Purebred and mixed breeds are welcome!

We offer classes for dogs age 6 months and older. Classes meet 50 minutes each week and each session runs for 7 weeks. Class sizes are limited; pre-registration is required.

NOCI Agility Classes
Agility is an active game of navigating a complex obstacle course for the dog and handler team. Dogs will be taught from the ground up each of the skills needed to perform the hurdles, obstacles, and verbal skills to follow their handlers. Handlers will be taught how to teach their dogs the needed skills to follow cues in a challenging environment and work as a team. It is such a fun sport for those who just want more to do with their dogs and for those who enjoy competition.

All dogs that are healthy and in good shape are good candidates for agility. Agility is also an active sport for handlers with a variety of abilities. Athletic and not so athletic folks, alike, can enjoy the sport. Dogs can and will be trained distance skills to get around their coursework. All dogs training in agility at NOCI will have needed to have had experience in a group training class. They will need to have a good understanding of performing a sit, down, stay, recall, and crate training. Classes are small and meet for 1 hour per week.

Please read all the class descriptions to understand in more detail which class to inquire about. If you are interested in joining one of our classes, please contact us at .

Agility Session Fees:

• Non-members: $150
• Members: $110
• Members with 2 Service Credits: $85

Class Description:

This class is where all the fun starts. Foundation agility is essential for the performance of the dog and creates a high-quality team that will ultimately enjoy the most fun, as well as success, in the future. The curriculum will focus on the individual dog’s needs to build confidence in agility training. There will be fun and games played to aid in the use of small obstacles like wobble boards, planks, etc. The handlers will need to give the dogs many treats and lots of toy play to establish a high rate of reinforcement to work with objects as they begin to build a team connection. There will be some amount of time on working on leash in the beginning. That said, the dogs will need previous experience in a social environment, preferably in one of our obedience classes at NOCI. This is for the safety of the dogs. All dogs will have some frequent times in a crate and it would be a great help to all teams to have a soft folding crate in class for dogs to stay in. This class will set dog/handler teams up for success as they progress in agility.

Topics to cover are so many that a complete list is not practical in this description. However, here are some brief examples: Mat work, clicker/marker use, table work, wobble boards, planks, rear end awareness, shaping, targeting, using a high rate of reinforcement, teaching verbal cues, the use of games to bring on object focus as well as handler focus, single bar jumps, tunnels, intro to contacts, 2×2’s/channel weaves and more. The main idea in each of these topics is to allow the dog to think that all the behaviors they are doing are their idea while the handler is influencing it. Having a dog think it’s their idea will help them to proceed with confidence. Some of the objects in agility are so challenging for dogs that if they are pressured, or even lured, they will develop poor skills or outright refuse to perform the necessary skills.

Topics will increase as skills in teams increase. This class is often repeated and participants who stay together will probably find themselves in a hybrid between Foundation agility and Beginner agility.

Class Description:

This class continues the elemental work from the Foundation class and builds on it towards full size equipment. The curriculum will progress with a focus on Distance, Distraction, and Duration of training behaviors that will be built in agility. These are the 3D’s of training a fluid performance in the future. In this class the A-frame will be going upwards towards a full height when dogs are confident as well as the dog walk. Teeter banging and climbing will be built towards performing a complete teeter. Jump work will continue with small skill sets building up towards sequencing. Participants in this class will be directed to add a jump towards weaves and a jump toward contacts and vice versa when teams are ready. Dogs will begin to perform angles towards obstacles and turns upon exits. Handlers will learn to train and perform common sequences to add confidence for the dogs towards doing coursework. Progress in weave-pole training with emphasis on this continuing at home to allow for a confident weaver will be ongoing.

Note, it is difficult to train a dog to weave in a once-a-week class, so it is VERY important for teams to follow up at home or a rental time with this as homework.

Handlers will continue with handling skills on an ongoing basis with importance on connection with the dog, cuing the obstacles, and support of those cues to help the dog with commitment. Obstacle discrimination will be introduced. The handler will learn how to change directions with a post turn, a front cross, a rear cross, and a blind cross is. The handler will begin to learn how and when to perform these handling moves.

Class Description:

This class is for dogs that have confidence on all obstacles in an agility course. The handler also understands all the basics of handling and is ready to put that understanding into sequencing to develop a continuation of skills. The team will be increasing its speed and connection. All obstacle performance will be done at full height level and distractions will be increased. The dogs on channel weave poles may be in the last parts of their training, however, you must complete all weave training by the end of this class to continue on into other levels. Continuing work will be done on obstacle discrimination. The goal of this class is to coach teams towards a performance on full courses that would be found at competition level.

Class Description:

This class is for dog/handler teams that are confident working together on all obstacles found in an agility course. Weave pole training must have been completed. Teams may be starting their journey into competition, in the midst of it, or performing at competition level. This class will be on full courses. There will be a focus on advanced levels of agility techniques and many technical skills will be practiced. There will be emphasis on greater distances and distractions to build commitment with better performance for the dog/hander team. The focus on this class will be to coach teams to be confident in competition. However, there is no requirement to be a competition team.

Class Description:

This class is focused on competition agility teams. Teams should be at or close to the highest levels in competition in any chosen venue. Competition type examples would be: Excellent/Masters AKC, Level 4/5 CPE, USDAA Masters, UKI Senior/Champ, or their equivalent in the modified jump heights. Teams will be working on technical skills such at tight turns, timing on handling, timing on cuing, shortening competition performance time, and training on very technical courses. These courses will be similar to Premier, Biathlon, or Master Series types of courses.