It can sometimes be hard when an agility dog is growing older. This is a lovely story about a win - win situation for a whole family: for a junior handler, a senior agility dog and a mum.
Facts box
Hex, Australian kelpie, 9 years
The bachelor with a family, the great thinker, a strong advocate of a quota for dog chews, an intellectual and the somewhat humourless character, the perfectionist workaholic, the world’s most loyal dog, the former one person dog but currently one of two persons. The king of the dog pack.
Laura, 9 years
A brand-new agility enthusiast, grew up in the midst of animals, begged to have her own dog since 2010, a kind and quiet girl who would rather talk to dogs than to people.
The chirpy retiree and the enthusiastic junior
Australian Kelpie Hex run a productive agility career in the maxi class in 2007-2013 and also competed in obedience with success. Hex ran in the Finnish Championships five times, at best placing in the top 20, received the qualifications for both agility and jumping champion titles, factored around 25-30 faultless runs per year, won regional championships and was the best working dog and agility dog of his club many years running. Hex was a wonderful competition dog with an unflinching work ethic, an incredible ability to learn and a turbo-filled engine. Doing agility with Hex, there was a perfect affinity between him and the handler: great moments when there was nothing else in the world aside from the light jumps of the shiny coppery kelpie. Sometimes, after the best runs, his handler had to go and cry out of joy behind the training hall and the dog would pull off all the tails of a wubba.
However, in addition to gaining great accomplishments Hex was also gaining in age. Still in the summer of 2013 Hex participated in the Finnish championships and finished his active career there. Although it felt sad to give up on competing, it was the best choice in order to let the dog retire in good health. A dog in good working condition would gladly still have done something else aside from the mere regular outings with the rest of the pack.
At home, Hex’s food dishes are kept full by the regular family: mother (Hex’s handler in his active days), father and two kids. The family has altogether four dogs: in addition to Hex two active competition dogs and a puppy. The older child, 9-year-old Laura, had dreamt of her own dog for quite some time. “Mom, my greatest dream is to have my own dog” had been repeated already for some years. The girl tried to advance her dog mission with both bribery and extortion: “Mom, will I get my dog faster if I clean your car?”,“Mom, if I don’t get my own dog I won’t get enough fresh air!”
At some point, Laura began daydreaming about agility in addition to getting her own dog. At that point, some wheels started turning in the parents’ heads. What if the chirpy retiree Hex was harnessed as Laura’s mentor? The thought was tossed back and forth until it was agreed that if the old-timer got to work with the junior and the girl learned something about agility, everybody would win. As there was no ongoing junior agility group in the area, the mom had to set one up herself and start coaching the group. The foundation of the group was based on social pedagogy, motivating the dog and basic agility training: the idea was to teach the children as graphically and logically as possible so that the grounds would be carefully built and special attention was paid to rewarding the dog. The junior group filled quickly with enthusiastic kids and training began in September.
Will it obey? Will it run away? What if it bites?
What happens when you place an inexperienced child at the other end of the leash of a strong working dog with a lot of drive? Would a gentle nine-year-old have the authority required to handle a determined kelpie geezer? Earlier experiments with other handlers besides the regular one had gone rather poorly, so there definitely was an air of suspicion around whether this would work or not. Luckily the dog accepted the handler quickly and their cooperation began going smoothly, what for the occasional running off. Any activity suited Hex and the girl’s pockets full of treats helped form a tight handling bond between the pair. The dog’s greediness and Laura’s super positive attitude came a long way.
In his active days, Hex would take working seriously and avoid making mistakes to the last. Fortunately his attitude became more relaxed when the junior handler took over. With Laura, Hex assumed that everything he did was maybe not really ok but at least worth a treat. The dog will not take any pressure from the handler’s mistakes as treats will come anyway and the handler is always genuinely happy. Both the kelpie and the girl break up laughing after each practice and the joy of working together that shines from their eyes is just remarkable.
Laura and Hex attend a junior training group once a week. Some small and fun training is done on their home yard each day. In addition, Laura takes part in the training of the family puppy and sometimes gets to try her mother’s competition dogs. The junior & senior pair’s career has reached advanced beginner’s level. The pair won a beginner’s competition with a qualifying run in December. The kelpie who loves her attention and cheers got his prize-giving ceremony and his handler nearly burst with pride.
After a brilliant career, a convenient future
The dog enthusiast mother is sometimes haunted by bad conscience for the family’s time management: “Bye bye kids, mom is now off to Turku and will be back tomorrow, but you’ll already be asleep then so I’ll see you the day after tomorrow”! For the one child, her conscience has now been cleared as the hobby with dogs has taken over her daughter’s book shelf, room walls, tablet covers and her whole tiny heart. The other child has been ushered to the football field, but already when choosing soccer shoes he declared that ”I can then also use these as agilityshoes!”
For a child, a well-trained dog is like winning the lottery! The dog runs the obstacles correctly and the child can concentrate on handling practice, which alone is quite challenging for a junior agility handler. The junior learns to trust the dog as the dog really knows what he is doing, even helping with the handler’s part a bit. When one’s feet get tangled doing the front cross and the course sequence is forgotten already at the second obstacle, the dog’s enthusiasm for the sport encourages one to go on. The dog never says “that went badly”, it says “I love agility” all the time.
The dog is happy with the arrangement and clearly enjoys the attention he’s getting. Each time they prepare to leave for practice Hex is enthusiastic yet focused, wagging his tail and with a blaze in his eyes. Hex’s physical condition is maintained with massage and osteopathy, supplements and avoiding unnecessarily burdening strain. Retiree dogs do not need to jump maximum heights or climb full-sized contact obstacles – junior agility can also be taught with respect to an ageing dog’s physique.
For the coach, a junior group is a mind-opener: to teach the basics of agility handling and rewarding one’s dog in an understandable, clear manner, divided into suitable phases demands planning and creating new ways of demonstration. In addition, the joy of doing and the heartfelt team spirit of a junior group act as a resource for the coach as well. In a junior group one helps and cheers one’s friends, ponders upon the hard stuff together and the focus stays on the essential.
The union of the retiree dog and the junior agility handler has brought a whole lot of joy to all the parties. Hex is such an important and loved part of the family and it feels good that the old kelpie is feeling well and enjoying his life. The child has found a compelling hobby and learnt a lot from her more experienced training companion. The mother has learnt a lot about children, dogs, and maybe even something new about agility. Let’s all hope that yet many more retiree dogs find their enthusiastic junior handlers whose pockets are full of treats and their thoughts on the top-level competitions of 2024.
Written by Sari Lehto
