GUEST
M y dog has mor e extr acur r icular s than y our honor student -------------------------------------BY: KATIE ROMIG Guest Contributor -------------------------------------Everyone has their hobbies, right? My aunt recently took up volleyball, m y boss enjoys off-road biking on her days off, and I spend all m y m oney and free tim e com peting with m y dog. Jay is an 18-m onth-old Duck Toller, and before you ask, yes, that ?s a real breed! Tollers look like sm all golden retrievers with the brains & energy of a border collie. He?s a ball of sunshine and teeth wrapped in a red coat and he?s m y absolute best friend. 26 | TEXASDOGMAGAZINE.COM
There are a lot of reasons to train a dog and m ost of them have an end goal ? training to have m anners, to not jum p on people, to be a service dog, to get a title. Once the goal has been reached, you stop training or you just train to m aintain the behavior. But for m e, and m ost of m y fellow crazy dog sport people, the training is the fun part! I don?t train to com pete, I com pete because I train. Jay and I train for agility, rally and obedience, as well as dabbling in dock diving and hunt training. We aren?t
quite ready for the com petition ring in obedience yet ? that ?s a 2020 goal ? but have intro titles for rally and agility. Com peting gives m e a goal to work toward, standards to hold m y training to and bragging rights once we finally put all the pieces together. There?s just som ething exhilarating about stepping into a com petition ring with m y dog and a leash, knowing that all our hard work is about to pay off. And it is hard work! There are a m illion ways to train a dog, but I always strive to m ake it fun for both ends of the leash. Jay learns and
