Never say never...
Part of the agility lore is that any breed of dog
can do it.
While the herding breeds tend to dominate in agility in the UK, you will find more people in
The States training and competing their favourite dogs regardless of the breed. Jennifer Bachelor is
partial to Greyhounds and she's had quite a bit of success on the agility circuit with them.
She's learned a lot from them and she never misses a chance to tell people about them.
Like many other people, I started agility with my pet
dog. The dog just happened to be a Greyhound. We had mastered basic obedience and I thought
agility looked like fun.
 All of my Greyhounds have been former racers. My first two
agility Greyhounds were strictly pets. I did not choose them based on any performance
potential. I made a lot of mistakes but have found a lot of joy in the process and eventually
did earn a few agility titles. In early 2001, however, I began searching for my next agility
dog - a greyhound, of course. This would be the first time I would choose an agility dog
specifically for characteristics that I thought would be found in a competitive agility
greyhound.
Selecting a greyhound
Agility is a great way for greyhounds and their adopters to bond with them, get some
exercise and just have fun.
I think there are benefits to choosing an adult dog that you do not get with a puppy. A
puppy can change so much, but an adult is what it is. You can look at an adult Greyhound and
immediately determine the size, soundness and personality you are dealing with. Personally I prefer a small to moderately sized greyhound. My largest
Greyhound, Travis, was 69cm tall at the shoulder and weighed about 32kg. A moderately sized
Greyhound is going to be able to navigate an agility course and negotiate obstacles more
efficiently than a large one.
Regarding temperament, I like a Greyhound that is bold and
curious. I do not want to see any fear or shyness when I am evaluating a Greyhound for agility
purposes. I prefer Greyhounds that have a lot of prey drive, but if you have a cat or other
small pets, you will need something with less prey drive to be compatible with your family. However, just make sure the Greyhound has play drive and an interest in toys.
 Lastly, the
most important, number one requirement is that the dog is very food motivated. I do not compromise on
that. I want a Greyhound that will
eat anything anywhere at anytime. If I am evaluating food motivation in a Greyhound, I offer
food outdoors. I test to see if the Greyhound will follow the food if I lure the treat away
from his or her nose. I am especially impressed if the Greyhound shows interest in the treats
in my pocket and is more interested in food than any other distractions.
Overall, I pick a Greyhound with qualities that make a dog
easy to train. I am training a personality, not a breed. There are a wide variety of
individuals within each breed. Some Greyhounds are very high drive and motivated. My goal is
to find one.
Training a Greyhound
Once I have my greyhound, I begin training, using many of
the popular training methods. I have been very successful with developing a lot of focus and
willingness to respond using clicker training. I am not 100% positive and will gently correct
if I am ignored. I usually train contact obstacles with two feet on and two feet off. I have
trained weave poles using Weave-O-Matics, channel weaves and guides. The training method
depends on what works best for the particular Greyhound.
I tend to use a lot of food when I train Greyhounds. I am
generous with jackpots and I use high quality food like a variety of cheese, real meat, canned
dog food, and anything else with a strong odour. Eventually my Greyhounds learn that a tasty
jackpot follows each agility course.
 I rarely use toys as a reward except at the end of a
training session. I have not had any Greyhounds that found tugging to be a reward, but instead
enjoy running laps with a toy or retrieving it for a treat. Both activities can tire out a
Greyhound if you use them as a reward in the middle of a training session and can be counter
productive.
Over the last ten years, I have thoroughly enjoyed
competing my Greyhounds in agility. We have had fun proving the Greyhound stereotype wrong and
encouraging other Greyhound owners to do more with their hounds and to try new things.
Agility offers everyone some measure of
success even if your greyhound is not the most food motivated or the most active. There is
much to be learned from every hound, so start by training the one laying on your couch. If
your greyhound is more of a troublemaker than a couch potato then you might have the next
agility superstar in your house. Often the greyhound that actually needs training is the
easiest to train. This type of greyhound is crying for a job and welcomes the challenge.
 About the author...
Jennifer Bachelor lives near Atlanta, Georgia in the United States with her husband and six Greyhounds.
She
recently started competing her fifth Greyhound in agility. Her dog, MACH Never Had Braces UD
(Katie) is the first Greyhound to earn an Agility Championship and MACH2 Never Expected CDX
(Travis) is the first Greyhound to earn two agility championships from the American Kennel
Club.
Over the years there have been a number of other Greyhounds that have competed in
agility, but Katie and Travis significantly raised the bar and proved that Greyhounds can be
just as successful in agility as any other dog.
For more information, go to
www.neversaynevergreyhounds.net.
Footnotes
From Louise
Mallett, Toby & Wilf...
I had been training my JRT x collie with Staffs
Agility School for a couple of years before I was brave enough to approach Lorraine, who runs
the club, about bringing along our rescue lurcher Wilf. Staffs Agility has always encouraged
everyone and every type of dog to have a go at agility, so of course the answer was yes.
When it comes to sighthounds and
agility there are no rules. Even after six years of training with Wilf, we can never predict
how he will behave! The unique challenges that Wilf has provided us with have not stopped us
falling head over heels for sighthounds though.
It is through Wilf that my husband
and I found ourselves supporting the charity Greyhound Gap and the fantastic work they do.
Greyhound Gap rescues sighthounds and their
crosses who would otherwise be put to sleep, providing them with foster and permanent homes
all over the country.
The registered charity uses
commercial kennels as a stopgap between rescue and new homes, costing Greyhound Gap between
£2000 - £2500 per month. This huge monthly cost encouraged the charity to look for
alternatives. A commercial mortgage on their own property would cost far less and mean that
the hounds would get even better care. The downside to this is the £100,000 deposit
needed! Not to be put off the charity recently launched a 'Pound for a Hound' campaign,
aiming to get 100,000 people to donate just £1. So far they have raised nearly £17,000
towards this target.
Some of that money has come from the
generous agility community, not just those who compete with sighthounds but everyone! I and
other Staffs Agility Club members have run fundraisers at the KC International Agility
Festival and Dashin' Dogs and contributed nearly £1000 to the pot.
I am hoping that the agility
community will get behind our latest fundraiser as part of Pound for a Hound and contribute
£1 to put a photo of something really important to them - it could be a dog - on our photo
collage. All you have to do is log on to
www.poundforahound.co.uk, pay your £1 and send us your photo and caption. The image will
then be put onto our website where you can view it. When we reach our target of £100,000, the
collage will be printed and displayed in the Greyhound Gap kennels as a tribute to everyone
who supported the great cause. So far over 400 images have been contributed, ranging from a
pile of chocolate to a baby scan and of course many gorgeous dogs.
We have also been fortunate enough to
have support of celebrities such as Joanna Lumley, Griff Rhys Jones and greyhound lover Jilly
Cooper. You will have to visit our website and view the collage to find their photos!
If you would like to know more about
our campaign or other ways to support Greyhound Gap please log onto the Greyhound Gap
web site or email me at
infopoundforahound@me.com Thank you!
(31/10/09)
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