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Agility is a fast growing sport in which dog owners
(also called handlers) train and compete with their dogs to run a timed obstacle course
directing the dogs with just voice and hand signals. Originally loosely modeled on horse
stadium jumpers competitions, agility has evolved its own additional obstacles, scoring
systems and performance ideals. Agility made its debut as an entertainment for spectators
at the Crufts Dog Show in 1979; it has since become the most rapidly growing dog sport in
England, Western Europe and North America. Spectators continue to get caught up watching
the dog and handler's enthusiasm in their athletic race against the clock. Warning: It has
been found that watching agility competitions can be addicting and before long spectators
say to themselves "My dog can do that!" Then the downward spiral begins with
agility classes and eventual placement of agility equipment in the backyard.
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| There are several obstacles common to all the different organizations:
These obstacles used in agility have been designed with both safety and spectator appeal in mind. All jumps must have easily displaceable bars so that the dog should not experience injury should it take down a jump bar. Any obstacle that the dog must physically scale will have yellow ‘contact' zones painted on the equipment. This indicates safety zones which enforce safe training and handling techniques since handlers know that dogs will be faulted unless one or more feet are in the contact zones when ascending/descending these contact obstacles. All contact equipment surfaces are roughened for good traction in both dry and wet weather. In competition, the obstacles are arranged in various course designs created by the judge officially that day. These courses are always unique from trial to trial, and offer levels of challenges appropriate to the class and experience level of the dogs competing. The handler must direct their dog around the course in the sequence indicated in the fastest and faultless manner possible. At the entry levels of competitions, courses contain few complications and are more of a test to prove the dog can competently perform the equipment within a reasonable amount of time. As the dog and handler earn their way into successively higher levels, the courses increase in complexity and begin to require split second timing and coordination between the handler and dog in order to accomplish the course within the time established by the judge. The rules are fairly simple; handlers may give an unlimited number of commands or signals to their dogs, but may not touch either the equipment or the dog. Dogs are 'faulted' for actions such as taking down a jump bar, failing to put one or more feet in the safety or contact zone when ascending/descending contact equipment, taking obstacles out of sequence, and running past or stopping before the next obstacle to be performed. Time penalties are additionally assessed against dogs that exceed the time set by the judge Dogs compete only against dogs of similar height at the shoulders, within a fixed number of jump height divisions. The number of height divisions and the ranges of dog heights assigned to a height division differ from organization to organization. Regardless of the organization, the dog with the lowest number of faults and the fastest time wins the class or height division. The largest national organizations are as follows:
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PAWSitive Impact Agility was formed in October 1996 when Linda Cole and Penny Winegartner grew frustrated with "dog club politics" and wanted to get back to just having fun with their own dogs. To their surprise they weren’t alone and five other agility enthusiast immediately joined them in training in Linda and Penny’s backyard. Over the next year classes word of mouth caused the classes to grow in frequencies and numbers until training in a back yard was out of the question. A training site was found and PAWSitive Impact Agility began hosting agility trials in addition to teaching agility fun.
Realizing that some students want to be among the top agility competitors while others just want to play agility with their dogs in their backyard PAWSitive Impact welcomes all. While teaching the skills needed for the highest level of agility competition PAWSitive Impact Agility never requires competition from their students to maintain their slot in a class.
PAWSitive Impact Agility has been set up to minimize the "politics" and is not a club -- it is a training center. Active students and instructors are consulted and asked for input about PAWSitive Impact activities on a regular basis. PAWSitive Impact Agility has chosen to reward those who help support it with lower class fees (see the class fee schedule), hosted show entry fee reductions, free internal agility seminars and unlimited training time for advanced students.
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Linda Cole is the other co-owner of PAWSitive Impact Agility and teaches agility classes as well as competes in agility events. In her real job, she is a nurse at a hospital in the Texas Medical Center. Linda currently has 3 canine kids, but her first agility dog was LC, an English Springer Spaniel who is now at the Rainbow Bridge. Linda and LC began their agility career together and progressed to the Excellent level in AKC, Open level in NADAC, and Advanced level in USDAA.
Along with L.C. Linda has had 2 male Border Collies, Quigby and Guy, who were both rescues. Quigby had been abused before Linda adopted. Though there were no visible physical scares, the mental & emotional baggage has took time to overcome and they dabbled in obedience more than agility. Guy was also rescued from an abusive home. Linda began agility competition with Guy after LC’s retirement. Linda and Guy progressed to the Open level in AKC & NADAC and Novice level in USDAA. Guy was much happier however being a couch potatoe so a loving home was found for him where he could lounge to his heart's content. Linda’s next agility partner was Zane, a Belgian Malinois. He is was a delight to train and compete with. Linda and Zane have earned several titles in various agility venues. Zane is now retired at 10 years old and Linda is working on the training of her next two agility dogs, Sage and Blue, both Belgian Malinois.
Each of her dogs have trained Linda in different ways: LC has taught her how to motivate, Quigby has taught her how to help heal, Guy has taught her not to accept second rate behavior when the dog is capable of more. Zane has taught her how to communicate in training a dog. He is a thinker and has to understand--Linda learned how to explain things to him so that he then goes out and does what is asked of him. Sage has confidence issues so Linda is working with giving Sage some coping skills. Blue, her youngest, is patiently waiting for Linda to find time to start his serious agility training. He has the basics, but has been spending more time in the AKC breed competition rings to date.
As with the other instructors of PAWSitive Impact Agility, Linda keeps current on agility, training techniques, canine health and conditioning through workshops, seminars, and reading materials.
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Penny
Winegartner
A native and resident of Houston, Texas, Penny Winegartner is
a self-confessed Agility-aholic. In 1990 not knowing how dangerously addicting agility was
she sat down and watched agility while attending a dog show. As dog after dog sailed over
and through jumps and other unknown obstacles Penny just knew that her dog could do that.
As soon as the event was over she signed up for classes. This was the beginning of
Penny’s agility addition. The downward spiral soon begun in earnest.
Penny’s first agility dog was an English Springer Spaniel, Shadoe, who loved agility at home, but did not like working before crowds. So this duo didn’t go very far in the agility world. In 1992, Amy, a Border Collie puppy, picked Penny as her agility handler and this team started competition in 1994. This duo achieved success on both the regional and national levels, but had an early end. Health problems necessitated early retirement for Amy at the young age of 3½ years old, just short of their USDAA Masters Agility Dog title. In the spring of 1997 Penny started lightly competing with Dare (Moonquest’s Daretu), a Belgian Malinois. Since then Dare and Penny earned more than 20 agility titles in four different agility organizations. Penny's next dog was Cris, also a Belgain Malinois who taught Penny what a real drive agility dog was all about! Cris' agility career was limited by Penny's judging and trial hosting schedule and should have had more agility titles than she does, but since all Cris cared was about playing agility the titles didn't matter to her! Dare and Cris are both retired from agility at the respective ages of 12 and 10 years old. The next generation of agility dogs for Penny is one that she created through a carefully thought out breeding program for MPACT Malinois (www.mpactmalinois.com). Cris' offspring include Barbie, Blue (Linda's youngest boy) and Bets. Barbie is ready for her final polish to her obstical training and Bets is get getting started on the basics.
Penny is owned by Amy, the Border Collie (who isn't gone, but gone ahead to the Rainbow Bridge) and Belgian Malinois: Dare, Cris, Charisma, Barbie, Nash, Bets, Turk, Emma, English Cocker - Mardi and of course Shadoe, the English Springer Spaniel and Corsair the Belgian Malinois are waiting at the Rainbow Bridge..
Co-owner and founder of PAWSitive Impact Agility of Houston, Penny teaches agility, has been an agility judge for five different agility organizations and presents agility seminars on an international basis. In 1996, Penny assisted Dr. Chris Zink, D.V.M., Ph.D. (author of "Peak Performance: Coaching the Canine Athlete" and Julie Daniels (author of "Enjoying Dog Agility – From Backyard to Competition") in editing and designing their book "Jumping A to Z – Teach Your Dog To Soar". While all the above keeps Penny extremely busy she also tries to find time to train her dogs in obedience, tracking, herding and showing in the AKC Breed Ring. Now retired from agility judging Penny hopes to find more time to train and show her own dogs!
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