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Agility
Agility is a unique, popular and fast growing sport and is what we really focus on at Devon Dogs. Our trainers’ dogs compete most weekends during the spring and summer all across the country and some at Championship and International levels around the world. Whether you just want to do agility for fun and fitness, or want to get to competition level, our aim is to share our experience and skill with you to get the most from you and your dog.
Before starting agility your dog will need to be up to a certain standard. They will need to be physically fit, and ideally will be motivated by either food or toys of any variety. With beginners to agility we recommend that you attend one of our Puppy Obedience or Wednesday Life skills blocks of lessons first. These classes will help you build many of the foundation skills for agility and allow us to make an assessment on your abilities and which agility class you would then fit into best. Please see Courses & Booking for information on Life skills / Puppy classes. Before your dog even sets a paw on a piece of equipment or goes over a jump there are so many skills we like to teach on the ground that will help their agility, and these are all covered in the above classes.
Our regular weekly agility classes are held on a Monday and Thursday afternoon/evening. We also run classes for specific areas of agility on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and at weekends during the autumn and winter.
Mondays
Classes on a Monday run from 3 – 9 pm at Newhall Equestrian Centre, Broadclyst. These classes focus on groundwork and foundation agility skills, through to sequencing and developing more advanced skills. The groups are either beginner or intermediate levels and contain mixed abilities. Most new dogs and handlers to agility will start in Monday classes after ideally attending a Life Skills class. The skills taught in these classes are good for a well behaved pet but are also crucial for a good foundation in agility.
Thursdays
Classes on Thursdays run from 2.45 - 8.45 pm at Newhall. They are purely for competitive dogs, but do have the capacity for some young dogs coming in if they have good proven foundation skills. Thursday classes are where we can really fine tune behaviours and shape successful competition dogs.
About the Classes
We expect full participation from you for the full hour that you are with us in class. We will set the groups tasks and exercises tailored to your skills and experience, and you will also be set work to do outside the class. You will be trained using tried and proved methods, with positive reward based training skills, by professional and experienced trainers. The agility equipment you will learn on is of competitive standard and you and your dog will be taught skills in contact equipment and weaves, jumping and many other agility moves, all at a level that suits you.
 Our agility classes are very popular and this may mean a short time on our waiting list as we only hold a certain number of classes and most of our customers stay with us and remain part of our club. We passionately believe that agility is for everyone, not just particular breeds of dogs, but all breeds, all shapes, all sizes and all ages. So why not contact us if you think you would love to start a new hobby that is fantastic for fitness, fun, and most of all building a great relationship with your dog.
The Monday and Thursday classes run in blocks of 10. Go to the Courses & Booking page for full details or contact us for more information.
We also offer agility coaching on a 1-2-1 basis if the class environment does not suit you or your dog, or if you want to work towards a specific aim or objective.
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"For me, Devon Dogs offers an important extra element to the usual obedience and agility clubs. Devon Dogs is the only training establishment where I felt that my extremely reactive dog would not only be welcome, but fully understood and helped to improve, whilst I have been taught the techniques to manage him.
Ry has progressed from being a nightmare to handle - unable to be anywhere near other dogs or people without reacting violently - to working confidently off lead around other dogs and at different venues. Recently, he even made his debut in the agility ring and was awesome! With Devon Dogs excellent training available I have high hopes that, far from being a no-hoper, Ry will have a great future as an agility star and be a very happy pet dog!"
Kay Oxley
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