By LINDSAY LORENZ, Register Staff Writer
Gainesville Daily Register
Valley View —
To master an agility competition it takes strength, concentration, determination and…four paws?
For Betty, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, the ability to navigate more than a dozen doggy obstacles won her the AKC’s MACH title, or master of agility championship, during a competition in Fort Worth on Aug. 21.
Betty’s 1,300 points and success in at least 20 double qualifying rounds landed her and owner Dawn Budner of Valley View, a spot at the AKC National Competition to be held in Lexington, Va. this spring.
Budner, who’s been training dogs to compete in agility courses for the last 14 years, said she rescued her prize-winning pup from the threat of coyotes when she was about 12 weeks old.
Betty and her sister were being kept in an outdoor area, and Budner said she told the owner if she had a hard time finding them homes, she would take one. She chose the loud one.
“I took her because she was the most annoying of the two,” Budner said with a laugh, “But I knew she was smart.”
Budner, who has trained five other dogs for agility competitions, knew that Betty’s energy and vocal personality suited her for the jumps, weaves and other tasks she’d tackle while training for competition.
Just a few months after bringing her home, Budner started teaching Betty how to navigate low jumps, eventually progressing to the techniques like the teeter totter and weave poles that would win her the MACH title.
Since agility competitions also signify the bond between a pet and its owner, Betty and Budner rely on body language to navigate the obstacle courses.
“I can’t talk to her…It’s an invitation to have a conversation,” Budner said.
Although the dog will happily bark and wag her tail when she wants attention, sometimes Betty finds it difficult to keep her voice down during competition, too.
“She’s a little cuddlebug as long as there’s no other dogs around,” Budner said.
But despite her chatty tendencies, the MACH title is a reflection of dual effort.
“You qualify together, you’re a team,” Budner said. “(Betty) won’t even run for everyone else.”
Budner said it’s taken most of her dogs about five to six years to reach their champion skill levels, and Betty, 6, is right on par. Her secret for training competitive dogs is to start off with a class, which is how Budner developed the hobby in the first place, after she thought she had signed up one of her dogs for an obedience class.
“They learn to behave socially and be nice,” Budner said.
Socialization becomes important in competitions when anywhere from a handful to hundreds of dogs are in close proximity of each other while awaiting their turn to compete.
Budner used snacks to train her dogs, and when they had mastered a skill, she would reward them only after they had completed the task.
“It’s a great thing for an older person because they don’t mind putting around, and it’s a lot of little details,” Budner, 67, said.
But her attention to those little details has taken her as far as Vermont to compete with her dogs in agility matches.
Although she and Betty have qualified for the AKC National Championship, Budner hasn’t decided if she wants to go since competition days can be long and schedules are uncertain. Sometimes pet owners will have to show up as early as 4 a.m., but won’t compete until 4 p.m., she said.
And for those who say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, next on Betty’s list is obedience school, to work on some of her behavior issues.
“It’s not life, but it’s a fun slice of it,” she said.
