Canine Athletes Have Their Day

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By Megan Arszman

They’re judged more by the clock than the judge. Their faults are knocked bars, refusals, and off-courses. Teams work for an entire year to qualify, train countless hours over obstacles and on the flat; all to make it the fastest run they’ve ever made for a shot at the title of AKC National Champion.

More than 1,600 dogs came from across the country, including Alaska, to Harrisburg, Pa., to the Pennsylvania Farm Complex and Expo Center March 27-30 to compete for National Championships being awarded in 11 different jump heights. It was the largest National Championships ever for AKC, causing the club to change the schedule by starting the competition a day early (Thursday). Spreading the competition out through four days instead of three was met with some concern, but those who attended felt it offered a more laidback atmosphere.

For three competitors, and newly-crowned National Champions, it was the chance to showcase their love of teammate and the long training hours.

Cassandra Schmidt & NAC Bliss

For Lee’s Summit, Mo., resident Cassandra Schmidt, her eight year agility career hit a high note with not just a National Championship in the 12-inch Regular class with Jib’s Just Happy To Be Here (“Bliss”), but a second place finish in the 16-inch Regular class with her first agility dog, Roxy. “After my finals run with Bliss, I was thrilled, with a little bit of did that really just happen? mixed in,” Schmidt says. “We had done well and everything had gone our way. But before I could celebrate too much, I had to find my other dog, Roxy, and get ready to run her in the 16-inch finals.”

Roxy’s finish was a big surprise to Schmidt: “It was totally unexpected going into Nationals as a 9-year-old Poodle-mix in a class dominated by Border Collies.”

Prior to making the drive to Harrisburg, Schmidt knew the one thing that she needed to work on for both dogs was not really their physical abilities, but her mental game. “I had to re-set my brain from feeling like we might be competitive to knowing that we were competitive,” she explains. “A couple of weeks before our trip to Harrisburg, I designed a little affirmation graphic on my computer with the saying ‘She believed she could so she did’. I realized that no matter how many skills we had, we couldn’t win Nationals if I didn’t think we could.”

“My goals for the NAC were to keep a cool head and to go into each run with a solid plan and not waiver. Beyond that, the outcome was out of my hands. I don’t make it a goal to win an event, because there are so many variables that go into winning that aren’t up to me. But doing our best as a team is completely on my shoulders. I knew if we were consistent, we had a shot at it.”

NAC Bliss is only three years old, so while the pressure of winning a National Championship has already been relieved, Schmidt is already looking forward to a long, successful future with the Poodle. “Having already achieved the NAC sort of takes the pressure off to ‘prove’ anything, and our success at NAC has also boosted my confidence as a handler,” explains Schmidt. “I hope that we will have some international competitions in our future and I hope that we can also be successful on the world stage. She is an extraordinary dog and I want to be the handler she needs to fulfill her potential.”

Wanye Simon & NAC Mearle

Retirement has been good for Wayne Simon. The New York City resident has been doing agility since he retired in 2004, and he’s found a great partner in his rescue Border Collie, Mearle. But it hasn’t been easy. “I was immediately captivated by her looks (smooth coat blue mearle with blue eyes, very unusual for a Border Collie) and sweet disposition. And she was small, which I liked,” Simon says of when he first saw Mearle at Glen Highland Farm, a Border Collie rescue in Morris, New York. “She was not easy to train at first, as she had lots of issues, including fear issues. But with lots of help and patience, she gained more and more confidence. And as time went on, more and more speed. Those who watched me train her know that it was a real struggle for me.”

After battling an iliopsoas injury in 2013, Simon took it easy with Mearle with rehabilitation and recovery. But even with going to agility trials only half as often in 2013, the pair didn’t have any trouble qualifying for the NAC. Going into the NAC, after placing fifth in 2012 for their first Nationals trip, Simon just wanted three clean, fast, qualifying runs. Doing just that, they qualified straight into the Finals round where Simon just wanted to be clean and fast and then just see where the team would end up.

“The 16-inch regular class is highly competitive, with many superb dogs and handlers, so I really didn’t expect to win,” says the 67-year-old. “Yes, I know my friends say I am modest, but I really didn’t expect to win.”

“It doesn’t matter where your dog comes from, or how fast it is; the most important thing in agility is to have fun with your dog and not get mad at it when things do not go the way you expect,” says Simon. “Chances are your dog makes way fewer mistakes than you, the handler, do. And if it’s not a handler mistake, then it is extremely likely that it is a training issue. I have learned to listen to my dog when I run her, both for giving information to her as well as to learn what I need to do to make her a better agility dog. And I believe in training with people who have a philosophy of dog training that works for me, and who know what it takes to have a well-trained agility dog. My other big concern is that we take very good care of our agility dogs. Their well-being should be of paramount concern, not the desire to get another Q.”

Merinda Tiffany & PNAC Porter

Imagine starting your agility career with your Cardigan Welsh Corgi struggling for the first few years jumping at the 12-inch regular division, when your dog barely measured into that jump height. Lexington, Ky., resident Merinda Tiffany and her almost 9-year-old partner PNAC Raconteur Porteur Du Juane (“Porter”) spent many frustrating years battling knocked bars before she decided to move him to 8-inches Preferred. After starting back in Novice, the team moved up into Masters, but still struggled with weave pole issues and a few knocked bars every now and then. It wasn’t until summer 2013 that she was able to get a challenge measurement, which officially moved him down into the 8-inch Regular division and, thus, the 4-inch Preferred division. Once the physical capabilities were matched, the pair became unstoppable.

Team Porter came home empty handed from the NAC last year, so Tiffany’s goals for Harrisburg were easy: “I just wanted one clean run, because last year in Tulsa we never got a single clean run, we just had all kinds of different fails. This year all I wanted was one pretty green ribbon,” explains the full-time engineer and part-time agility instructor.

She did all of that, and more. After a clean run in Jumpers and a placing in Standard, the pair moved on to the Challengers’ Round, where they had to be the fastest, clean run in order to move into the Finals Round. After playing it conservative in Challengers, she moved on to face three other exhibitors in the Finals. “(In Finals) I had absolutely no thoughts. I was afraid if I thought too much, I’d get too nervous. I went into it completely chill,” she says. “I knew we could only do the best we could do, and then it was up to the rest of the dogs to do the best they could do. That’s how we were going to get beat.”

The Challenger winner ended up being the National Champion with a smooth, clean run, completely negating her earlier, simple goal of one clean run. With that win, Porter became the first Cardigan Welsh Corgi to win an AKC National Agility Championship title.

“People kind of knock the 4-inch height a lot, but it was just as tough if he was jumping 8- or 12-inches. He has 6-inch long legs, so jumping is tough,” she points out. “And the competition in the 4-inch division is just as difficult as the rest of the jump heights.”

Everyone’s a Champion

No matter the jump height, or the breed, or the path to how each team got to Harrisburg, just to be there is an accomplishment of its own. Each year the AKC National Agility Championships aren’t just a celebration of champions, but of the team sport that is agility—giving canine athletes their day to shine.

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Posted by Alex on Jul 2 2014. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.