Agility Clubs In Sydney

[DeltaCharlie]

Due to the abuse she cops whenever she takes Missy for a walk, my sister has given up taking her 14mnth old AmStaff out of the yard. I have been thinking lately about taking her out and doing some training with her. Dad did a basic obedience course with her but she really wasn't too keen on obedience and I would probably get frustrated with her (Ive been spoilt by Border Collies who just do it because it was asked of them). Im keen to try agility with her just for fun, I couldn't see her getting anywhere with it as she is just so gangly and uncoordinated but it would get her out of the house and give her something to do.

This is where the problem comes in. I have been told many times by a trainer at Springwood that AmStaffs have no place in society and should all be destroyed so I really wouldn't enjoy training her there. I also train at Parramatta but there are issues there too. Are there any other places that are a bit more open minded?

I mean who couldn't love this face (even if I did manage to chop off part of her ear)

Edited December 28, 2007 by DeltaCharlie

[Janba]

Hawkebury trains on a Wed night near Windsor (on Northern Rd). There are no amstaffs I have seen there but there are several staffies. Agility Dog Club trains Thurs at Castle Hill.

Is it all the instructors at Springwood or only one? If it is only one I would have a word to the chief istructor (unless she's the one) as an instructor should NEVER voice their breed dislikes.

[DeltaCharlie]

Ive got into a few arguments with her before deciding that it just wasn't worth it. Somehow a comment that Amerykus made one day was brought up "AmStaffs can have trouble because their chests are so deep they knock bars" and the reply was "well she should just teach the dogs how to jump over the bar then, thats just being a lazy handler". There is no doubt in my mind that Charlie has pitty in him but I will never refer to him as anything but a kelpie/cattle when Im around her.

I forgot about Hawkesbury. I knew castle hill was Thursday nights, which happens to be our obedience night, but Wednesdays are a free night at the moment so I might look into that. Mums house would be on the way to hawkesbury from here (Im at Emu Plains and mum is at Werrington) so that might work out well.

Edited December 28, 2007 by DeltaCharlie

[Kobayashi]

So sad to see another gorgeous amstaff being treated unfairly.

Its slightly off topic, but i was walking willow around the corner the other day, and some guy with his border collie looked scared and was about to cross the road. But once i told him she was fine he let his dog come say hi! I think he was suprised at how friendly willow is

Sounds like poor Charlie has been copping it tho For the most part, willow gets TONS of feedback about how cute she is

Willow runs into doors and door frames, i would hate to see her try agility, lol

Edited December 28, 2007 by Kobayashi

[Maverick]

I know of a lovely lady who does agility with her Amstaff.. She competes and her dog is lovely. She does tend to keep her bitch away from the others due to ignorance but as far as I am aware, she has not had any problems at trials.

Is the instructor at Springwood an agility person ? If so, could you please pm me

[Amerykus]

Hi Delta Charlie

Id LOVE to know who at springwood treated you this way, I Took BOTH my Amstaffs out to the Springwood club and found them to be LOVELY!!?? I didnt re-join the club only because they train late at night and i have to be up early for work!

I too went out to the Castle hill Club they were, OK , but its far too busy and i found you just didnt get ENOUGH training.

I beleve the Mainly Club has 2 of the GREATEST Instructors ( Eddy & Ash are just Legends ) There is the Hawkesbury club who train on Wednesday nights, just makes sure your dog can and will be under 100% control

Im not a memeber of any club at present, I get Private lessons , it suits me better.

Make sure you have a well behaved dog, some people will just NEVER accept the breed regardless, One of my girls is ONE pass away from Masters... and there are people who STILL give her that LOOK... I guess she just needs to keep going out there and proving.. ANYTHING YOUR BREED CAN DO.. AMSTAFFS CAN DO IT BETTER !!!!!!

[Amerykus]

I know of a lovely lady who does agility with her Amstaff.. She competes and her dog is lovely. She does tend to keep her bitch away from the others due to ignorance but as far as I am aware, she has not had any problems at trials.

Is the instructor at Springwood an agility person ? If so, could you please pm me ;)

HI Holly!!!!

Holly's partner Eddy ( daddy cool ) is one of the BEST guys around at any Agility trail in NSW, he always takes time out to say HI ,he is always happy to answer any questions and gives GREAT tips and advice... WE LOVE YOU EDDY

[sidoney]

IMO the main thing is that the dog is well behaved around other dogs.

I remember a staffy that used to take off frequently and bite other dogs - this was very BAD representation for the breed. I think that the person was asked to leave, as they didn't address the issue.

If your dog is well behaved and under control then I can't see that there should be problems.

[DeltaCharlie]

Maverick I know you will know who I am referring to but I really dont want to identify people as she is a lovely person she just doesn't like certain breeds. I would hate for this to get back to her as it would be taken the wrong way. Im very involved in the club and I know from numerous discussions that alot of people there are not educated enough to understand the AST issue, she is just the most outspoken one. There were a few trainers with AmStaffs but they are no longer there.

One of the christmas cracker jokes at our obedience party:

What has 4 legs and an arm?

A happy pitbull

They thought it was great and it led to a discussion about how AmStaffs should be banned aswell as essentially they are just a pitbull with a different name, it doesn't make them any less dangerous. I thought these people were supposed to like dogs?

I spoke to Parramatta when I was at flyball tonight and they suggested doing my own private training while the classes are going on. I know enough to do the foundation work for her and it might be a good way to get her used to the distractions and allow others to get used to her being around. Apparently they have had a few bad experiences recently so many people are wary. It might be my best option at the moment. I don't want to force her upon anyone who isn't prepared to accept her but I still think she deserves the opportunity to train. I am happy to keep her onlead at a distance so that people can approach me if they are comfortable.

Until 6 months ago Springwood was great. The new committee is not as inclusive unfortunately and I will admit that there were a few comments made when Montana was spotted on the list for our recent trial . As Missy is only a few weeks older than Delta I used to take both puppies up to agility every week for socialisation and nobody had a problem with her. A few eyebrows were raised when dad took her to obedience but they relaxed a little when they realised he was with me as they trust my judgement. Only a few would let her sniff their dogs though. Yet the dog I had until early this year had to be muzzled for agility and everyone still tried to bring their dogs over to play. Makes no sense to me. Especially since the only dogs he had no issues with right from the word go were Phoenix and a staffie x Amstaff from obedience. What does that say about these "aggressive dogs"?

Its a shame because she really is the sweetest dog. I have said right from the start that I would take her personality and stick it any of my dogs without a moments hesitation at which people usually give me a strange look. My sister took her and her brother off a guy who had been trying to teach them to fight when they were about 11 weeks old. Her friend kept the male and Shai took the female. So not only were they poorly bred by some idiot they also have no pedigree papers to fall back on if there is ever an issue. Thats the other reason why I want to be so incredibly careful with her. The consequences are too high.

[Poodle wrangler]

Good luck in your search.

I joined a club where on rego. night the lady collecting money said, "Poodles? I'm the only one here who likes poodles!".

This is a breed that does well in agility and obedience, too.

At least I seldom get the "OMG it's a killer" ignorant reaction. But is was clear some trainers didn't like my breed of dog.

Doesn't make you feel good when you're having a bad day. Much worse for you- I can imagine what's said and you have BSL to contend with, while I'm just "uncool".

[Maverick]

Hiya Amerykus! Thanks for the big pat on the back for Eddy, I am sure he will be touched.

Manly trains on Saturday mornings and I think Hawkesbury are fairly liberal minded. Private lessons are good. I know Le and Keith do lessons at St Ives on Tuesday and Friday mornings.

Deltacharlie - I am pretty sure I know who you are talking about. Seems strange that she is so against certain breeds when she is a strong supporter of DD's....

[DeltaCharlie]

Well as an update (or possibly off on a tangent) I went round there the other day to borrow a foam mattress from mum and noticed she had attached chicken wire to the top of the fence. It seems Missy has realised she can clear the 6+ foot fence and visit the neighbours. Mum said that when she did it they took her over to my aunts property at Londonderry while they rigged something up. The little girl who has recently moved in next door was attacked by a dog a few years ago so Missy visiting them scared the living daylights out of her parents (the little girl was happily playing with Missy however). My aunt works in the dementia ward of one of the nursing homes around here and commented on how great her temperament was and how she walked into my uncle's room (just got out of hospital, stuck in bed for now) to find Missy sitting next to him licking his hand while he talked to her. She asked mum to consider training her as a therapy dog. The dogs that come to her work are trained through the Delta Society but thats about all I know. Does anyone know any more about the training involved? I know a few dogs that do therapy work through them but I wont see them again until feb and will probably forget by then.

Yes, I was rather shocked by the opinions of alot of the trainers. I think I shocked them aswell when they saw how deadly serious and passionate about it I was. Im such an incredibly happy-go-lucky person that I don't think people thought I could get annoyed about anything. The first comment made took me back a bit but I was really shocked by the fact that she wouldn't budge at all and fought me on every single comment I made. By the end it was just getting ridiculous and I almost wanted to laugh at the responses she made to the points I raised. They weren't even well thought out, they were just put-downs like the comment about lazy handling. On another day I tried the approach of "if a labrador was kept in a cage all its life with minimal human contact, never allowed to see kids, and never allowed out of the yard without a lead and muzzle what do you think it would do when the chance presented itself for the dog to escape and run down the street, only to see a little person making high pitch noises and moving erratically?" Didn't work, and I was shot down for suggesting a labrador could be anything but friendly

I think some people just aren't prepared to consider things with an open mind. One of the trainers does some sort of work for that department of the council (or something along those lines Im not 100% sure) so I can understand where her thinking has come from and it would be ingrained in there from her job. Some of the others have had bad experiences 20 years ago and held onto their feelings towards certain breeds. Others just don't seem to want to consider anything different.

On a slightly more "on topic" note. I took Missy down to the park to see how much training she had retained in her few months of doing nothing. She was beautiful for me and was quite happy to work just for the attention. For a food loving dog, the fact that she ignored my VERY yummy treats for a pat was surprising. I took her down to the offleash area for a swim and to test her a little more. I kept a 15m tracking lead on her but I don't she ever made it far enough away from me to even pull it tight. She came flying in whenever I called her, no matter what she was investigating or chasing at the time so it looks promising. Ive still got a month before training resumes to turn her into a superstar! I plan on working with her around the distractions without actually being in a class until people get used to her anyway. We saw lots of people walking along the tracks and she was happy to sit for pats from everyone. Didn't see any dogs though.

[Amerykus]

I Look forward to seeing you and your dog ( although I dont know who you are at all! ) at trials around Sydney...

we had our first comp back on Tuesady.. Montana got a qualie in Excellent jumping AND

Phoenix made her first debut out since she came into season in august, was Ai'd in September,whelped in November and raised puppies thru december and she did REALLY well, did EVERYTHING i asked her to do... would have qualied had I gave her the right directions!!

[DeltaCharlie]

I Look forward to seeing you and your dog ( although I dont know who you are at all! ) at trials around Sydney...

we had our first comp back on Tuesady.. Montana got a qualie in Excellent jumping AND

Phoenix made her first debut out since she came into season in august, was Ai'd in September,whelped in November and raised puppies thru december and she did REALLY well, did EVERYTHING i asked her to do... would have qualied had I gave her the right directions!!

Haha that sounds like me with poor Delta. Its a good thing she sits and watches the other dogs before her. I dont know how many times I have got annoyed that she didn't go where I wanted her to then realised she had it right and I had it wrong! The poor thing has learnt to jump horizontally because my signals are really late when I am lost

I wont be around the circuits just yet, Ive got newish dogs at the moment. The one that was ready to compete (Cody) was hit by a car last year, Delta is only 14mnths old and Charlie wont go back to agility until his flyball is 100%.

Don't feel bad lol. You are easy to remember- the only one with AmStaffs. I am just one of a billion competitors out there with border collies and similar mixes

[Kavik]

I've seen Amstaffs at the Agility Dog Club of NSW. They train at Castle Hill Showground on a Thursday evening. You will want your dog to be pretty bombproof around other dogs to go there though, it is VERY busy and crowded, and dogs do run off course and do zoomies around and come in other dog's faces. A good recall is also obviously important.

I am not taking Kaos back there until I am more confident in how he will handle the crowds. He has been good at trials etc lately, has improved a lot since seeing K9 Force and I haven't tried taking him in a while.