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Read more of Karen Fishler's dog diary columns  |
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 August 2, 1998 |the active dog
Dogs are athletes, too. On a recent Saturday. a friend took me and my husband to something we'd never seen before: a dog agility competition. The friend was a fellow student at a lengthy writing workshop I was attending in town. She lives in California, and has two dogs that she competes with. A local agility club was putting on the meet, and it became clear right away that dog agility is a clubby sort of activity; people tend to know one another and socialize as well as compete. The spectators, many of whom were also participants, set up pavilion-style tents at the side of the field (the athletic field of a local school) to keep themselves and their dogs cool in the summer sun, which was intense that day. There they sat in their lawn chairs, sipping cold drinks and watching until their turns came to go out on the field, chatting with each other as if they were at a county fair. You're wondering, perhaps, what dog agility is, and I wondered too. This is a sport that dogs and people do at the same time. It's most reminiscent of steeplechase racing, in which a horse and its rider go over a series of fences and other obstacles in a predetermined order. In dog agility, there's also a ring with various obstacles, and the dog takes them in the right order, but of course instead of riding the dog, the person runs the course along with him or her, calling out commands and using hand signals and other body language to let the dog know what to do. There are fences with rails that can be lowered or raised; collapsible tunnels that start with a rigid opening but change immediately to a fabric tunnel made of nylon, in which the dog can't see the exit; rigid tunnels made of corrugated plastic bent in a curve; teeter-totters, which are seesaws the dog has to navigate slowly enough that it is still touching the "yellow" area at the far end when the board first touches down; tables, where the dog has to sit or lie quietly for a specified number of seconds; dog walks, which are made up of long, narrow elevated walkways that the dog reaches and exits via steep ramps at each end; and weave poles, which are set close together in a line that the dog tracks through like a slalom skier, in and out. As in steeplechase racing, knocking down a rail during a jump or failing to take an obstacle correctly results in points being taken off, but time counts, as well. A typical meet contains enough different classes to let both inexperienced dogs and old hands take part, and some rings hold a variety of obstacles , while others are just jumping courses. The judging also takes account of dogs' differing heights, so that dogs that are twelve inches high at the shoulder compete in the same ring with dogs twenty-four inches high. My friend told us that dog agility is getting extremely popular, and I could see why. For dog people, interacting with their dogs is obviously one of the greatest pleasures life has to offer. Agility requires handlers (sometimes the owner isn't the one who runs the course with the dog) to be intensely conscious of how they're communicating with their dogs. Before the runs began, we saw handlers walking the course (dogs aren't allowed on the field until it's their turn to run it), often bending way down to try to experience the course from the same height as their dogs. It's not that the dogs don't make decisions or have moods; my friend reported that one of her two dogs is often reluctant to do certain things, regardless of how she gives commands, and that either of them may sometimes just not be "into it." Still, it became obvious in just a few minutes at this local meet that the cues the dog receives — and when they occurr — are often the difference between running the course successfully or making mistakes. For example, some handlers weren't able to keep up with their dogs, and gave the "Hup!" (for "Jump this fence") or "Tunnel" command as the dog was arriving at the obstacle rather than a split second earlier, when the dog still had time to take it in and act on it. In other cases, several obstacles might be near each other, and if the handler wasn't in the right place, the dog ended up going for the wrong obstacle — one that might have come earlier in the run. The goal is clear communication that helps the dog understand what's coming next and that occurs at the right time and in the right place. This is all very demanding, both physically and mentally, at least for the bipeds. Some handlers huffed and puffed, just trying to keep up, while others were in better shape. Fit or not, they all had to work like polo ponies, running in a short burst to a given obstacle, then stopping (in the right place, of course) to give a command, then running again to the next obstacle, and so on. The dogs looked thrilled, and my friend pointed out that they are privileged animals. So many pet dogs don't get exercised enough, yet the owners of these dogs work with them several times a week, then enter them in meets as well. No wonder they seemed happy. Another thing that struck me was how individual the dogs were, even within breeds. Some golden retrievers were simply slow, while others sped through the course. Breed characteristics also tell, though. The border collies were so fast (and competent) it was tough for even the most in-shape handlers to keep up with them, and they were ready for more when they were done. My friend got into agility several years ago. She started out intending not to devote a lot of time to it, but it's become something of an obsession. So be warned. Interested in incorporating an obsession into your life? There are several agility organizations in the United States. Check them out: The North American Dog Agility Council, the United States Dog Agility Association, and the American Kennel Club. And me? Now that my workshop is done, all my agility is going into looking for a dog. 
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