The Joy of Dog Sports

Agility Dog 7
Originally uploaded by Valusint.

Today Ethan and I went to the Oregon State Fair in Salem. Ethan has spoken about his visit last year as an unanticipated summer highlight, so I was excited to make the trek today, partially motivated by that surge of "I better have a lot of fun right NOW!" that one experiences during high summer, when you can smell the return of work and school on the wind.

I was most excited about seeing The American Kennel Club Dog Agility Competition in action. I had previously seen this amazing spectacle of athleticism only on Animal Planet my sophomor year of college, under the (superior) name Agility Dog.

Basically, a series of dogs are guided around an obstacle course by their human companions in a scored time trial. Obstacles include running through tubes, teeter-totters, steeple jumps, and pausing on a platform. This was, I imagine, invented, or at least embraced and marketed, by traditional dog show organizers who were witnessinng the success of extreme human sports and felt that extreme dog sports would be equally popular. If only they could find a way to incoporate parachutes, I think this thing would really take off.

What was most amazing about seeing this sport in real life was how unbelievably happy the dogs seemed about competing. As they slalomed (or weaved, depending on size) through a series of poles, some of the dogs yipped with joy after passing each post. It was as if they were screaming "I LOVE THIS!" I realize that human athletes enjoy their physical endeavours as well, but, as Ethan pointed out, you don't see soccer players, while running down the field after the ball, shouting about their love for the game.

It really made you feel good about being alive, seeing how good the dogs seemed to feel about it. The fact that the dogs awareness of being in a competition with other dogs - as opposed to just playing with their human and canine friends - is dubous and unknowable at best. A truly pure love of the game.

Weird how much I've ended up (kind of) talking about sports here. I would like to reference Cameron's post about humans' relative lack of physiccal prowess as a related and entertaining read.

I want to see dogs on trampolines! In parachutes! On skis! Playing jai-alai!