Dagobar Dog Agility Club is a competition and fun agility club, also teaching hoopers, tricks, and some fun scentwork and treibball, always with positive shaping methods and happy dogs. We run classes and 121s throughout the week and at weekends, in our own custom built outdoor arena in Albrighton. We also offer hoopers and trick training classes, and some scent work, treibball and flyball worksho
ps. We teach mostly by shaping, and always by reward based, positive methods that are proven methods by which dogs can learn best. Prices are as follows:-
£20 one off membership/registration fee
Classes £75 for a block of 10 classes
121 tuition £15 for 45mins. We use competition standard rubber surfaced adjustable aluminium contacts from First Contact, and new competition standard weaves, alongside the usual jumps, tunnels, and breakaway tire etc. We train with humour and with our dogs' happiness and safety first. Join us and see for yourself! About Dagobar's training philosophy, me, and my dogs...
I started Dagobar Dog Agility Club in 1996 because I didn't like the training I was getting elsewhere. There was harsh handling, not enough protection for young dogs and developing joints, and a lot of standing around waiting for a 30 second run on course and, because we often got it right, that was it for another half an hour, no training on course to do something better, just right or wrong. My dad made all the equipment, and I learned from watching many other handlers around the competition rings, copying what I liked and what worked well. My German Shepherd, Buck, taught me so very much. He was fast, consistent, and very responsive and focussed. So much so that, if there was an error, I automatically looked at my own handling and wondered what I'd done wrong. We both used to sit at ringside together, watching, and I'm pretty sure he used to memorise the course. If a dog he was watching made a mistake he used to give the equivalent of a canine tsk and look elsewhere until the next dog took the line! He also ran the correct course on more than one occasion when I was in fact heading off for a wrong obstacle, looking at me ever more concerned as he persevered with what he knew to be correct until I caught on and caught up!!! I ran Buck mostly with verbals and with little idea of handling, but he still managed trophy placings in classes of 300 (mostly) collies, and ran clear at least 2 usually 3 runs out of 4, which tells you how good HE was. A missed running contact on the dog walk or an off course caused by my handling were the usual faults if we had any. Unfortunately a ligament injury running across Cannock Chase retired him from full height after just two and a half seasons aged 5yrs, just as we were really coming together as a team. There was no 'anysize' in those days so competition came to an end, but Buck continued to run low at the club until 13yrs of age and was club ambassador, always happy and always welcoming. My agility took a leap forward just as Buck was forced to retire. By that time we'd added a crazy young collie springer cross rescue, Rebel, to our family. He headbutted his way through a fence and ripped apart a solid, heavy duty plastic garden water feature in the few weeks before I first took him to agility. He was a handful, but so responsive, and he loved agility, watching Buck run and copying him. Rebel taught me all about body movement. I didn't know what a serpentine was called but I could run one, I didn't know deceleration cues but I knew how to apply them, just by the feedback Rebel gave me. And once again I was so lucky to have such a fast and consistent dog, meaning that I always looked to myself when faults occurred. Rebel ran in competition as a headstrong youngster only once, just as I was retiring Buck and putting my efforts into developing the club. His one weekend of competing earned 4 rosettes from 7 runs, clear on his first run,and placing in novice just out of the trophies and with very good results in starters. He went back into comp at 11yrs of age and picked up where he'd left off, turning in clear after clear and loving every minute! He was also club diplomat, settling beginner dogs and calming disputes. He ran at the club until aged 12yrs. Rebel was the one who raised my first collie pup, Mac, a black tricolour WSD, teaching him all about being a diplomat and running agility (and digging in the garden!) in equal proportions. By this time I understood a lot more about handling, and was fortunate enough to happen across Susan Garrett and her 2x2 weaves dvd. Thus began a steep learning curve into shaping and training. And it happened at just the right time. I always say running Mac is a bit like driving a Ferrari on ice at full throttle! Currently 6yrs of age, Mac has put in more clears and wins than I can keep track of, AFTER we found how to handle his high arousal state, which initially totalled poles and even ripped a set a weaves out of the ground, bending the metal base in the process!!! Mac runs flyball at about 4.2 secs. We don't team run, in part due to the repetitive nature of it, physically, on the dog, and in part due to time constraints, concentrating our time on agililty, but we love running it for fun! Zephyr, a red and white BC, joined the pack while we still had Rebel, and there's many a time when he reminds me of Rebel. Bonded closely with Mac and with me he's a natural in the competition environment, a clear and win on his first run and many clears since, always focussed, locked in on me, and again fast and precise. We've been unfortunate with ligament injuries, first Buck and now Zephyr, who damaged his cruciate spinning around in excitement in the garden. I'm unsure at time of writing this if he will have to retire from full height (he, too, is aged 5yrs just as Buck was), and hope i can amend this write up at some future date. Now beginning to run almost identically to Mac, Zephyr's main contribution to my learning curve has been in the area of shaping, consistent and inventive he's given me reliable feedback on my shaping mechanics and he and I have both shaped things I'd never have thought possible a couple of years ago. We added Mitch, a black tricolour collie cross rescue when Zephyr was 10 mnths. He knew his name, and sit. Aged approximately 3yrs when we had him, he's proved a good test for the shaping skills that Zephyr has helped me to develop. Mitch had some kind of accident prior to me having him and I won't push him to full height out of consideration to his shoulder joint in later life (although he can spring full height, he looks a bit stiff doing it if turns are involved). Despite coming from behind Mitch now has the same CV of tricks that his brothers have, and now aged 7yrs is a regular in the agility winter series, cracking in clears and wins and loving every second of comp! He's taught me that patience and kind handling techniques can overcome almost anything. He loves shaping and agility and flyball and scent work... basically if there's a ball or treats involved he's game to try it! I always say Mitch never went to school but he's graduated from Uni anyway and is now doing his PhD!!! We'd had Mitch 2 years, when along came Whisper, a blue merle pup. I felt we were ready for the next challenge and oh boy has Whisper provided it. Brilliant at shaping, almost equal to his brothers in most trick training already, and ahead of them in some moves, at aged only 2yrs, he's confident and a happy worker... until he runs agility equipment anywhere but at home, and then for some reason he has a confidence crisis. I learn something from each of my dogs and Whisper has taught me all manner of lessons in patience and soft handling and how to build a dog's confidence. His only difference in training mentality compared to his brothers is that he prefers treats while they are all toy obsessed. He will work with a toy (we've had to work long and hard to get that) but it doesn't push his buttons the same way treats do and he needs a lot of work to get his arousal state up. As a result as soon as he slips lower in arousal he notices things to worry about, and believe me he can worry about ANYTHING!!! However it's definitely coming together now, he's done his first comp and it was actually a huge success story, as he ran 'strange' contacts and flat tunnel for the first time and didn't stress. Gradually he's learning that he can trust that he'll be safe if he does something that I ask of him, and as a result his confidence is starting to build. Since then Ember has joined us, a brilliant trick dog and superb shaper, he earned his expert trick training titles at only 5 months of age, from DMWYD, alongside his four brothers. Developing into a very nice agility dog now that a little bit of a herding issue has come under control.... so yep lol another learning curve.... and we 're just expanding our agility training. And my lovely Mac is daddy to three pups, Indy, River and Marnie, affectionately nicknamed the three muskahounds! All previous learning curves went out the window with these guys, but they are now competition ready and I think my nerves have just about recovered!!! Since the moment they came into our lives they 've improved my reflexes lol but are so lovely natured I can forgive them anything. So there you have it, me and my dogs, I'm so very grateful to all of them. My journey so far with them has influenced so very strongly how and why I teach as I do at the club. Our dogs always, ALWAYS, come first, and if you choose to join Dagobar then you can trust that our way of training will strengthen the bond you have with your dog, and take you to levels, in comp and in your own journey with your own dog, that you may only have dreamed about # # #
