Sue James, Committee member & Instructor
ACAI - Agility Club Approved Instructor

Dogs
Shah – Border Collie, aged 9. Used to compete at grade 2 but has now stopped competing seriously due to an under active thyroid and intermittent lameness.

Read more about Shah by clicking here.

Bryn – Border Collie, aged 5. Competing in grade 2 agility and Novice obedience.

When did you start doing Agility?
I started in September 2001 when Shah was nearly 2.

When did you start teaching other people to do agility?
I started shadowing an experienced trainer in autumn 2004, then started to learn how to teach other handlers.

What courses have you attended being an instructor?
I attended a weekend course run by Kim and Sean Hunt to training beginners in September 2005. Since then I have been on the following courses:

• Lois Harris’ training course (December 05)
• Steve Croxford’s ‘trainer training programme’ course (March 06)
• Kim and Sean Hunt’s ‘Handling training for trainers’ (April 06)
• Steve Croxford’s ‘PACE – Agility trainer training course’ (September 06)
• Kim Hunts ‘Agility training for trainers 3’ (May 07)
• The Agility Clubs instructor seminar (October 07)

Which Classes would you consider your speciality to be, or those that you prefer e.g. small/medium dogs, beginners etc.
I enjoy all aspects of teaching agility. I work a lot with beginner classes teaching people who are just starting out. I find my experience in both competing and teaching obedience is invaluable here as basic obedience is the key to a good agility dog! I also enjoy teaching competition agility, and although planning the lessons becomes more difficult, it is great to see people progress up through the grades.