Daisy Peel spent seven years teaching high school chemistry, but when she caught herself constantly thinking about dog agility, she figured it was time for a change.
“I was a little more excited about the dog agility than the high school,” Peel said.
Peel, 30, moved from Oregon to the Sumner area last July to become the training director of It’s a Dog World Training and Agility Center. The former chemistry teacher has been involved with the hobby for eight years.
Last year was a whirlwind of events for Peel: In March, she was offered the training director job. Soon after, she and her border collie Jester won the American Kennel Club National Agility Championship. In May, they tried out for and earned a spot on the 2007 USA Agility World Team.
Meanwhile, she finished her last days of teaching in June, moved to Sumner to begin her new gig in July, then earned a silver medal with Jester at the World Team contest, hosted in Norway last fall.
This year, she’s hoping for another win at the AKC Nationals. The 2008 competition will be hosted in Tulsa, Okla., from March 28 to 30, and Peel will attend along with several students in her training and agility classes.
“It’s a pretty competitive event,” she said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
The national competition is more fun than smaller, local contests, Peel said. There are more people cheering, more dogs to compete against and a stronger sense of suspense.
“There’s definitely an energy,” she said. “It’s more stimulating for sure.”
Plus, Jester likes the cheering and yelling, Peel said.
“He definitely feeds off the crowds,” she said.
The courses that dogs run and jump through are different every time, though the same kinds of obstacles are used — bars to jump over, ramps to balance on and a series of poles to weave through. Mistakes result in penalty faults, which are subtracted from the final score.
Handlers usually teach dogs one obstacle at a time, then combine a sequence of obstacles, making sure to vary it constantly, Peel said. Treats, awards and encouragement help. As dogs run and jump through the courses during a competition, their handlers run alongside to help guide them and cheer them on, but no treats or toys are allowed.
A typical day at those competitions looks like this: Walk through the first course in the morning, wait a few hours to be called, go through the course with the dog, then repeat for a second course.
“You have to pace yourself,” Peel said.
Some competitors get overexcited and then are worn out by the time the day’s through, she said. But after doing it for a few years, Peel said she no longer gets as anxious. She has made it to the finals with another border collie, Fly, three times.
Kathy Sheeran, owner of Sumner Veterinary Hospital and It’s a Dog’s World, is also attending nationals this year. It’ll be her second time at the contest, but this is her eighth year of agility as a hobby
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