No beaches here and we're nowhere near the Lake District, so we've only got the local country parks and river to walk which can get quite boring. I've dreamed of doing agility since I was a teenager and saw it on tv at Crufts!

I am going to start biking with him soon though so if we really aren't getting anywhere in the next couple of months and he enjoys the biking then that can be his thing.

No way, that's proper running! I don't do proper running.

I have one-to-one agility lessons with Rossi and just started sharing the lesson between the two of them before Enzo got ill, but he should be able to go back in a couple of weeks. I can only afford an hour every two weeks and the rest is practise on my own.

Rossi is a very laid back dog and it's so hard to get him motivated to go over the jumps. I even have trouble getting him to go to the start of the jumps and place him correctly, but sometimes he just stands there and looks at me or will wander around the course looking bored until I ask him to do a tunnel, the contact equipment or weaves. Once he's going he's great and seems to be really pleased with himself but it's getting him started that's the problem and even my very experienced trainer finds him frustrating!
He has been doing agility since he was a year old and did a bit of puppy agility before that and he's always been like this. I have been to classes but it takes so long for him to get started he just holds everybody else up!

I have tried using a target stick which he likes, but he got bored of that quickly, but it means I have to treat him before he's done any jumping.

I was chatting to my trainer at the end of the lesson and trying to work out ways of getting him motivated and he said it's just a matter of finding his 'on' button! He has suggested using different treats until I find one that he really gets excited about; using Enzo to make him a bit jealous and make him want to have a go (tried that), not giving him breakfast so he's hungry and will want to work for food. I'll try all of these before our next lesson!

I was using a fluffy pencil case with treats in for a while and he loves it but doesn't see why he should do anything to earn the treats inside. He hasn't seen it for ages so I'll introduce it again during our next practice session. I could spend a fortune buying toys but he's not really interested when there is food on offer - he just can't be bothered to work for it!

If I could get a squirrel or cat to go over the jumps before him then we might get somewhere because that's the only thing he gets really excited about!

Me neither. And anyway there`s far too much Lycra in the world. The solution is to get another dog. You can never have too many dogs.

I'm assuming you have gone down the road of special toys?

Have you tried circuit training with the food?

If it was me and he likes targeting, I would get him targeting something on the floor.

Maybe place a mat on the floor with some food on top - then hold him back and use a vocal wind up...(ready steady....etc) then let him go (go go go) and race him to the food - when he gets there I would roll a couple more bits of food as a reward.

You could do the same with with a toy and playing tug or throwing. It does sound like he has learnt to be laid back.

I also agree with Shona - training sessions of a few mins mins max.

From what your sayying its not a problem motivating him so much as keeping the motivation going?

Re....the targetting....if you can get him going quick over a lkine of 2-3-4 for the lid thanm maybe work form there and add a turn in at the beginning (without a jump to start with)then have the jumps on a diagonal etc.

If you got him going well over one fence how did it fall down when you started adding more?