alligande

From your description I would go with the private lessons, your instructor should know you and your partner well from the group class and know where the holes in your training are. From you description it sounds like some of the fundamentals aren't clear and I think working with a trainer will get your dog up to speed much quicker than trying on your own. I actually don't agree with the concept that weaves are only something you need to do a couple of reps of, to get really great independent entrances, and for the dog to stay in the poles regardless of what you are doing takes much more practise than that. I think it is the hardest skill for a dog to learn. I appreciate that it is hard on a dog, what I do is work in blocks with it, at the moment I am working on him staying in the poles regardless of what I am doing, once I am happy with the improvement, the only weaves he will do will be in sequences, and I will assess how far we have come, in a few weeks I will up the criteria and focus on training the weaves again.

I also think it depends where you are in your agility career. The ideal situation would be to be able to rotate between the two. I love to train on my own, and I have found my dog has made huge progress since I have unlimited access to equipment but I have learned to focus on specific skills, at the moment we are back working on greater independance in weave poles due to some of the evil entries we have been seeing locally, or I might spend some time working on a specific turn. I also have a dog with a huge work ethic (we have taken 2 hour private lessons). I don't do much extended handling on my own, I have a training partner and we anaylize each other's problems, without that feedback it is very hard to know what you have done wrong, video does work as a substitute but it takes time to watch it back. Private lessons are invaluable, I always got way more out of them than a group lesson, as others have said the lesson focuses on your teams needs, and you can repeat a sequence until you can wrap your head around what you are doing wrong, in a group class there is never enough time to really figure out the issue.

I am so sorry that you had to make such a hard decision, I also think you made the right decision watching our dogs suffer is so hard.

He is a border collie, he can't be named Gronk . We used to call a friend's very large, very sweet and very dumb lab Gronk, now it suited him!!!

Well done, I loved the look on your face when you got to the table, it said it all

I don't have any advice, but I am thinking of you and the horrible situation that you both ended up in. All I can think is there most be more going on, and understand your frustration, even if the outcome is not good, knowing what is wrong is always easier. We had a dog who we never found out what was wrong with him and it was frustrating but after a year plus and continually spending money at the vets who tried really hard and were perplexed, we gave up.

Thanks for all the ideas, my husband is from Vermont and we lived in Newport, Rhode Island for 20 years. Geographical names are hard, Newport is a horrid dogs name, and I don't want to use a name that has no connection. And Aquidneck, which is Native American name for the island is not meant to be a name, if people have a problem with Rievaulx (Revo) I can only imagine the outcome!!!!! I think Brady would make a great dogs name, but first I am not naming my dog after a quarterback no matter how cute and talented, plus our previous border collie was called Brody. My other half is a huge New England sports fan but does not want to use an obvious reference.

You can definitely do the foundation yourself, but I think a book or DVD would be invaluable to give you the structure of what to start with and where to head.

I followed a book called agility right from the start, it is now available as an E-book, with my current dog and it might really help you understand what agility foundation is. I would recommend finding some type of guide or program that will help you build the skills. I worked with my dog at home mostly using the book as a template (he was my second agility dog so I had an idea of my goals) he did not see real agility equipment till he was 11 months, and moving those skills onto equipment was quick. My next dog will not see real equipment untill he has loads of foundation skills.

This is the young lad that I am hoping will be our next dog. We do not have a name yet, we really liked Fenway but that name was for the other pup, and it is weirdly not sitting well for either one of us to use it for this guy. If anyone has a name that would somehow represent New England, yet still make a great dog name, we are open to suggestions.

The UK poles are a lot more rigid, they looked really short when I saw them. In Spain we have a variety, all more the height of the U.S. ones (I am not sure of the official height) wooden ones, that very similar to the UK ones, and PVC ones that are about 1" they can either be on steel or aluminum bases and are never pegged. The aluminum ones are very whippy, my friends Malinois trained on light aluminum and it was interesting watching him think about the heavy wood ones at another club.

Congratulations, and wishing you both the best on a long and successful partnership

I am now very excited, no matter how much I told myself looks don't matter I really do have a soft spot for a cute fluffy tri

I have never actually timed my guy, but maybe I should . I know his performance improved greatly when we did some work with v-weaves, which seemed to really help him get his timing right, before he would push hard and struggle to stay in at pole 10. He looks fast because he is a big flowing dog, what I have found is that working on independance has given me so many more options, there are still holes we need to work on. I suspect good entires can shave time off as well, if a dog can dive in and break, then accelerate, you will get an even better performance. That time to find the entry is very important.

I think there might be a happy ending to this , I stumbled upon a lovely litter of fluffy tri-colors in Scotland that are just about the same age as the pup I was supposed to be getting. Private breeding and the only reason they have pups left is that all but one were dogs, they are keeping the bitch, one dog is spoken for, everyone who had reserved wanted bitches, which is the only reason I was going to be able to get one of the Killiebrae dogs so easily. I will make a decision on Saturday when I find out if the Killiebrae tri puppy is going to become a SAR dog. I thought that decision had been made when I posted but it has been put off till Friday. I said I did not want to go to Scotland for a pup, but as my husband said, what's a little more driving ... It's only another 4 hours north! And he was only ever sailed on the Clyde and not seen any of the country.

We are terrible planners, always book things last minute, but this we planned so we could get decent prices

I got very sad news on Sunday night, I will not be getting my puppy. There has been devlopmental problems with a couple of the litter mates who are going to be put down. The rest of the litter will go to working homes unregistered and castrated. I respect the breeders decision but I am pretty disappointed, we had even had to name for his paperwork. To make it worse I had just booked our ferry tickets on Friday, so I am not only not getting a puppy I am out of pocket 400 euros. I am still trying to figure out what to do next, but the puppy hunt continues.

I would say what you teach is your choice, but I would think the dogs otherwise it will not be clear. I am so left/right challenged that I have not attempted it. I was teaching my dog to lift each back leg independently and thought it would be cute to name it port and starboard after the names used on a boat, well what did I do, first leg up was his right one, but as he was facing me when I taught it, I called it port (left) this has caused much amusement among my friends, I am married to a professional yachtsman and personally sailed over 20k miles at sea! I never get it wrong on a boat even after years of not sailing, but my dog that is disaster! There is an agility command that is very popular in one US organization called "switch" which means change leads/direction and works well for the directionally challenged.

Congratulations on a great weekend

Try a different venue, I went to my first ever trial on my own knowing no one and met lovely people who could not have been more friendly and welcoming both the organizers and the people competing it is why I stuck with NADAC as a second venue despite disliking the courses and some of the silly rules. When I felt we were ready to try USDAA a few people I knew from NADAC were there, but busy in Masters, and I still found new people to chat to, not as openly friendly just because people are more focused on their runs, but still nice people happy to chat dogs and answer questions.

The first time I went to a USDAA trial, I loved watching people's runs, certainly in the NE the standard is very high and I had never seen agility "live" at that level. There was also a lot less very slow distracted beginner dogs than NADAC which I think is a result of numerous factors, but I know people who started there and now only do USDAA and AKC even with their beginner dogs.

If you are having a problem finding good local trainer, think about signing up for an online course. There are some really good ones now. The Fenzi Academy is one and has a wide range of courses, there is Agility University, I have taken online agility courses with Daisy Peel, and I am currently signed up to Slvia Trkmans puppy class.

There are other airports than Heathrow, but it is a limited number. If the dog does have to connect through Heathrow, the animal reception center does a great job of caring for dogs, the long haul dogs get taken out their crates and put in a kennel/run fresh water etc. They also cleaned up his crate. This is the link to BAs cargo agent, I think it is certainly worth contacting them directly to see if the flights line up well for your friend to do it herself as the monetary saving will be huge, if not one of the agents will do a good job as they will collect the dog from your friends home and deliver it to the trainer. https://www.iagcargo.com/iagcargo/portlet/en/html/products/specialist_cargo/live_animals

I have not been to AKC trials, just USDAA and NADAC, indoors in the same building USDAA is a lot noisier and has more energy. Lots of barking, lots of tugging, lots of running around. USDAA does not have strict rules about leashes so dogs come tugging out of the rings.

I think you are making huge progress, putting a bunch of reactive dogs in one room seems to be asking for a lot of chaos that is not going to help. Many years ago before I had a clue about reactivity or dog training I met a big lab while we were finishing our walk, he was on a leash and the owner was very tense and she said he was aggressive to other dogs, guarded his toys, and was going to a special class. We just hung out chatted for awhile, the big lab seemed very relaxed so she let him off lead and he hung out, it did not take long before my supremely confident border collie had his tennis ball and the lab did not even blink. The labs owner was thrilled and felt he had more progress hanging out with my 2 than he had in class, which even then made sense to me, a couple of confident dogs, or a room full of nervous ones. Keep up the good work, it can be a long journey, but you are getting there.