Anyone else do agility?

We're having a change of plan for Chaos' nervousness meeting some other dogs. I've taken him to the indoor classes a few times and although he's a complete and utter star with the exercises and games, he was getting worse with the stress of being surrounded by yapping dogs. We also tried the Boxing Day walk but he ended up being almost knocked over by a pointer and that's upset him even more.

As well as some Look At That clicker work, that seems to be bearing fruit, I'd like to try agility. That way he can interact with other dogs while having a fun focus, and outside.

I've made some obstacles in the garden - we have some electric fence post weave poles, a couple of upturned buckets with a pole jump, and a scaffolding plank on a bit of wood for the balancing bridge. And... our new and proper tunnel has just arrived from Zooplus. For just under £20 I thought it would be flimsy but it's brilliant!

Anyone else do this at all?

I tried this with Harry when he was younger.  I bought some jumps and
put them up in the garden but unfortunately all he wanted to do was
destroy the poles not jump them.

But I decided to give it another go now I have a large Paddock for him
to play in and he's older and not quite so gung ho!

Like you I think it will give my boy some confidence as well as being a
nice and enjoyable thing to do.

Really impressed with your inventiveness with the buckets and poles
etc

Good Luck, hope it works for both of us.

aww sounds like he's in for a lot of fun ,love watching it when its on tv and the dogs seem to love doing it

Try this mate http://www.kronch.co.uk/shop/pemmikan-bars-400g/ I know its an energy bar but my two chill out and relax until the point they are worked at which they go guns blazing. I've been using it for Bikejor and must say its fantastic. I will be honest and say no idea why it calms but understand the energy release. i give one block each split into bits 30 mins before a race instead of an hour and it does the trick. if you do use let me know how you get on.

I don't think we're quite to needing a quick energy burn yet, Nathan, but will squirrel that away for later. It's all learning the obstacles at the moment. He's like a flea over the jump and has understood the idea behind the weave poles, but I still need to guide him through. The seesaw doesn't bother him, but I think I need to find something wider.

The tunnel arrived from Zooplus yesterday and I'm told that chasing sprats through is great fun! That's already progress as he was worried the first time we tried in class. It's too wet to take it outside yet.

Are you going to look into classes, Lizzie, or is this something for home more?

I wish I had the space, and Bug can't go to a class either. We're lucky to hike on the moors frequently, and bug does lots of swimming, climbing, jumping etc so gets varied exercise that way.

I know how you feel, Rachel. I really wanted to do it with Bobbert but he wouldn't have coped and would probably have ended up trying to kill everyone.

That's a very luck Bug to have a mum who finds her so many other fun things to do on her own.

No Liz, Im afraid classes are out of the question for us sadly as Harry
suffers from anxiety and he can be dog aggressive.  Its just the two
of us as I'm a widow, and he is the perfect dog, very well behaved
and very loving.  All that goes right out of the window when other
dogs or visitors are in the equation as he becomes very stressed.  So we spend our time together and enjoy our life but I often feel regret that he can't enjoy the company of other dogs or that people don't get to see the
loving boy I see.