Perry DeWitt and her 2-year-old Border Collie Verb won the 22-inch US National Championship in Steeplechase at Cynosport a couple of weeks ago. Watch a video of Perry and Verb's highlights at Cynosport, and hear what Perry tells us about their experience.
Verb is Perry's second Border Collie and second agility dog. When Verb is not doing agility he plays frisbee and loves to swim and hike.
"Verb adores agility. From the moment I taught him to wrap his first wing as a puppy there was no stopping him. He's fast and efficient and he turns well as long as he's given information in time!! His favorite toys are anything hard and plastic. He's one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met!"
Perry and Verb won the game called Steeplechase. We asked Perry to tell us a bit more about what kind of an event Steeplechase is.
"Steeplechase is essentially a speed showcase. From the USDAA website "... this tournament event was developed to demonstrate the competitor's ability to work with speed as they feature their skills in training and performance of a special jumpers course. In addition to numerous jumps and hurdles on course, the A-frame and weave poles are included as a special demonstration of the two most dynamic obstacles in the dog agility, for which difficulty of performance increases with speed. The tournament's "time plus faults" scoring method accentuates the importance of speed combined with accuracy in performance." Steeplechase is not only fun to run but also a blast to watch!"
When entering Cynosport, Perry didn't really have expectations for Verb, since it was the first time this young dog was attending a national event.
"Competing at Cynosports this year was an absolute blast. Verb is very young and it was his first national so I didn't have a ton of expectations for him. It was also my first time running two dogs at a big event. In a lot of ways both of these things took some pressure off of me. I was blown away by how well Verb rose to the occasion. I had no choice but to put complete trust in him as there is no time to babysit anything at an event where the competition is so fierce. Making it to Steeplechase semi finals from quarter finals felt great! Winning semi finals far surpassed what I ever imagined... winning finals was incredible and it still doesn't feel real!"
Perry travelled to Finland in September to learn more about OneMind Dogs Method. How did she end up in the OneMind Dogs pack in the first place?
"I learned about OneMind Dogs through my instructors Soshana Dos and Mary Ellen Barry. As soon as I learned what OneMind Dogs was about I was totally hooked. It spoke to me like no other method ever had. I love that OneMind Dogs teaches you to understand your dog's perspective. Dogs don't really get to choose the activities they participate in the way that we do, so the least we can do is try to make agility as easy, fun, and natural for them as possible.
It's hard for me to pick my favorite thing about OneMind Dogs, but I rely heavily on the 3 C's. In fact, before my finals run I was chanting them in my head "connect, commit, cue...connect, commit, cue..." I think it helped me a ton! I also hear Janita's voice exclaiming "don't shout all the time! Just go!"
I am so thankful to have discovered OneMind Dogs. It has improved my handling so much and helped me to be more compassionate and understanding of my dogs. I can't wait to continue learning and improving!"
