NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� A crowd is waiting to see you run a labyrinthine obstacle course you have never done before. You have to complete it with enough focus to avoid wrong turns, enough precision to ensure your foot touches certain spots and enough speed to beat dozens of rivals.
Also: You are a dog.
Specifically, you are one of the canine aces in Saturday’s Westminster Kennel Club agility competition, which kicked off the storied club’s .
So how do you do it?
鈥淲e鈥檙e really codependent to each other,鈥� veteran handler Amber McCune said after guiding her border collie Prove-It to a win.
A singleton puppy she bottle-fed, Prove-It has always 鈥渞un with the heart of a lion, just unabashed ambition, but it鈥檚 our bond鈥� that makes a winning team, said McCune, of Bedford, New Hampshire. 鈥淚鈥檓 just so grateful that I can be his person.鈥�
As , Emily Klarman, put it in a recent interview, 鈥淎gility is a big conversation that we鈥檙e having with our dogs.鈥�
The conversation is partly verbal, with handlers yelling such commands as 鈥渢unnel!鈥� and 鈥渏ump!鈥� and dogs sometimes answering with barks of enthusiasm. But communication also happens as handlers place their bodies purposefully, aware that dogs can draw cues from gestures as subtle as the turn of shoulders, and they interpret the animals鈥� own body language to keep them on target.
The breed with the most wins
鈥淚f they’re looking at something, that’s probably what they’re thinking about,鈥� Klarman said before a recent practice session with Swish, a border collie, at the UDog training center in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.
Like a furry rocket, the lean, mottled, 5-year-old navigated jumps, close-set poles, tight turns, narrow ramps, a seesaw and other equipment as though it was in her DNA. To some extent, it is: border collies are renowned for their , intensity and nimbleness, and they have taken more than two-thirds of Westminster’s agility titles. Klarman and her dog Vanish notched one of those winning runs; three others were piloted by UDog’s founders, and .
But regardless of breed, becoming an agility champion takes a lot of training, technique and strategy.
Scores are based on both time and accuracy, with penalty points if, for example, canines bound off seesaws and ramps without setting foot in the end section. To instill that habit, a handler might get the dog accustomed to walking onto a pad on the ground, then put that pad on the end of the obstacle and eventually remove the pad.
Dogs also must master different approaches to jumps, depending on whether they need to turn tightly after landing.
Agility trials don鈥檛 allow for leashes, treats or toys on the course, so dogs need to be motivated by the fun of the game and their relationship with their handlers. And, perhaps, the prospect of a reward afterward. Georgie, a golden retriever, gets a toy stuffed with steak, meatballs or hot dogs, handler Cindy McGovern said while awaiting a run Saturday.
Handlers need to memorize complex pathways through about 20 obstacles. At Westminster, they don’t get maps until the morning of the competition, then have a few minutes to walk the course and ponder, for instance, whether to cross ahead of or behind the dog on various turns.
鈥淚t’s all about giving them the information they need,鈥� handler Lee Ann Donner said between runs with her whippet, Gus.
Besides the mental and physical work, there’s an emotional component. The animals 鈥渃an definitely tell whether we’re really excited and pumped up, or we’re disappointed,鈥� explained Klarman, who was careful not to let her feelings show when Vanish didn鈥檛 excel on a seesaw obstacle in the Westminster finals last year.
What agility added to the Westminster show
Westminster, considered the United States鈥� most illustrious dog show, . The popular sport introduced a faster-paced, more athletic and more all-embracing flavor to the traditional, buttoned-up parading of purebred dogs around rings. Agility is , and won in 2024. She turned in one of the top five performances Saturday.
A papillon-whippet-border collie mix called Iron Man won a special award for top mixed-breed dog with handler Merritt Speagle, who stepped in after owner Carol Boggess sprained a calf muscle last week. Both women are professional agility trainers in the Richmond, Virginia, area.
After watching from ringside, a thankful Boggess said her friend did 鈥渁 phenomenal job. … He’s a lot to handle.鈥�
Klarman, a dog fan since she was a toddler, got into canine sports as a preteen and got a nursing degree before realizing that she wanted to work with dogs as a career. Last year’s Westminster win was a capstone.
鈥淚t really meant so much to showcase her and let the world know how special she is,鈥� recalled Klarman, 33.
This year she was cheering for her boyfriend, Peter Wirth, and his Pembroke Welsh corgi, named Welly. They made the finals at New York鈥檚 Javits Center five years after Wirth took up the sport simply because he had a very energetic dog that needed more stimulating activity than walks and fetch.
Klarman and Vanish stayed home Saturday, for a good reason. The dog’s first litter of puppies is due next week.
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