From Agility to Tricks: A Trainer Explains Which Sport Suits Your Dog (and Where to Train)
By Anniina Gowen, Eazy Dog Training
“Could my dog do that?”
I get asked this constantly, usually by someone who's just watched an agility run and decided their dog isn't that sort of dog. Nine times out of ten they're wrong, because they're asking about breed when the answer is mostly temperament and effort.
My first two dogs were Elmer, a Coton de Tuléar, and Temppu, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, and I competed in obedience with both, not what people picture in a trial ring. These days I have two Border Collies, Sansa, nine, and Leeloo, six, which is admittedly the easy setting. Between us we've done obedience, agility, nosework and tricks.
What you need before you start
Less than you'd think, and it depends where you begin. Starting at home asks almost nothing: a bit of floor, some treats, ten minutes. A club asks more: basic obedience goes a long way on a busy training ground, and the busier the club, the more it matters.
Engagement is the real prerequisite, and the one people skip.
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| Focused heelwork during a Rally run |
If your dog ignores you completely on walks and at the park, no class will fix that in a term, but it isn't a character flaw and it isn't permanent. Build engagement at home first, where you're the most interesting thing in the room.
Once your dog is genuinely choosing to work with you there, add distractions in small increments: the backyard, the quiet end of the street, a park at 7am, a park at lunchtime. Each step only when the last is easy. Most people jump from loungeroom to dog park and conclude their dog can't do it.
Recall matters outdoors, and needn't be perfect. If you're not there yet, use a long lead. You can train the behaviour you want without gambling on whether your dog comes back. Bring better food than you think you need, too: high-value treats aren't cheating, they're how you compete with a park full of smells. Chicken goes a long way.
Temperament decides this, not breed
The trait that predicts how far a dog will go isn't drive or speed. It's whether they want to work with you: whether they check in, offer things, find working together rewarding. That's built at home, long before anyone sees you.
✅ Eager to work with you? Rally and tricks will suit, whatever your dog looks like. Both reward engagement over athleticism.
✅ Runs hot, can't switch off? Rally. Agility pours petrol on what's already there; Rally teaches a dog to think while moving.
✅ Loves a puzzle but isn't fast? Tricks, then Rally. Speed counts for nothing in either.
✅ Confident, bold, loves to run? Agility: the dog who meets a wobbling plank or dark tunnel and thinks what's this then.
✅ Anxious or reactive? Start at home and stay there a while. Both can do beautifully at this, introduced gently and at their own speed. No group class suits these dogs, club or private: an anxious dog can't learn while worried, a reactive one can't learn while over threshold, and a smaller group doesn't change that. Use online training at home, work on the anxiety or reactivity itself alongside it, and leave classes until your dog can take something in.
Keep an anxious dog away from agility especially: tunnels are enclosed, a dog walk is high and shifts underfoot, and the whole thing clatters.
Age changes how you train, not whether you can. Puppies have short attention spans and growing bodies, so keep sessions brief and impact low; older dogs need gentle movement and a proper warm-up. Neither is a reason not to start.
Build is what might rule a sport out. A long-backed, very heavy, short-legged or flat-faced dog isn't a candidate for repeated jumping and tight turns. That's structure, not failure, and those dogs are terrific at Rally and tricks.
Rally Obedience
A mix of agility, tricks and obedience, performed at heel around a timed course of numbered signs, each asking for something small: a sit, a turn, a change of pace, a piece of heelwork.
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| Anniina’s Border Collies, Sansa and Leeloo, celebrating their Rally Advanced trial sashes and trophies. |
It's my sport because you can talk to your dog the whole way round, and both hand signals and verbal cues are allowed, far more forgiving than formal obedience. It feels like a conversation rather than a performance, and when things go sideways you can talk your dog back to you. Novice is on lead; dogs can compete from six months.
- Starting out: any decent obedience class teaches the basics Rally is built on: heeling, position changes, turns. Print the signs from the Dogs Australia rules and walk a course in your park. Shanelle Corben's YouTube series demonstrates every ANKC sign; the Pocket Rally and My Rally Coach apps are good for drilling, though both use American signs, which differ from ours.
Agility
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| Agility is all about speed and joy—foundations can start at home before moving onto equipment like tire jumps. |
Jumps, tunnels, weave poles, an A-frame and a dog walk against the clock, with jump heights set by your dog's height at the shoulder. Nobody asks a Corgi to do a Border Collie's job.
It's a sport for two, and that's what people miss from the fence: the dog doesn't know the course. Nobody does until the handlers walk it beforehand, without their dogs. Getting your dog round in the right order is your job: position, shoulders, timing. A fast dog with a lost handler runs a beautiful wrong course.
What I love isn't the results, it's the joy, watching your dog take that much pleasure in the sheer running and jumping. Sansa is nine and still adores it to the point that holding her at the start line is a negotiation.
You never have to guess whether a dog is enjoying agility. They tell you.
- Starting out: foundations are handling, focus and body awareness. None of it needs a jump, and OneMind Dogs runs an online program you can do in a backyard. Begin around eight months once joints are developed; competition starts at 18 months, because growth plates close between 12 and 18 months and jumping before then is a real risk.
Trick Dog
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| Tricks are the easiest sport to start: 10 minutes a day at home & you choose the ones that suit your dog. |
A titled Dogs Australia event since 2020. At Starter you demonstrate six tricks from a list of seventeen, rising to ten from twenty-nine at Advanced.
It suits every dog, because you choose the tricks, building a routine from what your dog can comfortably do rather than forcing a fixed set. A stiff old dog, a puppy who mustn't jump, a tiny one: each is shown to advantage by a different selection.
It's unusually kind to beginners, too: you can reward inside the ring. At Starter through Intermediate there's a reward station where you give food or a silent toy after a trick, so your dog gets paid for working in a strange place.
I love it because I love watching my dogs learn. There's a moment when a dog works out what you've been asking for. You can see it land. And it's pure joy, for them and me.
- Starting out: ten minutes a day at home, and YouTube is full of free tutorials. Get the trick list from the Dogs Australia rules, then do a workshop: how most people get their first tests signed off.
Where to start in NSW
Local clubs are volunteer-run and affordable. Budget around $100 a year and up. Private businesses, including Eazy Dog Training, K9Fun and Pawsitive Vibe Fitness, cost more for smaller groups and a quieter space. To trial you'll need DOGS NSW membership; crossbreeds are welcome via the Associate or Sporting Register.
WHERE TO TRAIN IN SYDNEY
Clubs are volunteer-run and timetables change. Check the website before you turn up.
- Sydney All Breeds Dog Training Club – St Lukes Park, Concord (Obedience)
- Leichhardt Dog Training Club – Hawthorne Canal Reserve (Obedience)
- St George Dog Training Club – Cahill Park, Wolli Creek (Obedience)
- Eastern Suburbs Dog Training Club – Centennial Park (Obedience, tricks + Rally)
- Manly & District (Northern Beaches Dog Training) – Deep Creek Reserve, Narrabeen (Obedience, agility, flyball)
- Northern Suburbs Dog Training Club – St Ives Showground (Obedience, agility)
- Sutherland Shire Dog Training Club – Waratah Sports Fields, Sutherland (Obedience, Rally, agility, Trick Dog)
- The Agility Dog Club of NSW – Castle Hill Showground (Agility only)
- Hills Dog Club – Castle Hill Showground (Obedience, Rally, tricks)
- Blacktown Kennel and Training Club – Glendenning (Obedience, monthly Rally)
- Penrith Kennel and Obedience Club – Orchard Hills (Obedience)
- Macarthur Dog Training Club – Clark Reserve, Kearns (Obedience)
Private classes: Eazy Dog Training, K9Fun and Pawsitive Vibe Fitness run dog sports classes in smaller groups across Sydney.
From home: OneMind Dogs for agility foundations. Shanelle Corben's YouTube series for the ANKC Rally signs. DOGS NSW has a full club finder at dogsnsw.org.au.
So, could your dog do that? Almost certainly. Pick the sport that fits the dog you actually have, start at home tonight with ten minutes and something worth working for, and build from there. That's how every dog I've competed with started, the lapdog included.
About the author
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| Anniina Gowen with her Border Collies, Sansa and Leeloo |
Anniina Gowen is the owner and head trainer at Eazy Dog Training, which runs classes in basic training and dog sports across Sydney's Inner West and nearby areas, and specialises in anxious and reactive dogs. She is also a Lead Pet Educator for the Responsible Pet Ownership program in NSW, and competes in Rally Obedience with her Border Collies, Sansa and Leeloo.
Website: eazydogtraining.com | Instagram: @eazydogtrainingsydney | Facebook: facebook.com/eazydogtraining
