# A dog with skills - an owner with questions.



## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

I live in Houston and am active in Agility. I'll shoot you a PM. It's a great sport for an active, athletic dog, and there are plenty of things you can practice at home with a small yard and minimal equipment. Your training center will have all the "big stuff" for you to practice on. Getting a good foundation is important, though. 

--Q


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## Searcher (Aug 7, 2009)

Keep in mind that agility should be fun & a way to develop more of a relationship with your dog. It is a way to challenge yourself & your dog. You do not have to be good at it. As most skills, you get better with practice but you don't have to. You can go to just have fun. We didn't have a yard until just recently & it isn't a problem. We may never get past novice in trials but that isn't our goal. Just do your homework on who the instructors are & how they teach. If you aren't comfortable with how they are with handlers & their dogs, don't use them. You need to take things at your pace. Good instructors will understand that not everyone wants to be competitive. We attend 2 different classes (one for me & one for my DH) & they have slightly different styles. But we will never have a fast dog. Dancer just likes to be with us. However we work at the distance work & the speed when we can. 

I think it would be a great way to do something fun with Sherlock.


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## hopetocurl (Jan 8, 2014)

Don't feel bad about not giving him an outlet... you basically discovered what he needed by chance. The good thing is that now you WANT to give him the outlet. You're a good dog owner!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Do talk to Quossum. She knows what she is doing in agility. I wouldn't work with someone who didn't give you a good vibe. Q should be able to steer you in the right direction. You want to trust the person you work with. 

You can do agility just for fun, but if you are going to pursue it, you might as well aim for the idea that you will compete. Therefore it will be important to have good foundations and safe contact criteria. Lily used to fly off the A frame and the seesaw (very scary moments for me, she thought it was funny though). She would never have qualified with those unsafe exits and I was lucky she hadn't hurt herself. It took a lot of work to undo some of the early training we did (which I was too uninformed to see as not being helpful until we hit a wall of no progress).


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## CT Girl (Nov 17, 2010)

How nice that you have Quossum in your area to give you the low down. Very important to go with your gut picking the right teacher, the great ones will always emphasize safety and fun. If your not having fun after all what's the point?


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