Julie Daniels - Enjoying Dog Agility

Copyright 2008 Kennel Club Books.

First edition published 2001 by Dr. Alvin Grossman.

Second edition 2008.

An Imprint of I-5 Press
A Division of I-5 Publishing, LLC

3 Burroughs, Irvine, CA 92618 USA

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Kennel Club Books, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Daniels, Julie.

Enjoying dog agility / by Julie Daniels. 2nd ed.

p. cm. (Kennel Club pro series)

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59378-661-8

ISBN-10: 1-59378-661-1

eISBN-13: 978-1-59378-997-8

1. DogsAgility trials. 2. DogsTraining. I. Title.

SF425.4.D36 2008

636.7'0888--dc22

2008003345

Printed in Singapore

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acknowledgments

The publisher would like to thank the photographers and owners who contributed photos to this book, including:

Ellen Beris

Scott & Karen Chamberlain

David Dalton

Heather Daniels

Julie Daniels

Joy Elliot

Kendall Fairchild

M. Nicole Fischer Photography

Isabelle Francais

Lisanne Major

SevCo Photography

Sportphotography.ca

Stewart Event Images

Richard Straw

Karen Taylor

United States Dog Agility Association

Gary Wrotnowski

Joyce Yaccarino

Contents

This book is dedicated to
Jessy, the unlikely agility dog
who wouldnt settle for less
than all-out effort at
anything. When Jessy chose
agility, our fate was sealed.
She chose her friends
carefully, stuck with them
for life and made them live
it to the fullest. I couldnt
have asked for more.

Introduction: The FUNdamentals

This book is for helping you learn and enjoy the first-order basics of dog agility training, the FUNdamentals. Agility training begins as simple confidence-building exercises with downscaled obstacles. My way is to separate the elements of difficulty involved on each obstacle and to enjoy each skill conceptually rather than perfunctorily. When the skills are put together this way, the dog doesnt just tolerate the obstacle, he loves it and feels great pride in performing it. This is a wonderful start to a long and successful competition career, to be sure, but that enjoyment and pride also transfer readily to the dogs everyday life even if competition is not for you. At any level, this sport invites you to develop a closer bond with your dog than you may ever have imagined.

Like many sports, dog agility is open to anyone who wants to participate. From the moment you decide that you would enjoy running around a large obstacle course to direct your dog over, under, around and through various challenges that you have learned together, think of agility as a team sport. This book is for helping you learn the joys and requirements of the sport and for helping you nurture that same combination of fun, athletics and teamwork in your canine partner.

S ECTION I

THIS
IS
AGILITY

CHAPTER

A Contest of Fun

Welcome to an exciting young sport begun in England as an extra mode of entertainment to fill time between events at the world-famous Crufts International Dog Show in 1978. Named dog agility, the event was such a hit with the spectators and the participants that a new dog sport was born.

With agility theres a whole new possibility for fun and teamwork with your dog. A fine agility course is an impressive and irresistible sight; it looks like a super-playground for dogs. The colors are vivid, bright and shining; the hefty equipment just calls out for playtime, and theres plenty of room for you and all your friends. The fast-paced action of agility seems to draw spectators from out of the woodwork. Audiences seem to run the course vicariously as the dogs tear around the field, working the course with tails wagging and muscles rippling. The handlers have the job of directing their dogs and helping them do well, but it is certainly the dogs that are in the limelight during competition.

Money will buy a pretty good dog, but it wont buy the wag of his tail.

Josh Billings

Dog agility thrived as a sport in England due to the hard work and dedication of several key players and training organizations. Needless to say, many people contributed a great deal of time and effort to building equipment, instructing newcomers and bringing the sport to new locations. For every person who appears in the spotlight, dozens more have worked hard behind the scenes. Thanks must be given to all these people and to their unified goal of developing agility as an athletic sport with the emphasis on fun. Due to their efforts, agility now has such a large following around the world that it draws capacity crowds of competitors and spectators.

Over the last few decades, many variations of the sport have sprung up; some of them, in Europe and in the US, are quite far removed from agilitys original intent and guidelines. Like any new sport, agility is vulnerable to different interpretations from different people; fortunately, international standards are now being adopted. This is the sensible thing to do, as it will ensure that the sport enjoys recognized international terminology and a consensus of interpretation as worldwide competitions become more popular.

AGILITY IN THE US: A VERY BRIEF HISTORY