Agility With A Caribbean
Flavor!
Mike & Claudia Clifton
Semper Fi Boxers
Fayetteville, Georgia
I was recently afforded the opportunity to travel to the Isle of Enchantment, more commonly known as Puerto Rico, for a weekend of American Kennel Club Agility, hosted by the Caribe Kennel Club.
On Saturday morning, Shiloh and I left Atlanta’s “fifty something” degrees and overcast skies, bound for Puerto Rico’s blue skies, emerald water and warm beaches.
Upon our arrival at the San Juan Airport, our good friends, Israel Cortes and his lovely daughter, Zolimarie, met us.
Walking out of the terminal, Shiloh and I both realized that we were indeed, NOT in Atlanta any more! WOW!! It was WARM!! With the constant breeze blowing, it was quite comfortable.
While Israel and I loaded my things in his vehicle, Zolimarie was letting Shiloh stretch her legs from the flight and take care of personal business. Shiloh made me aware that she did not care for this flying stuff.
Obviously, Israel must have learned from my wife, Claudia, that I am geographically challenged. He took us over to pick up the rental car and then insisted that I follow him to my motel and later to the show site. As it turned out, both were very easy to find. But why take a chance, right?
This weekend, the Caribe Kennel club was having the show of all shows! They packed in two days of AKC Conformation, Obedience, Agility, Rally Obedience and the Dog and Pony Agility Relay race!
The entire affair took place at a beautiful horse park just southwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The beautiful natural foliage of the tropics surrounds the park. It is covered by the blue skies and fluffy white clouds and cooled by the gentle breeze blowing in from the sea.
When we got to the show site to prepare for the 4:00 PM Agility start time, the Obedience ring was just finishing up. Many of the Obedience people left the obedience ring and went over to help on the agility field or to get their own dogs and themselves ready to run agility!
When we got to the agility ring, the Judge, MS Jane Mohr (Quick! Someone invite her to judge the ABC next year!), from Nashville, Tennessee, was wheeling (measuring) the course.
When I approached the agility field, MS Mohr said, “Mike, YOUR course is ready for you to walk!” I asked, “What do you mean, MY course?” This is when she explained that Shiloh and I were the one and only Excellent level team entered for both days!
Usually, where we are from, there will be no less than 120-150 teams in the Excellent class alone, plus the Open and Novice level teams.
The total agility entry was 26 for both the Standard AND Jumpers classes combined. Numbers can be very deceptive though. Because what this club lacked in numbers, they more than made up for in attitude, enthusiasm and skill!
As each team would run the course and then leave the field, the stands would come alive with cheers and clapping. The spectators were a very lively and interesting group of people themselves.
What struck me as the most interesting was that not only were the agility people there, the Conformation and Obedience people were also there to compete, watch, help and cheer.
Who did they cheer for the most? The people in the bleachers didn’t seem to care who they cheered for or how well the teams did. They were just happy that the teams were running and wanted to show their support!
Another thing I found very interesting was the number of people that have multi ring dogs. Because of the very limited number of AKC shows that they are able to hold in Puerto Rico, the people there must try to fit everything into one weekend that they possibly can.
Most impressive to me that weekend was the young man named Frank, Jr. On Sunday morning in Conformation, Frank handled both a Sheltie AND an English Bulldog to Best of Breed. In between the conformation rings, he and his Sheltie earned a leg toward the AKC Novice Obedience Title.
Later that afternoon, Frank, Jr. earned a leg toward the AKC Novice Agility Title on his Sheltie. And as if this wasn’t enough, somewhere during the day, he found time to win Best Junior Handler. I think Frank, Jr. is around 12 years old!! The Sheltie didn’t do too bad that day either!!
The highlight of the whole weekend (for me at least) was on the last day after all the regular classes, the Dog and Horse Relay race! When I heard about it on Saturday, I mentioned to the trial secretary how much fun that it would be to see such an event.
She asked if Shiloh and I would like to run in the race. Of course, I had to explain that we had not brought a horse with us on the airplane. Accepting no excuses, she found a horse and rider from the local equestrian school to be our partner in the relay.
The agility ring was set up inside a horse arena. Outside the agility ring were the horse jumps. The horse and rider would run the horse obstacle course and the dog and handler team would run the agility course.
When the horse and rider would cross the finish line, the dog and handler would take off on the agility course. This was just WAY too much fun!! Shiloh the Boxer and I actually won second place out of six teams. We got beat by last year’s winner. We will get them NEXT time!
Only 3.5 hours from Atlanta by air, Puerto Rico is very easy to get in and out of. The show sites are usually only about 20-25 minutes from the airport. They speak Spanish and English. And when they say, “Welcome to Puerto Rico!” they mean it!
If you are looking to have fun at a good old-fashioned dog show that has something for everyone, then go down to the Isle of Enchantment.
Isn’t it time you and YOUR
Boxer had some fun together? Try agility!
Copyright
2003
Semper
Fi Boxers
Michael
& Claudia Clifton
All
Rights Reserved
Not
to be reprinted or copied in any format without express written approval.