Trainers

At South Durham Dog Agility Club, our trainers are here to help you improve your handling and ability in the fantastic sport of Dog Agility.

Owen

It started in early December 2011, Charlie, my black and white Springer Spaniel came home with me from a friends house. I'd been to see Charlie a few times as my friend was re-homing. I thought he'd be the perfect companion for Blue, my 5 year old Cocker spaniel. Charlie was VERY lively and had super high energy levels.

As it had been with Blue, I thought training Charlie would be easy... WRONG! I quickly realised that Charlie needed a focus in his life but I didn't know what to do with him. Like a lot of people new to agility I thought about those dogs I'd seen seen running and jumping over obstacles at Crufts on the TV, and thought 'that looks easy, we'll give it a go!'.

Charlie loved his agility, although (like me) wasn't very good at it. Charlie got so excited working for his ball that he found learning new skills very difficult. Charlie and I kept working at it and although progress seemed slow, we started competing. Charlie progressed to grade 5, before I retired him from competition.

Since starting 'just for fun' with Charlie, I have been bitten by the agility bug and am now the Chairperson of the club and one of the trainers, taking the club session on Thursday and delivering the foundation training.

I now compete with Ella my grade 7 Border Collie at Championship level and we are working hard to progress further with the aim of representing GB in international competitions.

Ella is very different from Charlie. Training Ella is extremely rewarding as she works so hard and learns new skills easily.

I've been instructing for 7 years now and have learnt that every dog and handler progress at a different rate.

It's never as easy as it looks... The secret is to stick in, keep it fun, teach your dog something new and experience the joy of running with your dog.

Hope to see you soon.

Suzie

Hi, I am Suzie

I began my agility path back in 2016 training 1 day a week with my Springer Martha…. unfortunately I lost her in 2018. I had caught the agility bug so needed another dog. Along came Diesel my black Cockapoo… then B my champagne Cockapoo. I started competing at KC level with Diesel in August 2021 after lockdown and we are now a Grade 5. B has recently reached Grade 3 too.

Since joining South Durham DAC I have gone from training 1 day a week to training 3-4 days and running 1 to 2 of the sessions. I have also been Show Secretary and am now the Club Secretary. I also assist with the Club’s Foundation Course. As you can see I am a very dedicated member of South Durham DAC 💙🐾❤️

Ashleigh

Hi, I'm Ashleigh

I started training at South Durham DAC when I had just turned 21.

I have been actively involved in agility since around 2017 with my 2 Labradors Luna and Raven .

I started competing with Luna and in just 6 months from the start of our agility career we won into Grade 5. Luna has finally won into Grade 7 after years of competing and is looking at retiring from competitions this year (2022).

Raven will be old enough to compete at the start of next year and she shows real promise!

I started training foundation classes at the start of 2022 in the hope I can pass my knowledge on to new handlers just coming into this really addictive sport!

Lorraine

My name is Lorraine and I have totally ignored the saying 'Never work with children and animals' as I am a teacher by day and a trainer in my spare time.

I have been involved in the agility world since 2004 and I was fortunate to have started out in a club where Anthony Clarke was a trainer. I continued training my own dogs with Anthony both in groups and 1:1 and learnt a lot from him.

I am qualified as a dog trainer in obedience and have taught that, but my passion has always been agility. Since moving from the South to up here, I have only focussed on the agility side of dog training, preferring the enthusiasm, excitement and craziness of the agility world.

In 2018, I came across South Durham Dog Agility Club on an internet search and went along for a session. I loved it and joined the club. I have happily been with them ever since then, both training and competing with my own dogs.

Liz

I have two border collies, Maisie, who is nine and Lewis is six. I started agility over twenty five years ago with my collie, Mac. We did well, reaching the final of Scottish Agility Dog of the Year and the semi-final of novice agility at Stoneleigh. Most weekends in the summer we would go off in the caravan to shows but as Mac grew older I realised that I needed a puppy to bring on. The rest is history and Lewis is my sixth collie! All my dogs have been great to compete with, some more challenging than others. I reached grade 7 with one of the dogs but sadly she developed lymphoma and died suddenly, aged seven. For various reasons I have not competed since the pandemic but I have fun with my dogs doing agility once a week. I enjoy taking the Saturday group and seeing how handler and dog bond and gain confidence and surprise themselves with what they can achieve.

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