The North American Dog Agility Council (NADAC) is promoting a fun new alternative to standard agility called Hoopers. Hoopers uses a sequence of ground-level obstacles called Hoops (think of croquet for dogs) and instead of emphasizing physical dexterity, Hoopers is designed to challenge the ability of the handler and dog working as a team to negotiate the course between hoops using skill and strategy. Hoopers is a great training aid because it can be used to train dogs of any age on basic directional cues. Puppies can run Hoopers before they're old enough to jump and older, retired agility dogs can continue to enjoy Hoopers long after their hips will let them run an agility course. This is the ultimate no-impact obstacle course for dogs.