I began my journey with agility in the year 2000 on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. My husband and I lived in Alaska for 30 years. We moved to Seldovia, Alaska with our family the summer of 1980, a fishing village that could only be accessed by ferry or small airplanes. We had many new experiences coming from the flat farming land of North Dakota to mountains and the ocean and great fishing. We lived in Seldovia for six years and then moved to the main peninsula. We were both school teachers and our jobs and our three daughters kept us very busy until our daughters started graduating from high school and it was at that time that my canine competitive journey began.
The breed I chose to be part of our family in Alaska was the Bouvier des Flanders. There were a couple of breeders in Alaska and what I had researched about them they would be great family Alaskan dogs. I was correct. We ended up with three female Bouviers. Not long after welcoming them in our home I started participating in conformation, tracking, and obedience. Agility finally arrived in Alaska and I added that to my list plus rally. It was a time when dog training evolved and clicker training and positive training was the new trend. Thank goodness that is how I started and what I learned from and continued when training any of my dogs. Our oldest Bouvier, Denali, ended up earning the AKC VCD1 title, the second Bouvier in the country to earn this versatile title. Denali was also invited to the first AKC Agility Invitational that was held in California. We did attend. Denali was a great role model for the breed. All three of our Bouviers did do conformation, obedience, tracking and rally.
Next to join our family in Alaska was a border collie named Trek. Trek was brilliant and fast. Trek also did multiple canine events, but what I fell in love with most was agility, so when possible I spent my time there. I actually traveled out to the west coast a couple of times a year as there were not many agility competitions in Alaska at that time. Trek was High in Trial twice in agility at the Rose City Classic. When we moved to Colorado we added USDAA as one of our other agility venues along with AKC. Since there were so many agility trials, I made agility my main focus. Trek ended up in the finals of multiple regional events winning several of them and in the national finals of USDAA and AKC. His highest placing was 4th place. Trek and I also traveled to AKC world team tryouts several times. We never made the AKC world team, but I never gave up and learned a lot about mental management, toughness, not giving up the dream and continued to push my skills to get better and better.
My love for different breeds continued as Jade, a Belgian Tervuren, joined our family as we left Alaska. Jade qualified for several Cynosport events. Jade taught me a lot about expanding my handling skills, as what worked for my border collie, Trek, didn’t always work for Jade. Jade taught me about blind crosses as she did like me out front and that was the only way I could do that. Jade did not have a high Q rate, but she loved agility, so she taught me to look at the good parts of each run and to celebrate those successes.
Now I currently own All American Smarti Marti, a little black streak that brought me to new adventures. Marti and I became part of three USDAA world teams. We traveled to Italy and the Netherlands. Our third trip did not take place as covid hit that spring and teams have not traveled since. Marti is also a national champion with USDAA in the Steeplechase and the Biathlon event. My youngster is a Mudi, a breed just recognized by the AKC. Mudi Blu was invited to the AKC Invitational in 2021 and he won the hybrid event and took second place in two other events. Both Marti and Blu have qualified for the 2022 AKC agility nationals. All my dogs have taught me many things. Some loved repetition, some said “ I got it after a couple of tries.” I feel strongly that the relationship with your dog is the most important thing you can do and build on from the time they enter your home. The relationship gives you that long term team work with your dog and it helps build that they want to be with you in training and trials. They can handle redoing an obstacle or drill because you have taught them it is fun and they trust you. I believe in letting your dog fly and the handler needs to figure out how to keep up. I am an eclectic handler. I find what works for each individual dog and use that skill to get the best out of our team.
