Again, no runs the first night. It has foundations the first two classes. Also, Art will not trial. I will not trial with Art. That's that pretty much as far as I'm concerned.
A few things stand out to me...
#1 - 2 nights of foundations before you do what? Run sequences? If that's all the prep work they're going to give you, why not just buy some pvc and do jumps in your yard for free? Getting the dog to go over equipment isn't that difficult.
#2 - We poll our agility students at each level with "Do you have plans to compete?" At the first class, on average 1 out of ever 20 students says yes. The other 19 are adamant that it's just for fun, they're just exploring, etc. Yet 75% of students come back for level 2. And the majority of them come back for level 3. And by the time they get to level 4, about 80% of students say they now are planning to try going to a trial one day.
You may never want to leave your backyard, and that's okay--but if you one day change your mind, it'd be nice not to have to fix anything.
#3 - You're talking about doing it the "proper" (can't think of the right word) way with the next dog. Honestly, agility is probably 2/3 handler, 1/3 dog. If you learn how to do things properly with Art, you'll have a much easier go of it with your next dog. You won't have any bad habits to retrain in yourself, you'll know the exercises to do with the dog the moment you bring it home to get it acclimated, etc.
I took classes at a great place for around a year, before one session I couldn't get in because I waited too long and everything was full. I signed up with another place in town, where all the instructors are experienced, titled competitors. It was still a disaster. I went to one class before I quit, lost my $180, and never went back. It was the little things like, "Wow, your dog is really fast, you should slow her down and perfect the technique, then build back up speed." I was grateful that I knew that was ridiculous advice, or I might have listened and killed some of Lucy's drive and ruined the next dog that I get. I paid for privates for the next 2 months until classes were available at the good place again. Expensive mistake.
As for the 8 month time line...we've been training for THREE YEARS. Granted, I have a dog rife with issues (she's reactive, she's ADD, she upstresses like mad, etc), but 8 months is nothing in the training world. In my program, you don't see short sequences (<10 obstacles) until level 5--but that's not to say you never get on equipment! We have introduced the dogs to every obstacle by the end of the first level (7 weeks), just at a very, very slow and gentle level (flattened aframe, wobble boards instead of full teeter, low jumps, chute with the fabric slightly lifted, straight (not curved) tunnels, etc). No one has EVER said "wow, those classes were boring and a waste of time".
Long winded...but the bottom line is that if YOU ever intend to compete with any dog, I wouldn't waste the money on a less than awesome class, or you're going to have to un-teach yourself later. People who "transfer" to my trainer from other programs generally go down 2-3 levels or have to take numerous privates ($$$$$) to fill in the holes in their handling.