that a spaniel will have anything like that kind of "devotion" that a collie has. I prefer to call it obsession but that's just me
Then you need to work on keeping Molo's head off the ground.......... food is what I would suggest - something really high value, roast chicken, lamb, rabbit, cheese, sausage.... works for my spaniels
Penel I was going to say the very same thing!
I think dogs that have the same "devotion/obsession" as Collies are very few and far between. So I'd give up aiming for that.
Something to try to help with getting Molo to stay and wait at the start of the course is to do things like getting him to sit and wait while you go through a doorway, I've found the best one to use is one leading to outside, they desperately want to go out so it really tests their self control. Then call him to you, and get him to sit in front of you.
I've used food too, something high value as Penel suggested. I've seen people using the dogs favourite toy and running round with it in their left hand, when the dog has completed the course they throw the toy to the dog and have a quick game with it as a reward.
You already use clicker training and you could use that. I've seen people use clickers and click after each obsticle so the dog knows something good is coming at the end.
I've done agility with all of mine as part of their normal training classes. Obviously I'm not the best person to do it with them, as they'll never get the most of it with me doing it with them. Max has always seemed to love agility so we took him to Agility Club, with OH to handle him. Quite frankly it was a disaster.
Max would either run off and round the course doing the things he wanted, paying no attention to OH, or he'd run off to me and just sit in front of me and refuse to move.
Couldn't work that one out. OH was losing it, which didn't help as Max is very sensitive so didn't want to do anything with him. I left the arena to try and get Max to forget about me and work with OH but that didn't work. Jen, the trainer, said he was taking the p*ss
In the end the trainer did it with him and he did it reasonably but not as well as I knew he could.
After everyone went I decided to have a go with him to see what he did. He was great. He waited at the start while I got past the first jump, I told him "over" and he did, he followed all of my directions and he even waited for me to catch up with him if he'd finished something before I got past it.
So my point is, I do all the training here (OH keeps meaning to apparently
) That training isn't agility, its obedience, trick training etc and because I do this with them they have a bond with me, and a respect, that they don't have for my OH. To them OH is a play object.
If you continue to do all the training with Molo that you are already doing, he will have that bond with you that will help at agility, IYSWIM.