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Agility in the Last Frontier
I have a four year old sable Papillon named Teller. I got Teller when he was two as a rescue. He’s the smartest dog that I have ever worked with. He picked up agility easily, though it took us about a year before he would stop running out of the ring and there were times that I wanted to give up, but with the help of everyone around me I stuck it through and one day it all paid off. This is our second year competing and we are close to getting our Master Jumpers title and we just got our Excellent Standard title. Training and competing in Alaska is full of unexpected twists and
turns. You might be running and have two or three bald eagles circling
overhead. Or during a lunch break have a moose or bear wander on over
for a visit. In the summer you also can have winds that may blow a
little Papillon off the dog walk or mosquitoes that you feel would
eat you alive while you are running the course. But it’s not
all that bad, we have 16-24 hours of trainable sunshine. In the winter
we do have to train indoors and compete in horse barns. We don’t have as many trials as people in the lower 48 have.
In the summer we have one almost every other weekend, but we have
to travel once every other month. There were two Alaskans that were
able to get their MACH titles up here. Just a couple of months ago
a Papillon got her title and last month a Labrador got her title.
I would like to be the first junior handler in Alaska to get my MACH
title. I am hoping that I will be able to get my MACH title before
I leave for college. |
