Can technical agility be " fun agility"

Speaking as a (hopefully) future handler, I agree with Susan in that if you're prepared, it can definitely be fun. I love a good challenge, though. Will I ever be an international handler? Probably not. Will I benefit from pushing myself and learning how to get around an international course? Probably! So why not train for it, and if it pops up in a course I'll know how to handle it, and my dog will understand what's expected. Right?

As of now, I've only taken one beginning agility course with Enzo. After we 'graduated' my dad immediately asked me if we were ready to enter a trial in the novice class now (love his enthusiasm; I already have a cheering squad! :biggrin2:). Let's put aside the fact that we still don't know all the obstacles (teeter, weaves, chute...) and Enzo isn't old enough to even be entered in a trial. After 6 weeks of training, we're definitely not ready for the ring. Sure, if we knew all the obstacles we could give it a crack. But would it be fun? No. Not for me, not for Enzo. And that's what agility is all about - fun! Give us more classes, time to learn & practice obstacles so they become second nature, learn to read each other... i.e. time to become 'prepared'. I'm sure if we're truly prepared, we'll have a blast at our first trial! But I've never done this before, so it may be wishful thinking, lol.

So, I think if you're prepared for the course, and open to push yourself, yes, technical agility can be fun. (And I look forward to when we get there!)
 
Yes Highly technical courses Can be a lot of fun, but you need to be prepared for the challenge of a challenging course and have the confidence in yourself and your dog going into the ring in order for it to be fun.
 
SheltieChe said:
What do you think?
http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2...ility-handling-still-be-fun-agility-handling/
Click to expand...

I agree with much of what was written.
OTOH, she makes a supportive statement for the opposite by stating that backside of a wingless is unfair, and acknowledges if you are faced with these challenges it is something that would need to be trained for & from what I read she hasn't & thus makes the counter statement.
While I won't argue the finer points she makes to explain her position - they have been stated by others also - but round here, we've been training backsides on wingless for ever, and we've seen them in trials - one might even have been in a Regional, not sure.

The videos were nice but nothing I'd say wow about.


I will say that the technical courses that are less fun for me to watch never mind run are those that remove all opportunity of flow. So we agree on that.
 
I love a challenge, much rather have a course with traps that I have to really think about then a simple blasty course. Part of that is because Merlin isn't fast enough to win a blasty course, but with a technical course his precision comes out and he stands a much better chance. That is how we came 4th at Kennel Club, because so many people could not handle the course and lost their dogs.

I am at a frustrating stage where I know Merlin can run tougher courses than what I am offered at Elementary level, but I have trouble progressing because he is not fast enough to get into the top 3. The courses at Elementary level are often quite straight forward with little complication, which means they favour fast dogs. So I feel a little stuck, but we will get through it.

I train a lot tougher courses than what I am running at comps and really enjoy it.
 
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