My cocker works, beating and wildfowling. I've took him to an agility class for the last two years, I don't compete at agility though. I don't do it for the speed I do it because I know my cocker would hunt all day, but I also wanted a way to keep his focus, have him listen to me, take direction and still have fun, he tends to comply in a switched off way if he gets bored with repeated tradional training. The key thing to me was to find a class where manners matterred, no disrespect to anyone who competes but I've seen some dogs wound up to such a frenzie and that wasn't what I wanted. The class I took him to is run by one of the girls who works for Philippa Williams so they fully understand gundogs. He's expected to sit quietly between his turns, and if you think about it a lot of the commands help the gundog work i.e. stop when I ask you, 'get over' an obstacle, balance, take direction etc. He loves it and it's an add on to the other training we do.
