I do agility with our three beagles, they have all been quite successful. They all love doing it, even the old girl who will be 12 this year still runs around the course barking all the way round.

Bonwillan, how easily did your Beagles take to agility?

Mine is 16 months old and started at 12 months. Initially I was gob-smacked at how well she did. She loved it and rarely wandered off for a sniff. She was a complete natural at tackling all the equipment - she learnt the weave poles in a week and I could send her away through them by three weeks!

But a few weeks back things moved on to a point where I couldn't do things the way that worked for us. Basically, I was 'over handling'. Beanie loved running around the course with me and stuck to me like glue. But I couldn't keep up with her so she was having to slow down a lot. Eventually the class started to move onto distance handling - which *should* have been exactly what we needed.

She doesn't want to know any more. At first she'd loose interest after a couple of goes, then she'd loose interest after the first attempt. Now I let her off-lead and she wanders off to the end of the barn for a sniff. She'll give me her full attention for tricks, obedience training....even the weave poles. But standard agility lessons....forget it!

If I go back to my old way of doing things I can get her back into it with a bit of hard work and lots of enthusiasm and excitement. But our teacher advises against this.

She does beagle racing, flyball etc and we never have this problem. But these activities are high energy and exciting. She doesn't have to wait to listen to instructions.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Yep me and madison do agility not entered any comps yet but thats just because i need to gain in confidence first then we will enter for sure, its great fun for dog and owner.

Hi scarter, We trained our 1st beagle when she was 5 years old as we wanted to do something different and use up some of her energy. She took to it really well and now competes at level 4.

None of our beagles will work away from us very well, we can send them over jumps through weaves etc but you need to be nearby to show them which way to go next. We train with one of the country's leading trainers, at first she tried to do 'collie' things with them but soon realised that a beagle is not a collie. Now we concentrate on our positioning and using the dogs strengths to get the best out of them.

Basically the faster you run with a beagle the faster your time will be as they tend to be sticky but using clear commands and clever positioning you can run a beagle fast without running flat out, it takes time and a lot of patience but beagles can and do compete with the best of them.

Our best win was beating a class of 53 medium dogs in a novice cup qualifier. Our young beagle who has just turned 3 in now competing at level 5 and should win into level 6 this year as she gets even better.

Thanks for that Bonwwillan - it's good to know that other Beagle owners have found the same thing. We've decided to stop classes for the time being at least as it's just not working for us with beanie as she is right now.

I don't think we want to compete as we do lots of activities with the dogs and probably wouldn't have time. So really there's no need for us to do anything a set way. Beanie loves running around a course with us and to be honest we enjoy that more. To let her really open up and run at full speed we can even try 2-handler-1-dog agility. Now she'd love that!!!

i'm starting with Bonnie tonight, so watch this space.LOL!!

its only a fun agility for now but it will get us started, i'm also going to ask about taking Hector, now that will be fun!!!

Thats how we started, just going to fun agility class. Now its competing 20 times a year plus training.

Jed has been doing agility for 2 years now. I havent competed with him because he's not a great agility dog. He's very precise and knows what he's doing as far as the obstacles are concerned. However, he's too steady and doesnt rush himself, he'll even go under the jumps if he cant be bothered to jump them. He does love to do agility but he's too laid back to compete IMO.

I'll be starting my other collie next month and I think she will be a much better dog to think about competing with. She's very agile and fast and gets excited without getting silly.

I did try with my pointer and he passed his beginners with a good grade but he's over eager and difficult to control. Gundog training is a more suitable discipline for him.

Due to a major change in circumstances, I havent done any agility since July last year but now i'm settled again, I start back with Jed in a couple of weeks and i'm looking forward to it.

Scarter
Sorry to hear you are not feeling you are getting on too great
I know Carol is used to training lots of different types of dogs and handlers and totaly dosent expect everyone to handle like a collie so she would only be trying to push you as far as she thinks she can

I know it has taken over a year and Ben is only just going 'out' to obsticles - and that has been building up slowly

I would say the sniffing is a sign that she dosent understand what you want
remember the rule - when you increase the difficulty increse the rate of reward - so dont expect her to do a whole course, send her to one jump or something from a slightly further distance than normal and then reward totaly

as far as I have seen in classes and at the shows pretty much everyone runs with their dogs to a greater or lesser extent

Try and think of working away as more of a trick than something difficult
- anyway on your flyball clips she is working away from you - so she can do it
Just make it much more clear and far more fun and rewarding and I am sure you will do fine
(and dont expect too much all at once - agility takes a long time to train cos as you get better your dog increases confidence and speed and you have to adjust your timing to keep up with that - I have been going for well over a year with Ben and we are still v inexperienced - although getting better all the time)

We're off to agility for the first time ever this morning, although Tala has been through the tunnel as a puppy. Hope it's something she's going to enjoy.