agility

Some of you know that I'm a dog trainer in my (admittedly little) free time. I've competed in dog agility with moderate success (tremendous success if you compare my dogs' accomplishments with those of other members of their breeds) for something like 10 years now.

read more

It’s not everyday that an internationally renowned glamour and fashion photographer frames an Indian beauty.

India’s most prized face, Aishwarya Rai of course, has romanced the lenses of eminent international photographers.

But much recently, the pretty,svelte,sexy model and TV anchor,Shonali Nagrani, had an opportunity to flirt with one of the best of them all.

read more

I love my Whippet. I think she's loving, beautiful, funny, gentle, unassuming, and brilliant. And she loves me to pieces, which I like as well. But I love dog agility, and I swear, competing with this dog is going to be the death of me!

For the uninitiated, dog agility is a sport in which dogs run an obstacle course off lead. Handlers see the always-different courses first on the day of a trial (which is a single or multiple day event) and get to walk it without their dog so they know where to go and how to best communicate the course to the dog. Dogs get to weave through poles, climb "walls," walk "balance beams," jump, and run through tunnels. It's a fun but complicated sport, where both speed and accuracy are required for success.

read more

My Dog is Going to Be a Supermodel!

OK, maybe not a supermodel, but she did get the chance to try her paws at "acting" while being a model for the opening credits for an Animal Planet program called the Ultimate Dog Championships. A local television production company contacted my dog club looking for a handful of dogs who could do agility. The person in charge just took the first four people who replied to an emailed request for help. Unfortunately I was the fifth person to reply, but someone else decided not to come because the doggie models were not getting paid.

read more

For those of you who are interested in dog training, I'd like to recommend a few magazines. For agility trainers, there is nothing better than Clean Run magazine (Clean Run). Available in full color digital or glossy paper versions, Clean Run is the standard to which all other agility magazines should strive to reach. Each month's issue has tons of training exercises and practical information for instructors and exhibitors.

read more