Go to Cleanrun.com, go to their subscriptions page and read the sample on-line digital edition, go to contents and pg38, "Get-it! Marking and Reinforcing in Motion."
This article describes how to teach a secondary reinforcer for looking ahead. IE. If you use marker training, when you click the dog looks to you for a treat. The article recommends a new word "Get it" that will have the dog looking ahead for the reward (at first a treat, will morph to toys or the next obstacle).
A really easy excersise is barrel turns. Put a chair in a room or yard, walk to it briskly with you dog at heel. Walk by it so closely that your dog must arc away from you to avoid hitting the chair. Mark the moment your dog makes that decision. Eventually your straight line becomes a curve and your dog is running out ahead of you.

There is more to agility than AKC. I run my dog in NADAC and see prong collars all the time and I use them myself. NADAC requires dogs to run naked and I am not aware of any specific collar rules in this venue. NADAC even allows schooling in the ring. They do seem unhappy with more than a mild correction but if your dog needs a harsh correction, it is probably not ready for competition. Based on my experience and what I’ve seen in novice, your dog blowing you off and making you look stupid is par for the course. If you keep watching, someone will mess up more than you. With my dogs, competing is just another part of training.

I don’t think age is as important as some people think it is. I got my agility dog from the shelter when he was about a year old. We started trials about nine months later. Some of the best dogs I see are rescue dogs that do just as well and better than the $1,000 collies some people have had from puppy hood.

Find fun runs and use them. Don’t look at other people if they are going to give you dirty looks. See if you can rent out a field from a trainer to use by yourself. My current work schedule does not all me to attend class, but I still rent the field out every week to practice.

One of my trainers told me once that agility isn’t about the dog, it’s about the relationship you have with your dog. I think a lot of people forget this.