A team of around 20 Canadian dogs and their Owners and handlers, will be travelling to Spain later this month to compete in the IFCS World Agility Championships. That includes one New Brunswicker and her dog Quake.
Quake is a border collie, and his owner Christine Neklia-Thibodeau says he was introduced to agility at a young age, “Quake came to us when he was about 10 weeks old, but he didn’t actually start training into agility until he was about 15 months. There are a lot of things you can do when they are younger to get them ready that can really help your partnership.”
An agility course may include tunnels, weave poles, teeter totters and tires. Neklia-Thibodeau says when the arrive in Spain, they’ll only see the only right before the competition, “In advance, they will prepare a course. You see that about ten minutes before you actually run it. You get a chance to walk through it and get an idea of what kinds of types of cues that you will have to provide your dog.”
With only three weeks left to go before they head to Spain. She says the two of them are practicing two to three times a week, and doing a lot of hiking and cross conditioning as well.
Their goal is to see the dogs run clean, run fast and run under time, and in the end see the Canadian team bring home the gold.
The IFCS World Agility Championships in Spain are being held April 26 to 30th.
