I have never been in the ring with Douglas. I worked with a retired agility dog one time but because of age he just sort of bumbled along as fast as his oldness could through the tunnels and such.

I have watched agility though. I really want to do it but I feel like normal training needs to happen first so that is what I am doing.

You might be surprised, you don't need a super obedient dog to start agility and you might find doing the two together helps you out. I started my puppy with a agility foundation class (no contacts, low impact and just skill building) at 14 weeks. You can start full contact and such once they are done growing and muscles are mature at a year. It is a lot of fun- you will love it.

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Yup, my 6 month old has been doing "sport foundation" since 3 months. She has contacts, sit/down on the table, she does a lowered dogwalk & A-Frame, tippy board, tunnels & chutes... No weaves or jumps right now. A good sport class will help you learn THE BEST obedience! Nothing like rocketing recalls at the park because you've learned how to work properly with your dog's drives!

Susan Garrett's stuff certainly does look better than the NDT guy, so thanks! I was looking at NDT and similar approaches because although I know chis aren't meant to have a high "drive", Edie loves to tug, wrestle and chase even more than she loves to eat. She gets distracted by her toys even during dinner! I wanted to find a training approach that didn't think playfighting was wrong and didn't subscribe to unscientific junk about "dominance".

Plus because Edie's so big (relatively speaking!) and smart, I'd love to start doing agility with her.

Edie sounds like she will be a great candidate for Susan's approach, and agility!

I can recommend Susan's book "Shaping Success" hands down. It is like a roadmap for raising an agility puppy. And her video "Crate Games" is great too. We use Crate Games at home, and in sport foundation class. If you ever plan to do a seminar or camp with Susan, Crate Games will most likely be a prerequisite.

I haven't done her online "Puppy Peaks" or her "Recallers" courses but I have hears nothing but good things from those who have, and since she isn't local to you this may be the closest you'll get to actually doing a seminar or camp. Definitely worth the investment, from what I have heard.

Susan is occasionally in the UK to compete, and sometimes holds seminars there I think. She also works closely with Greg Derrett and he and Laura are FOR SURE in the UK a lot. Greg has a series of fantastic videos out too.

Lastly, once you have your foundation down, check out Susan Salo (for her jumping specialty) and Silvia Trkman (for her running contacts and cik & cap) and you're off to a very well rounded Agility education with Edie.

Good luck!