 Pugs are
eager to display their intelligence in a playful and energetic manner. They
have been bred to be sensitive to humans which
means that traditional agility training methods used with working dogs don't
always suit the pug temperament. They are so much fun to train that it is easy
to become addicted to both the breed and agility which can be frustrating,
exhilarating and hilarious all at the same time. We asked a number of handlers
about their experiences training their Pugs and Jugs.
When you think of
Pugs, you may not think of agility. But think again, because Pugs can do
agility. In fact, their owners say they can do pretty much anything any dog can
do.
Miet Suelze,
one of the pioneers of Pug agility in Belgium, says ‘Training pugs can be
different to working with other dogs, but the cliché is probably true. Work
motivated breeds like Border Collies, Aussies or Heelers or Border Collies
are easier to train, just because that's what they were born to do.
The
Flying Pug
Susannah Chalmers is proving that Pugs can do anything any other breed can do.
Her aim is to show that anything is possible with a fit, healthy, active dog and
that Pugs are clever, very trainable and biddable and actually relish working,
given the chance.
In 2015 she adopted a rather
chubby, unfit, but very cute 14 month old white pug from MuffinPug
Rescue. Miss Marshamallow (Marsha for short) arrived at her home and was
immediately put onto a
strict diet and started on an exercise programme. They used to play on the
children's play equipment in the village, and it was then that Susannah first noticed
Marsha's love and ability to jump.
So Susannah decided to join a local agility club just for fun,
fitness and to help with Marsha's socialisation. She picked everything up really
quickly, and they both caught the agility bug!
Last year was their first year of Kennel Club competition.
They started at Grade 1 and ended 2018 in Grade 3. This May they reached their
goal for 2019 when they won out again into Grade 4.
In addition, Marsha obtained both her
Bronze and
Silver Agility Warrants, came top of the 2018 DARL League and qualified for
the 2019 finals . She also won Bitz 'n Bobz Winter series 2018/19 in her
division and came a close second in the Agilitynet Senior League - Gold Small
and fifth in SAMS League.
As well as agility, Marsha is trained in scentwork and
in 2019 was part of the Dog Parkour UK display team which was proudly
invited by the Kennel Club to Crufts. It was a first for Marsha and a first
for Crufts as there had never been a white pug there before. Susannah was the proudest
pug momma ever when we stepped out onto the famous green carpet!
There is a lot of
negativity with regard to the capability of Pugs to compete at dog sports such
as Agility or Parkour. Susannah's aim is to promote healthy, active pugs, and to inspire other
pug owners to give agility a go through her fun PugAbility days where
pugs and pug crosses can come, have a go, and help raise much needed funds for MuffinPug Rescue.
Marsha now has her own large social media
following.
Susannah says, 'My goal this
year is to hopefully get a grade higher (tick!), meet more lovely new friends, hopefully
obtain our Gold agility warrant, continue to promote agility for pugs and make
more special memories! Whatever we do, Marsha and I will be having FUN and
enjoying the truly special, amazing relationship and bond that I have with a
little white pug that can actually fly!
 Rodney
the whirling dervish
Chloe Hammond's
pug Rodney is five years old. Agility is his favourite thing ever to do! He gets
so excited he screams at the start line! He spins round in circles and barks
when agility is even mentioned!
They started agility
when he was seven months old. It was really just running over poles but he loved
it even then. They went to an agility club just for pugs (Pugility.) When their
trainer left about a year ago, the members loved the club so much that they over
the training and kept the club going.
-
Pros -
Personality! They' re not known as clowns of the dog world for nothing!
Rodney's so loving.
-
Cons - Typically
they' re one person dogs so often will only run for one person. They are
sometimes known as 'Velcro' dogs so may be reluctant to do distance.
Chloe admits that
sometimes she finds it hard at shows because sometimes she feels like some
people are laughing at them, but she's also had a few positive comments such as
'He's changed my mind about Pugs' and 'Rodney's good and you can tell he loves
his agility.'
Sometimes Chloe worries about
the heat at some shows, but always take his cooling coat and water and tries to
find a shady place.
At the age of six
months, Rodney was diagnosed with hip dysplasia and has been on Yumove
supplements since then. Consequently they only ever do LHO Small which
unfortunately means that they cannot enter some shows. The vets are happy with
for them to continue doing agility and have said that the running has probably
strengthened his muscles. When he had kennel cough and couldn't do agility and
long walks in the park. She noticed that he seemed very stiff from not doing
agility.
A grumble of Pugs
About 13 years ago, Miet Suelze
fell in love with her very
first Pug. Back then, the breed was very rare in Belgium. Today she has a
'grumble (pack) of Pugs' which
are known for their positive approach and spirit. She trains
according to the 'positive reward' method because what matters most is that the dog and
handler
have fun!
 It all began when she
adopted Mo and had difficulties bonding with him. To work on this issue, they
started doing agility. Now, Mo is retired and her active agility pugs are Kaspar
and Hugo. Kevin just passed the test to get permission to participate in
competition.
She loves working and training with her Pugs.
It creates an incredible bond. Training takes time, patience, trial and error.
She firmly believe you need a click with your dog's personality to become a
dream team.Miet believes that the
sooner one starts 'training', the more they'll learn and better remember. She
got her three youngest pugs as a puppies (between 8-16 weeks, due to import
restrictions in Europe), and she immediately started basic and very easy clicker
training including things like sit, down, walking backwards and sideways, touch
the hand, picking up a spoon, ringing a bell with a paw and turning around a
cone. The point of all these little exercises are to make them learn to think
for themselves and promote paw co-ordination, balance and the augmentation of
their body awareness. A dog knows he has two paws - the front ones. You need to
make them conscious about the back paws and the fact they can move all four
separately. This will become the foundation of agility later.
Other tips include:-
- Personally I would never lure with
food
- Do very short sessions - Maximum 5-10
minutes and about three exercises per session
- Be flexible - Sometimes you have an
exercise in your head and you end up doing other stuff because the dog will
be trying other things.
- Always use positive reinforcement. I
believe that Clicker Training is more effective than voice commands as you
can react more quickly.
She has noticed that the weave poles can
be more difficult for some Pugs, possibly linked to their short noses and flat
faces. A Border Collie uses it's snout to push themselves in between the poles.
Pugs can't do that. There are pictures of pugs doing the weave poles with their
eyes closes because they have to push them with their face. Also the placement
of the eyes makes it more difficult for them to estimate distance of the poles.
It's not proven scientifically, but it's worth a thought.
 A
fun fact to know is that Pugs use their curly tail as a rudder to jump and
co-ordinate. Kaspar normally has a double curly tail, but when jumping and
running, he uncurls to steer.
Some pug owners have commented that Miet's
dogs are 'underfed' and that she does stuff with them that they were not
made for.
She replies, 'I feel I keep my pugs
sporty. They are not overweight like so many other pugs and they are super
intelligent. I am very proud of what they do. It's a shame to have so many
'couch potato' Pugs out there who sleep from Monday to Friday, do nothing at
all, all day.'
Jugs
Jug dogs are a hybrid of the Pug and Jack Russell, blessed with the best traits
of both parent breeds. On the whole, these little dogs are full of love and energy and make
great family pets.
Michelle (Shell)
Frankland has three Jugs all of which look different even though they all have a JRT Mum and Pug Dad. One looks like a Pug, another like a pure JRT and the third
looks like a combination of both. With crossbreeds, you never know if
they'll look like mum or dad.
Jug No.1 Teddy came
along as a Christmas present for her daughter. Don't ask! They chose him as a
puppy because he smiled and kept licking them. After passing his puppy course
and KC Good Citizen, Shell tried an agility 'just for fun' workshop with
him. He seemed to enjoy it so they carried on with lessons. After a while,
however, Teddy realised that he had more fun sleeping. Why would he want to jump
over silly obstacles and run around!
 Up
stepped Jug No.2 Buddy who used to watch while Teddy played his 'just for fun'
agility. Buddy is built differently to Teddy. He's smaller with stumpy legs but
he looks like he works out at the gym. You could say he was shaped more like the
Pug where teddy is Shaped more Jack Russell. He also has a habit of inverted
sneezing, especially when he's excited or it's windy so Shell has to be careful
of how much he could do.
Buddy had the time of
his life. He loved everything about agility. He is small and built
like a brick and he struggles to jump full height and, as he has what I call the
hoppy leg, he only jumps Lower Height. He had his first independent competition
and he had so much fun even thought we got eliminated on every run. After about
a year of competing independent shows and KC and never going clear, she decided
Buddy deserved more so they joined Whiteway Agility Training and basically had
to relearn everything.
Or as Shell says, 'I
had to be retrained is more like it. Bless little Buddy... He didn't care. He
was just enjoying himself and would do anything I asked him to. Finally our
first clear and 2nd place arrived. Buddy still didn't care. He was having time
of his life. I, however, cried like a baby !'
 Along
came Jug No,3. At first, Shell wasn't going to do Agility with Bonnie as
that was Buddy's thing. As Bonnie grew up, her legs got longer and longer and
she began to look like a Jack Russell with a pug tail. Eventually Shell decided
to let Bonnie have a go at Foundation Agility. Oh, wow! She was awesome and
fast. So off she went to her first KC competition doing Anysize to see how she
would react at shows as, although she's big and brave, she's also a nervous
little soul. First show and first clear round.
'Shell insists,
'Jugs are so easy to
train. They listen and are smart, and they pick things up so easily. I, however, am
a different story!'
During her journey,
she has met a few other Jugs that compete. At a competition over Easter, they met
up with a couple and suddenly there were five Jugs running together in the
exercise area.
Buddy (G4
with Jumping wins towards G5) struggles to keep up time-wise with the
'the big dogs' i.e. the spaniels in the Small classes , but he's a real trooper
and gets so excited when he sees his agility collar go on.
Bonnie (G5) is so fast that Shell struggles to keep up with her so she doesn't always
go clear but that's okay. As she's also quite nervous, sometime she struggles
with larger shows so I never know what I' m going to get with her. We also had a
moment on her second measure of going into Medium as she is so borderline but
she managed to stay Small.
Teddy is still
wondering why any dog would be silly enough to run and jump for no reason!
Shell says, 'I
love my Jugs. They all have such different personalities and have to train
them so differently. Teddy enjoys his Rally and sleeping and he will tell me
when he's had enough. Buddy will do anything for me as long as he's
enjoying himself, and Bonnie is so sensitive but wants to please and is
really bright. If you want to take Agility seriously, I probably wouldn't
recommend a Jug, but if you want to have fun and have a laugh, a Jug is for
you.'
 Pug
X
Claire Firth
took Minnie, her Pug x French Bulldog with some King Charles, along to
agility training just before she was a year old. Don't worry. They didn't do jumps or
contacts. Minnie clicked onto agility straight away. Nothing scared her.
Claire says, 'I am very
pleased and proud of her because, though she not a Border Collie, she is still able
to train and compete in agility. I do see comments from people about Pugs and Frenchies not being able to breath properly but,
in my experience, this isn't true.
Minnie is capable of doing anything a long nose dog can do. She a superstar!'
About the authors...
Susannah Chalmers
(56) was born in the UK, but spent half of her life living in Africa until
returning to the UK in 2010. In Zambia she ran an animal rescue shelter and
organised mass rabies vaccination campaigns throughout central Africa. She
has a big horsey background. She did show jumping - hence her passion for
agility - played Polo and Polocrosse at International level for Zambia.
Susannah was given a
tiny puppy from the only pug litter in Zambia in 2000 and thus the love affair
with the breed began! When Lily sadly passed away in 2015, she adopted Marsha
from MuffinPug Rescue, for whom she is an active volunteer. She now has her own
'grumble' - with two other rescue pugs - Poppy and Isaac who are also white
pugs. Poppy is following in Marsha's pawprints and is currently in training.
Chloe Hammond lives in the East of England where she is a nurse. Rodney is
her first dog.
Miet Suelze
has owned pugs for the last 13
years and has adore the breed from the moment she first met one in the street.
She only started agility training about six years ago. She currently at five
pugs and every minute of her spare time is consumed by the pugs and she love
every second of it.
Shell Frankland
lives alone since daughter went off to Uni (super proud), with three dogs, two
cats and two guinea pigs! She works as an estate agent and is lucky to be able
to work from home most of the time, so she has lots of time to spend training
whilst meant to be working!. If she does ever get time to herself, she likes
to go swimming but that rarely happens as she’d rather take the dogs out.
Claire Firth
was not a particularly confident before she joined East Yorkshire AC, but now
she had found herself talking to more people at shows. She's learned that it's
not just about competing but having fun with her dog and members of the club.
This is the first time she has done any kind of sport with her dogs and is
hoping to continue with her next dog, possibly a Boxer.
First published
28th May 2019 | 