Agility is now one of the biggest participation activities you can take part in with your dog.

It is a sport for almost any breed of dog.

Below is a list of the most popular breeds that take part in agility at our club.

The Collie

The Collie dog breed is known as a strong, responsive, active dog. Collies are said to stand naturally firm. The Collie breed is known for its black fur color. Indeed, the word "collie" comes from the Older Scots word for "black."

The Collie breed is known for its hard-working qualities even compared with other working breed dogs. Collies always seem to want to have something to do. The Collie dog breed is generally considered friendly and not aggressive

Historical notes: Though still a hard-working dog, professional breeders of Collies are usually doing so with an eye toward showdog standards. Today there are three different well-known varieties of Collie based primarily on appearance: Collie (Smooth and Rough), Border Collie and Bearded Collie.

Border Collie

The Border Collie dog breed is a herding/working dog breed. Of all the major working breeds in the world, the Border Collie Breed has perhaps stayed closest to its roots. Border Collies still herd livestock just as they were bred to do centuries ago. These collies are particularly well suited to work on challenging terrain for relatively long periods. Athletic and agile, even the most pampered Border Collie still needs the opportunity to get his or her paws dirty with a few challenging activities.

Border Collies generally have boundless energy. As with many working dogs, they really crave challenging physical activities and need plenty of outdoor time. The Border Collie breed is also known for being affectionate with family. The collies may seem guarded with strangers. After all, their ancestors were bred for centuries to look after farm animals.

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German Shepherd Dog

The German Shepherd Dog breed is known as being strong, agile, well muscled, alert and energetic. One notable feature of German Shepherd Dogs' appearance is that their bodies tend to have more curves than angles.

The German Shepherd Dog is often thought to seem self-confident and not overly outgoing. In behavior, German Shepherds tend to be both hard-working and adaptable.

Labrador Retriever Breed

The Labrador Retriever breed is one of the most popular dog breeds. In fact, there are more Labrador Retrievers officially registered with breed registries than any other purebred in the US or UK. Known as loving and good dogs for children, these active dogs have even been put to work as service dogs for the disabled.

English Cocker Spaniel

The English Cocker Spaniel breed is known as an active, playful sporting dog breed. The dog is compactly built. English Cocker Spaniels were originally bred for hunting.

English Cocker Spaniels are generally considered playful, affectionate, of even disposition, neither sluggish nor hyperactive, hard-working and faithful. The English Cocker Spaniel breed is widely thought easy to train and to make good pets.

Name: "Cocker" refers to the woodcocks that English Cocker Spaniels would hunt. Outside the US, the breed is usually known simply as the Cocker Spaniel. In the US, the "cocker spaniel" usually refers to the American Cocker Spaniel. Due to the breed's happy disposition and continuously wagging tail, it has been given the nickname "merry cocker".

American Cocker Spaniel

The Cocker Spaniel dog breed is characterized as merry, outgoing and very willing to please. Cocker Spaniels are often considered "softer" dogs because they generally do not do well with tough training.

This as we all know is not always the case.

Historical notes: In the United States the Cocker Spaniel is registered under "Cocker Spaniel" while in the United Kingdom it was under "English Cocker Spaniel." Some Cocker Spaniels are still bred for fieldwork to conserve the hunting abilities of this line of the breed, which is otherwise mostly breed for appearance and health.

The Cocker Spaniel dog breed is a member of the sporting group.

English Springer Spaniel

The English Springer Spaniel breed is a medium-sized sporting dog breed. More specifically, the English Springer Spaniel dog breed is one of the gun dog breeds, like retrievers, setters, and pointers. All the gun dog breeds were originally developed to retrieve animals, usually birds, that hunters had shot down. To this day, English Springer Spaniels love to stay active, particularly when it comes to finding things.

The English Springer Spaniel breed is known as friendly, eager to please, quick to learn and open to training. Many people think English Springer Spaniels are particularly fond of human company. They tend to very strongly dislike being by themselves. If you leave your English Springer Spaniel alone in a room, he or she will likely follow you.

Poodle

The Poodle dog breed was originally bred to hunt birds, and today still tends to be fairly athletic and agile. Poodles can also be hard-working, and are used by French customs in inspections. But the Poodle breed also tends to be playful, which sometimes takes away a bit from their competitive spirit in sports. With their families, Poodles tend to be loyal, sometimes to the point of possessiveness. The dogs' coats are famously high-maintenance. The corners of their eyes also need to be wiped clean at least occassionally to prevent buildup of secretions.

Swedish Vallhund

The Swedish Vallhund dog breed is a very loud breed. It has a tendency toward barking at anything, strangers, animals, friends, or objects. This can be corrected with training. It makes for an excellent family companion. It is confident, lively, inquisitive, courageous, loyal, and independent. They are eager to please and this makes training easier. This is necessary because the Swedish Vallhunds, or SV's as they are called, are problem-solvers and will soon train themselves in ways not to humans' liking. They are healthy and hardy animals which makes them good companions for outdoor activites such as hiking and camping.

Brittany (Brittany Spaniel)

The Brittany, also known as the Brittany Spaniel or Epagneul Breton, is a gun dog bred for hunting birds. Strong, energetic and quick, the Brittany dog breed was made for the outdoors.

Recommended for: Family pets, companion dog

The Brittany breed is widely considered easy to train, sensitive, and good-tempered. Brittanys also get along well with other dogs and can work as a team.

Historical notes: Developed in the 1800s.

The Crossbreed

With this classing comes an unfortunate "stigma" that a crossbreed or mongrel dog is in some way not as good as a pedigree. Whoever sees crossbreeds and mongrels as just canines with huge tails, giraffe like necks and eyes that look in opposite directions, is obviously walking around wearing blinkers. It is narrow minded opinions such as these that have given "bad publicity" to non-pedigree dogs. In actual fact it is closer to the truth to say that many crossbreed and mongrel dogs are a lot more pleasing to the eye than their pedigree rivals !