Rockwall teen and her dog to compete in Dog Agility World Championships in Finland this summer

This summer, a local teen will travel overseas with her canine companion to compete in the little-known but fascinating sport known as dog agility. Summer Nix (14) of Rockwall and her 5-year-old Border Collie named Hook will travel to Finland as part of the American Kennel Club Junior World Agility Team U.S.A. to compete in the Junior Open Agility World Championships July 9 – 12.

In the sport of dog agility, a handler runs his/her dog through an obstacle course as quickly and accurately as possible. The handler can’t use treats or anything as incentives. Instead, they must only rely on vocal commands and hand signals to get the dog through the course.

“Agility is just straight lines and curved lines,” Summer said. “Most of it is motion more than it is using verbal cues. I could run a course with Hook probably without saying anything, but it’s really helpful. If you want to get more distance from the dog to make it faster, you would probably use verbals so that the dog knows what obstacle is coming up next.”

Here’s the real kicker: the handler is given a minimum amount of time (anywhere between five to 25 minutes on average) to walk the course and memorize it prior to the dog racing it. The obstacles in the course are numbered, and must be run through in that order. The dog is not allowed to walk the course with the handler prior to the race. So the dog and his handler truly have only one shot at completing the course successfully.

There are three categories of competition (small dogs, medium dogs and large dogs) and three age groups (12 and Under, 15 and Under, and 19 and Under). For the competition in Finland, Summer will be competing in the Under 19 age group in the large dog category.

While agility is open to any breed of dog, certain breeds tend to fare better than others, particularly herding dogs like Australian Shepherds and Border Collies.

Last year, Summer competed in the Junior Open Agility World Championships in Switzerland with a dog belonging to an agility trainer in Rowlett. She grew to love agility training and had a blast in Switzerland, and wanted her very own dog that she could train for competition this year. Her mom called local agility trainers in the area, and came across someone who was looking to re-home his dog, Hook.

Hook was well-trained in obedience, but had never competed in an agility event before. Summer began training him in August, using her backyard as a training ground as well as a training facility in Richardson.  She trialed with him in September, and eventually he earned his Open Titles in both types of courses (one consists mainly of jumps and the other has mostly contact obstacles) to be able to compete on the AKC Team U.S.A.

“He’s really smart,” Summer said when asked what she likes about training with Hook. “It’s interesting and cool to see how animals can learn to listen to people and form a connection.”

According to Summer, Hook excels at contact obstacles – any obstacle that he touches.

“I’m really proud how I’ve trained him in his contact obstacles,” Summer said. “I’m really proud how I’ve been able to train him on Dog Walks, Teeters and A-Frames because a lot of dogs have a really hard time stopping at the end of those. He had never had to learn to stop before, and I was able to teach him through another trainer who taught me the technique.”

The courses in Europe generally encompass twice as many obstacles as the ones in the U.S. (about 30 obstacles), making for a much lengthier and challenging race. But Hook is certainly up to the challenge.

“He’s not afraid to try new things,” said Summer’s mom Kellie. “That’s his attitude: just trying to please her. He just wants to please, and that makes him easy to train with.”

To help fund their travel to Finland for the competition, Kellie and Summer set up a t-shirt fundraiser on Bonfire. To purchase a shirt and help Summer and Hook to Finland, visit bonfire.com/support-summer-and-hook/.

By Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News. Photo courtesy of Kellie Nix.

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  american kennel club, dog agility, Junior Open Agility World Championships, junior world agility team USA, summer nix