Dog Agility - Growing by Leaps and Bounds

What's the fastest growing dog sport in the USA? Agility! Any dog, even Toy breeds can participate and win. A Havanese took first place at a recent trial (the term for a match or competition) I attended.

Agility is a fast-paced sport where dogs run through a course with obstacles such as tunnels and bridges or jump over hurdles much as a horse steeplechase.

Speed is important but so are control and accuracy. Dogs are scored on how they navigated the course (no faults such as knocking down a pole) as well as how much time it took them to complete the course.

It's fun to watch a Chihuahua leap a hurdle or a Papillon fly through a hoop. I'm one of the dog owners who has fallen in love with this sport for four reasons:

1. It's a perfect way for owner and dog to bond. You have to learn to work together and trust one another to be successful at this sport.

The dog is not wearing a collar or leash. He must respond to the owner/handler's commands without the use of treats or toys to reward performance. Voice commands and body language are the only methods permitted. Owner/handlers are not allowed to touch the dog.

2. It's great exercise for both of you. Until you see a trial, you may not realize how much the owner moves as well as the dog. Generally, any healthy dog can compete and there are Master's or Veteran's trials for senior dogs. Usually, only pregnant dogs and puppies (because their body and bones are fully formed) are ineligible.

3. It's mental stimulation for your dog. Today's dogs, like their owners, are often overweight, lethargic couch potatoes. Learning agility events is a perfect way for your dog to engage his mind and body.

Some of the Agility events are not instinctive behaviors for a dog and require patience and practice to master.

4. Agility events are segmented so that a Chihuahua is not trying to leap over the same size hurdles as a Border Collie does. As you and your dog become more adept, you can move up into more complex courses.

The best way to see if this sport might be right for you and your dog is to watch Agility trials on television, such as on Animal Planet, or attend a live trial in your area. See the resources at the end of this column for websites that list events.

There are two negative aspects to this sport:

1. It requires considerable training (for you both). Your dog must have good obedience skills to begin with and then you train in the movements required on an Agility course.

2. The sport requires its own equipment and course. Although you can practice one or two movements in your backyard, a full Agility course is about 100 foot by 100 foot with a multitude of equipment such as tunnels, dog walk, hurdles, hoops, poles and see saw.

To overcome both problems, I recommend joining a local Agility dog or dog club that offers Agility training. Professional training for you both is required at least in the early stages. See the resources at the end for websites that list various applicable clubs.

There are more than 2,00 trials in the US this year. This is amazing considering that that this sport only began in England in 1978 and that the American Kennel Club (AKC) only started trials in 1994. The growth of this sport speaks well of how much fun it is for dog and owner.

The United States Dog Agility Association allows any dog, purebred or mutt, to compete in its sanctioned events although dogs do have to be registered. The American Kennel Club is based on purebred competitions but does allow non-purebreds to compete provided they have a Indefinite Listing Privilege (ILP) number.

This is great if you adopted a dog from a shelter or don't have registration papers for your dog but want him to compete in AKC events including Agility. It only costs about $35 (as this is written) to obtain an IPL. Get the forms and rules at the AKC website: http://www.akc.org/reg/ilpex.cfm?SEARCH_BUTTON.X=18\&SEARCH_BUTTON.Y=13

For more information, visit the United States Dog Agility Association, Inc. (USDAA),
at http://www.usdaa.com/ or American Kennel Club Agility at http://www.akc.org/events/agility/index.cfm

P.S. Visit http://www.ToyBreeds.com next month for a new edition of the Bone-Mot™.