“I have seen students allow themselves to be intimidated by instructors, either because those instructors have put impressive titles on their own dogs, or because they have a very strong personality, or both. If you go against your gut feelings about your own dog because an instructor wants to fit a square peg into a round hole, you can set your training program months back, or worse.

The right instructor is out there for the CU dog, though he or she may be harder to find than an instructor who has had a lot of success with dogs whose personalities are closer to "bombproof."


If an instructor asks you to do something that you think is wrong for your dog, how ever, don't be so impressed by performance titles that you blindly accept the sugges-tion. With few exceptions, agility instructors are not behaviorists and don't always understand the principles of behavior modification: it's not their job to.”