Agility Dog Association of Australia Ltd

Handler Profile (July 2005) ~ Carl and Sharon Steele

Where do you live? Burrum Heads - Qld

Occupation:
Carl: Computer Systems Manager
Sharon: IT Trainer

Sharon, describe Carl in 25 words or less: Carl is wonderful (have to say that as he is watching me type this), a very analytical and practical person, inclined towards grumpiness at times.
Carl, describe Sharon in 25 words or less: Sharon is wonderful (have to say that, see above). She is the real dog trainer in our partnership. Sharon is not very logical at times and has no sense of direction.

Describe your Agility vehicle: Two dog kennels on wheels, a Holden Ute with canopy and built in crates and a Hyundai Excel with the back seat removed. Both have done heaps of kilometres travelling to dog things (most events we go to involve at least a 600km round trip) and will need replacing when we win lotto. We also tow an old caravan (the egg), purchased after freezing at Uralla the first year the Grand Prix was held there.

When did you start playing Agility and what drew you to the sport?
Carl: 1996 – Got bored watching Sharon train the dogs and decided to join in. Started with Bella who had just joined the family at age 2 and was only doing conformation with Sharon at that stage.
Sharon: 1995 – had played around in conformation and obedience on and off for years and then thought that Agility might be great fun - and it is.

Dogs and their achievements:

Our current four Boxers
Bella AAC MAAD2 (Aust Ch Boxabits Brindabella CD ET ADM JDM) 11 years Bella is a real velcro girl both on and off the agility field.  It took quite some time for us to find the key to getting her hyped and motivated.  Some of her achievements are: Maxi Team Winner ADAA Grand Prix - 2001 Runner-Up ADAA Maxi Agility Dog of the Year - 2002 Runner-Up Maxi Team Winner ADAA Grand Prix - 2004
Layla AAD (Beawinna Tender Trap CD ADX JD) 10 years Unfortunately Layla was retired early due to injury.  After she got over our initial bad training (we did everything wrong) she was a great agility dog.  Layla fills in her days leading Ruben astray, chasing insects and wrestling Bindi. Layla taught us just how forgiving a dog can be - thank heavens we started clicker training while she was still quite young.
Amy AAC (Krikkit Gold Amulet ADM JDM) 6 years The most driven of our kids.  Amy needs to be doing things constantly and keeps us busy.  She loves agility, especially when she can run her own course.  She also loves retrieving gloves and a game of tug with a soft toy.  Her achievements: Maxi Team Winner ADAA Grand Prix - 2002, 2003, 2004 3rd Maxi Individual Challenge ADAA Grand Prix - 2004
Ruben the Wonderdog (Krikkit Listen To The Band) 6 years Loves agility but does not compete as he finds the crowding at competitions too stressful.  His most favourite thing is actually retrieving in water, would be a great Dock Dog if that existed here.  His second favourite thing is playing with puppies or any dog that acts like a puppy - we think he likes the change from being bossed around by the girls in our family.
Our “All Australian” - she adopted us
Bindi (Boxer Chew Toy & Boxer Herder) 3ish years at a guess She has made some progress as far as developing confidence and motivation goes.  Bindi can now actually jump properly and is far more balanced (thanks to cavaletti's, Susan Garrett sharing her jump training methods and ideas, and advice from Natalie Kirkwood).  Teaching her to jump has been a big learning curve for us as Boxers are natural jumpers and generally very agile.

Where do you train your dogs? At home – luckily we have the room for agility gear.

What do you like about Agility?
Carl: The challenge of working out a course, the teamwork with my dog, and the buzz when it occasionally all works out and we run clean.
Sharon: The best thing for me is that Carl got hooked so I no longer had to think of reasons for having so many dogs. I also love the smiles on the dogs' faces when they are playing agility. The people involved in agility are great and we have made many good friends.

What is your favourite Agility event?
Carl: Gamblers with Amy – because she is quite happy working without me - in any event!  Jumping with Bella – because she turns very tightly for a large dog and it does not have those ‘Contact’ things that Bella took years to come to grips with.
Sharon: Elementary and Starters (basically all I do anyway LOL) because it’s extremely hard to get lost on course in those.  Also any Game that allows you to make up your own course, because if you get lost it does not necessarily look as if you are.
Both:  Pairs with Bella and Layla were a blast as the girls had a great working relationship.

What is the most important piece of advice that you have been given about Agility?
Carl: "Run Silently" – Bud Houston.
Sharon: "Stop feeding that dog in the Obedience Begging Position" - Bud Houston
Both: The most motivating advice was to be told that Bella was “untrainable and only good as a brood bitch” and not to bother doing anything with her.  Greg Derret's training on Course Strategy was brilliant.  We have both taken on board great advice and ideas from ADAA people over the years and at seminars.

What was the most difficult training problem that you have had to overcome?
Carl: Contacts until I finally settled on 2o/2o training.
Sharon: Weave Poles (my dogs are living proof that a dog will learn to weave despite the handler).

What are your most memorable moments in agility?
Carl: Bella the Velcro Dog getting her final Gamblers pass for her AAC.
Sharon: It would have to be two moments as I’ve cried twice about Agility – Bella earning her AAC, and Amy doing so well and having so much fun at the 2004 Grand Prix despite being half way through chemotherapy.

What will your next dog be and when do you think you will get it?
Carl: My next dog will be a mini shorthaired working dog for the current trend in tight courses :)
Sharon: A Boxer (Carl, please note!!). We have five dogs currently so will not be getting a new family member for some time - Bindi was an accident.

What is your favourite training game and how do you play it?
Carl: A Warp Speed Weaves hybrid. Restrained start - three widely spaced flowing jumps each side of weaves – has the dog travelling at max speed on weave entry and the handler left behind out of the picture. I start most of my training sessions with this game, Amy and Bella both love it.
Sharon: Training tricks (shaping) is great for a warm-up and I always do this with everyone before anything else – except with Ruben, apparently our favourite training game as a ‘team’ involves him bolting out of the house at 100 mph when it is his turn, doing the A-Frame, and then tearing back to me and launching himself at my head (I guess one day it will annoy me enough to actually do something about it).
Carl: About tricks: Don’t teach your spouses agility dog to bounce empty plastic drink bottles off their nose without telling him!!  Can be most interesting in team events when the baton is an empty drink bottle and the dog has been getting high reinforcement for interacting with it.

What is your next goal in agility?
Carl: To get Amy to enjoy and accelerate out of tight turns (too many of these in a course tends to shut her down).
Sharon: To work on Bindi’s weave entrances and generally keep building her confidence.

Any thing else you that you would like to share with the members: Three things..
1. Never let anyone tell you that your dog, or breed of dog, is untrainable.  Actual competition may not suit all dogs or all humans, but that does not mean that you and your dog can’t enjoy agility.
2. There is far more to motivation than teaching a dog to tug, motivation needs to be a lifestyle and every single interaction with your dog counts :)
3.  Enjoy Agility with your spouse – find 1001 new things to argue about.

....... And - big thanks to Bella's and Amy's Grand Prix team mates over the past 4 years!
 

Ruben, Bella, Bindi and Layla soaking in the winter sun.

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