© 2011 Shelley Jennings / Four Paws One Direction

Agility is the fastest growing dog sport in the UK, and can quickly become an addiction!

We offer progressive, modern agility training using the most up-to-date methods currently being used by the top competitors in the UK and US, because we believe your dog deserves the best regardless of whether you just want some fun with your canine friend or would like to go on to compete successfully. Agility can be great fun for your dog, but it needs to be trained well so that he understands what his ‘job’ is on each piece of equipment so that he isn’t confused or frustrated!

Trainer Shelley Jennings is an accredited Level One agility instructor through the Lauren Langman Accredited Agility Instructor Programme (LLAAI), and will be completing the Level Two programme in 2012. Lauren Langman runs the extremely successful Devon Dogs company and is one of the best agility instructors in the UK.

We passionately believe that all dogs new to agility need a strong grounding in the foundation behaviours on which agility is based in order to safely and successfully learn how to negotiate the obstacles.

Performing an agility round requires your dog to perform a series of complex behaviours - without a grounding in the basics it can be very confusing to handler and dog. We advocate a training programme of incremental progression - each part of each of the behaviours needs to be taught ‘from the ground up’ in order for your dog to be able to understand his ‘job’.

For those reasons, we start all our training with our ‘Foundation Agility’ classes. Skills covered in these classes include:

• Attention
• Moving together (also called ‘ground work’)
• Self Control
• Motivation
• Proprioception & body awareness
• Jumping skills
• Intro to low pieces of equipment

Throughout, we are also teaching our dogs to think, to problem-solve, and to enjoy the learning process!

There will be a new ‘Foundation Agility’ weekly class starting from 4th Feb 2012.

Saturdays, 1.30-2.30pm, £7 per class.

These classes are open to dogs of all ages. Exercises will be tailored to the age and ability of each dog. The classes are aimed at those wishing to teach their dogs agility to a competitive standard (though you don’t necessarily need to want to compete, just to be keen to learn how to do it properly so that you and your dog understand what you’re doing!).

The classes will either take place at our field in Camerton, weather permitting, or in bad weather will be moved to Shoscombe Hall where we can lay some rubber matting and do some simple work in the dry!More venue info here...

Because of the low-impact nature of the exercises, Foundation Agility work is suitable for pups from 12 weeks of age who may want to go on to future agility training, and is also the appropriate starting place for adult dogs interested in beginning agility training.