Why I started agility
 Once Samantha Newstead
had gone to her first agility show, she was well and truly hooked. She came
to training on the following Thursday, still bubbling over with excitement. As her club Weald
Agility Group is always looking for members to contribute to their newsletter, she was
promptly nobbled. Thank you to WAGS for allowing us to reprint her story.
First of all let us tell you a bit about my dog Poppy.
She's a very energetic cream coloured Cock-a-Poo who loves to play and chase her ball - all day
long if she could. I first thought about doing agility when Poppy was six months old the reason
being is she tends to bark, and I felt that maybe she was not being mentally stimulated enough.
After doing some research, I found out that she would need to be a year old so that was that
for a while. When she was a year my friend recommended an agility club called WAGS (Weald
Agilty Society) and put me in touch with them.
Our first evening was quite daunting but also inspiring
and exciting to see the more experienced dogs and handlers running the courses much more easily
and gracefully (well most of the time). It seemed impossible that we would ever get to a point
anywhere near that standard; but I
was wrong.
As the weeks progressed,
Poppy and I improved, We really started to enjoy it. It sounds silly but to see Poppy doing the
jumps made me so proud and also happy to see her enjoying herself so much, you could see she
wanted to learn and couldn’t wait till it was her turn to have a go.
We are eight months into
our lessons and loving it as much as ever. We have done our first competition which was nerve
racking but also such good fun and I learnt so much that day from watching and talking to
others who are much more experienced. Poppy still likes to bark but not as much as she did and
after her lesson she is far too tired to do anything.
I have to say I started it
for one simple reason but both Poppy and I have gained so much more out of it than I thought
possible. I have met some really nice people and Poppy has made some new friends too. It is
quality time for owner and dog and I would recommend it to anyone.
About the author...
Samantha Newstead is a pharmacy technician who is engaged to Richard. They have a
five year old daughter Jessica. Poppy is her toy poodle X cocker spaniel.
Sam and Richard have just got a new dog for Jessica to
train - with Mum’s help, of course - because young Jess wants to go out with her own dog and join in
the fun.
First published 23 August 2012
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