Hoopers is one of the fastest growing UK Dog sports. Dogs run through hoops and tunnels and around barrels making this a low impact sport for dogs. Dogs who have retired from agility can still do Hoopers as it is a low impact sport for dogs so less stress on the joints and it will certainly improve your distance handling which means it is great for all handlers and their abilities. The dogs can be large, medium or small and any age (minimum of 5 months and fully vaccinated, there is no upper age limit). New and experienced dogs are welcome. Places must be pre-booked 

Classes are held at Steeple Aston on Saturday afternoon from 1:30pm. All dogs must be at least 5 months old. 

On Sunday 24th October 2021 we ran an Introduction to Hoopers workshop at Westfield Stables, Steeple Aston. We were lucky with the weather as it was dry. In the beginners class, we had 6 new handlers and their dogs being taught the basics for Hoopers using the Hooperholics method of training. We taught the dogs to run through the hoops so they develop Hoop awareness, to run around the barrels and to be able to do right and left turns. The barrels are used to 'smooth' out the Hooper courses so there is no stress on the dogs joints. Hoopers is very good for dogs who are too young to start agility or to old to do agility. It enables the dogs to be able to use their brains and you learn that you become a team rather than handler and dog. The second class was for those dogs that have already done some Hoopers. In this workshop we ran courses with various new training techniques e.g. working the dogs at a distance and not running with the dogs. Once again all the dogs did brilliantly and were very tired at the end of the session. I am so sorry but I was so busy that I didn't have time to take any photo's but have loaded some from another workshop so you can see what we did.

Thanks must go to Jonathan and Rosemary who were a great help on the day.