Clean Run - July 2017 - 63

Agility
Classes
Are We
Meeting
the Needs
of All Types
of Students?
PART 1
By Brenna Fender

When I took my first agility class in about 1994, students were fairly homogenous. We were already competitors in other dog
activities, many in obedience or conformation. We all intended to compete in agility, and being able to compete meant having
your dog do all the obstacles and move through a simple course. We didn't even start seriously training the weaves until after our
dogs finished their AKC Novice titles. "Foundation" skills for agility were basic obedience skills: come, sit, down, and stay.

Fast forward to today, when competitors no longer have to describe
their sport to co-workers who have
never heard of dog agility, and
Novice courses resemble Excellent
courses of the past. Now handlers
taking introductory agility classes
range from pet dog owners who
think the sport looks like fun to serious competitors who have earned
several agility championships. Many
dog training clubs and schools must
balance the needs of the casual student who can't wait for their chance
on the equipment with those who
want months of flatwork before moving to obstacle training. The rushed
approach leaves the competitor with
too many holes in their foundation
while the slow road bores newbies
and results in many drop-outs. How
do you serve both populations?

Pick One
Some clubs and training centers gear
their classes toward one type of stu-

July 17 | Clean Run

dent: either the pet-owning public or
the serious agility competitor. That's
not to say they won't try to serve another type of student, but the class
structure is set up for one mindset.
Some facilities offer classes primarily for the pet owner. Their bread
and butter might be puppy, basic,
and CGC types of classes. Those
students might enroll in an entrylevel agility class because the sport
looks fun. Most want to get on the
equipment as soon as possible,
and many drop out after the class
is finished because they have no
desire to go on (usually because
they did not anticipate the amount
of work agility takes, or maybe because they never intended to go on
in the first place). In fact, sometimes
facilities like these have a big jump
in skill level between the foundation
classes and the next available class
because the more serious competitors (club members, for example)
are all in top-level classes and there

really aren't enough in-betweeners
to make a class. At these types of
facilities, sometimes the serious
competitors take intro classes elsewhere or train on their own to start,
and if they take the "pet" beginner
classes, they modify the exercises
to meet their own needs.
Other facilities advertise themselves
as competitive agility training centers. They may only teach agilityrelated classes and their students
might be new to agility but they all
intend to compete. Megan Foster,
who instructs at Synergy Dog Sports
in Washington, has classes like
these. "I've not come across any
students who do not wish to compete. My classes are advertised for
competition." Such a facility can only
succeed in areas where enough
serious agility competitors reside.
Competition from similar facilities
might also make it a challenge to fill
classes with only those who intend
to compete.
63



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - July 2017

Contents
Clean Run - July 2017 - Cover1
Clean Run - July 2017 - Cover2
Clean Run - July 2017 - Contents
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