Professional K9 Handler Blog

Marcy Mantell & Stripe

It is hard to believe, but, last fall I competed for the 7th time at the FCI Agility World Championships in Sweden. My six prior years were 2007-2012, when I had the honor to proudly represent the USA with my Sheltie, Wave. And, this year, I was proud to represent for the first time with Stripe. Now, it would be easy to think all the years with Wave would have dulled my experience with Stripe. But, they had not, as no two years were ever alike. Each one was unique always offering different teammates, countries, judges, courses, arenas, agility competitors, good runs, bad runs, supporters, sights, landscapes, foods, weather conditions, hotels, transportation, and, so, the list goes on and on. And, of course all of them have left me with a life time of incredible memories.

But, “What makes the FCI Agility World Championships special?”. I have been asked this question more times than any other. And, I always hesitate to answer, because I a

AWC and the coaches

My name is Carla McAlister and my first exposure to the world team coaches was as an alternate for the 2016 team. And this year, 2018 I won my spot onto the team and had the full experience. I did not have any clue what the coaches did for this event until I saw it all happen. And truly, I am positive there are a million things that I didn't see happen as well. And when someone asked me after I had returned from Sweden about the coaches and what they did, I realized that maybe other people were curious about how it all worked.

By Jennifer Crank

A rear cross is one of three crosses that can be done in order to change the side the dog is on when on course. The front cross and blind cross are both side changes done in front of the dog dog while a rear cross is a side change done behind the dog. You will constantly be presented with the decision of which cross to perform. Strategy is part of what agility is all about. Should you choose a rear cross, where should the rear cross be? What type of rear cross should I be doing? Is my dog reading it correctly? Let’s take a look at all that can go into perfecting a rear cross.