Heather Smith
My first performance dog was a cocker spaniel. We competed in obedience, did some tracking and field work. Elizabeth Hezeau was our obedience instructor and when she told me about this obstacle course for dogs, I just had to see what it was all about.
We met at a park in Richardson. Ken(1) kept the equipment stored in his garage. Each Sunday several of us would gather in the service alley behind his house and load as many obstacles as our vans, station wagons and cars could handle. Off we’d go to the park to set it all up. After training we’d pack it back in the cars and re-assemble the jig-saw puzzle of equipment in his garage.
We had the same pieces of equipment back then, and it was all made of wood. The jump poles were HUGE, not those light, skinny ones used now and there were only 3 jump heights – 12”, 21” and 30” – my cocker jumped 21”. Dogs had to jump at least one times their height at the withers. At that time, there was no titling, no tournaments, just the occasional demo and our Sunday outings. Since most of us had obedience-trained dogs, it was the exceptional one that allowed you to run on THEIR left side. We had engrained in them that they had to be on OUR left side, so back in the beginning, the handler sometimes ended up running more than the dog, but we had fun!
The first ‘competition’ I remember was at the 1986 Gaines Classic in Houston with Sandra Davis and her folks from ADEPT (Agility Dogs of El Paso, Texas). We needed a name for OUR group, so the Dallas Agility Working Group was born; we had shirts designed and really looked like a team.
Another competition held in Houston in 1987 was sponsored
by the Astrohall Show Committee. It
was a team competition, no entry fee but the committee put up prize money.
Six 4-dog/handler teams competed with three from Dallas and three from
Houston. Two of the Dallas teams
(from DAWG) won 1st and
3rd places bringing home enough money to purchase the equipment Ken
and his father had made as well as a trailer to haul it in.
1988 was the first year of the Grand Prix. The competition was center ring at the huge Houston AstroWorld Series of Dog shows in July. You didn’t even have to pre-qualify, you could just enter the event. If you made it through the first round to the second, you went to the finals. All heights competed against each other and the placements were made without regard to jump height. We had some pretty wild runs even though the courses weren’t much more than figures of eight. Cindy Lottinville’s SBT grabbed the cones and ran around with them, and I think Patty Drom’s ESS barked at them and the judge.
1989 began the year of qualifying for the Grand Prix nationals in August. That first year, TEN – count them, TEN, qualifiers were held across the country. A qualifier consisted of two rounds in a weekend with scores being tallied from both rounds – 15 faults or less and you were in, baby!
In 1990, the first titling began and those games classes were called ‘novelty’ classes. All you had to get for an Agility Dog® title was one Q in the starters standard class. Many a competitor found themselves facing the Advanced class after only one show. Agggh!
I think Dave Hanson is responsible for the rule about not jumping/stepping over equipment. At a competition held in conjunction with a kennel club show at a local community college campus here in Dallas, Dave leaped over one end of the pipe tunnel and his foot landed on the 4 x 4 tunnel holder. Dave’s ankle swelled up like a softball.
As our sport gained in popularity, the agility was allowed to set up right in the middle of the action at the kennel club show – next to the obedience rings no less! My young BC, Caper, and I had a stellar performance – she pooped on the table. Guess I had trouble fitting in potty time for my dogs, because my cocker had pooped on the dog walk at some time in her career.
Since 1985, agility has changed immeasurably with several different organizations offering their own brand of rules and standards. The strides that have been made in training methods are astounding as the sport has become more technical – heck we used to just put our dogs on the equipment. Actually train them to TOUCH the contact zones? What a concept!
If I may
paraphrase Martha Stewart, “It’s a good thing” to have choices in agility;
we don’t all have to be the same, do it the same or have the same
requirements. Relish the variety,
it’s what has kept the sport interesting and vital all these years.
Heather Smith
(1) Kenneth Tatsch, Pres. USDAA
