What's your agility club/lessons like?

[SkyeSue]

A few months ago, I started doing some very basic agility with Chloe on a one to one basis with a trainer I found on Skye. We started off doing 3 weave poles and then a tunnel and a wee jump. We have now managed to get enough folk to organise a wee club, and have had a couple of sessions in my trainers garden.
One of the members has a bigger garden, which we just started using today. As Chloe has had a bit of previous teaching, she was able to progress to 7 weave poles today (everyone else is just starting on three)..plus the tunnel and jump. I was so proud of her (she'd only got up to 5 before) but she was a wee monkey when it came to waiting for her turn. She went barging off in all directions, checking out the new garden and all the smells. Not to mention her rather obsessive interest in the chickens in the next doors garden!
I pay £5 for a one to one session, and £3 when its the group of us....we usually do about 2 hours.
So, it got me wondering what other people do? Where is your agility held? How much do you pay? And how does your dog behave whilst waiting for their turn? Also, do you use the clicker during your training?
Sorry for the long post, and lots of questions, but am very keen to know how you all started off
Thanks

[Bluebell]

I pay £10 for half an hour private lesson, and £5 for a group lesson which lasts 1 hour. My trainer rents a field where he runs a training and agility school so has a full set of agility equipment. The dogs are kept on their leads when it is not their turn. Some dogs holler and shout, some are quiet and patient. My litttle Lillie prefers to sit on my lap whilst waiting her turn
I started all my dogs off on a beginners course ( different dog school) lasting 6 weeks with a maximum of 6 dogs. After that I had private lessons for a few months.
ATM I take Lillie my 4 year old to a group lesson, but there are only 3 of us, so at £5 it is really good value. I take Teva, only 10 months, to a private lesson, her 'agility' is more about teaching her to stay with me and follow me, with just one or two little jumps and a couple of weave poles, and the tunnel - not contacts as she is too young

[Hurtwood Dogs]

Hi Sue!

I had to give up on agility but I was paying £10 for a couple of hours at a small farm which had a dedicated field and all the proper wooden agility stuff - high plank, seasaws, tunnels, A-frame thingys etc etc.. interestingly they also had chickens free ranging around the field (on the outside) which was a bit of a 'mare! It was Normy I did it with and she was amazing, she jump weaved a whole row of poles in her first session after we'd walked the course and lured her (the trainer was really surprised) and was up on the high plank, did the seasaw, A frame, that table they have to jump on and lay down and stop and was stopping on the painted patches etc etc... She picks things up very very quickly but once she's got the hang of something she gets bored, stressed and misbehaves and she became very snotty about the whole idea of agility, so I resigned accepting it wasn't her 'bag' . She's not great in classes anyway as she gets quite stressed being onlead around other dogs for a long period so in pretty much every class I've taken her too (including gundog classes sadly) she's great at everything for a bit but ends up huffing, throwing herself on the floor and won't get up without 'persuasion' . It's a shame because she was amazing at it and I really enjoyed it!

I didn't use a clicker but did use treats to lure her initially, she was ok with the other dogs once she'd got the measure of them but if a new dog entered the field I had to get her on lead fast otherwise she was over like a shot giving out the pumped up Weimy attitude .

Sounds like Chloe is doing really well and she enjoys it which is fab! Hope your class growsand you can start doing competitions!

[elaine.e]

William and I started by having group lessons at a nearby club. I paid £5 for a 45 minute lesson where the group could be up to 9 dogs but was usually 5 or 6. The lessons were in an indoor riding school. The quality of the tuition (and attitude of the trainers) was a bit varied, even to my novice eyes, and I stopped going there when the only trainer that I liked and respected left.

Luckily for me I live just 10 minutes drive from one of the all time best agility handlers in the UK and was able to join in group lessons with her. I think I paid £6 for a 1 hour group lesson, usually about 6 of us in the group. Sometimes I'd have a 30 minute private lesson instead, costing £10. Lessons were in a purpose built barn in the winter and an enclosed grassy paddock in the summer, where distractions included rabbits, sheep and cattle in the adjacent fields. Brilliant preparation for competition where the grass usually has all sorts of interesting scents and there's lots of distracting activities going on close by.

William and I made much better progress with our new trainer and the methods that she used so we started competing and really enjoyed ourselves and didn't let our trainer down.

[Becky and Wilson]

Well done on your 7 weaves!  That's a great price you're paying too!

I paid £5 for our puppy agility classes and now paying £7 for the normal classes which are an hour long and on a field if the weather is good or in the hall if it's raining/dark. 

Our club is part of a boarding kennels so the hall is specifically for dogs, training, shows etc.

I then pay £10 for the girls 1 hour class which is a smaller class for the more advanced handlers who want to progress in agility rather than just for fun, it's more training us on better handling skills and where on a course we can cut a few seconds off of our time etc.  I find these very beneficial....Paisley went up 3 grades last year!

I find when just starting out the dogs would be quite restless and noisey while waiting for their turns but they soon get used to it!  I can even keep the girls off lead while waiting for their turn in the hall as they know to just come and sit on my knee to wait their turn!  Plus I have food!

I'm still using clicker for Merfyn as he's only 10 months so is not used to the kit yet, with the girls I use it if they are playing up with the weaves or contacts but generally I don't need it with them now as they've been doing it for 2 years now.

[Pudding]

I go to 2 Clubs a week .....On a Monday night we do an Agility Class in a field with a full set of equipment
The dogs are kept on their leads when it is not their turn, there about 5 of us in a class
and the course lasts 6 weeks i pay £10.00 for an hour lession

and on a Sunday we do half an hours obedience and half an hour Agility.... its in a very very big field
with lots of classes going at the same time I pay £3.00 for the hour.... but on the Agility we do not get much
training... they dont tell us where we should be standing.... and all of them except me work only on the left
so the handler takes the long way round.. and you can see the dog looking for them....

[supergirl]

Our club meets in someone's garden where they have all the KC appropriate equipment.  It costs £3 and we are usually there for about an hour and a half.  If you want you can split the session between two dogs for the same price.  Our trainer and her sister have tons of experience of competitions which is a great help (the sister does it in a motorised wheelchair!! and is fantastic at giving her dog directions).  There is another club which started up a year ago and which a few people have started going to (the serious competition people), but I'm quite happy with our little informal club.  However I might end having to go to the other one as we have yet to have a training session this year and the first comp is in a couple of weeks time.

I think the experience our club offers is a fantastic bonus, whereas the other club's trainers are only just trained themselves.

[bella15]

Our agility lessons are held in a secure paddock which our trainer rents .It is very handy for me as it is a 10 minute walk from my house.I pay £12 for one & a half hour lesson on a thursday afternoon.We really enjoy it!

[Pip895]

Well done on seven weaves - its interesting - we have from the start always done 12 but they are initially spaced as two parallel rows of six that the dogs just run through - they are gradually getting closer together (currently on lesson 12 and they are still two separate rows with space to run between but last week I noticed that Saffi was beginning to weave a little whilst going through them so I think we will get there -  it will just take a little longer.

We are charged £4 for what is supposed to be 1hr but sometimes is still going when the next class comes in after 1.5hrs .  There are 5 in our class and a parallel class slightly more advanced that has only three.