Agility Dog Association of Australia Ltd

Handler Profile (December 2004) ~ Marion Allen

Where do you live?  Brisbane, Northside  - we have just moved to a 40 acre block in Morayfield, so the dogs have room to roam and my husband, Neville has no free time as he is doing  weekend farming work  just to make sure he is never idle!!

Occupation: Once upon a time I was a pharmacist, I no longer practice, I do Neville’s company Books and accounting, and spend lots of time doing Non money making Dog Agility work !!

Describe you agility vehicle: Our Nissan X trail usually does the carting around, but the Allens have been known to arrive with 8 dogs and 3 people in the Kia Rio ….. anything will do as long as we get to the Agility competition.

When did you start playing agility, what drew you to the sport? We bought our first Border Collie, Tasha, when I stopped work when our Daughter Tandy was born  in 1980…we were then living in Windhoek, Namibia, and so the only Local dog training club was Windhoek Hundeklub (a German dog training school) and we were introduced to our first obstacle training, scaling 6 foot walls  etc   Neville and I first started  in Dog Jumping (South African early version of Agility) in 1982 after we moved to Cape Town,  South Africa, and became  very  involved in the sport, ran the Provincial Council Subcommittee,  judged etc,   we then moved to Australia in 1994, vowed to never get so deeply in the mire again, just to compete and have fun !! However such plans seldom work  out… and we slowly got drawn into ADAA involvement . We first trained at Suncoast, then ADCQ as the weekend training was easier…then somehow we were convinced  of the need to get a northside club going, so PADS evolved now we are on the Board of Directors of ADAA and are both Judges!! What happened ?? I’m not sure except that obviously if you really enjoy a sport… you get involved. If we all sat on the sidelines and merely had fun  there would be no Sport to compete in.

Dogs and their achievements: We had 5 Border Collies in South Africa, and now have 4 Border Collies and a Sheltie. I currently compete with Flicka, my sheltie… who is a great little dog to run, very steady and as long as I give the correct directions seems to understand the game quite well . She has her AAC, her MAAD 5 and her gamblers Dog title.. I am currently starting my young Border Collie,  DASH, who is enthusiastic, but a soft dog  but does really great nose touches on her contact equipment… and am trying to instill the basics of control in the head of my youngest BC, Schnapps… he is far from soft and I think lots of comprehension of listening to me will be needed before he goes anywhere near agility equipment. Well that’s the plan anyway!!

Where do you train? I train at PADS, Eatons Hill Brisbane. As we are ther every Monday, Thursday and Saturday.. either training our dogs or instructing it leaves little time to train elsewhere!! 

What do you like about agility? I love the friendship that exists between ADAA Dog Handlers. It is great to see people helping each other, encouraging each other when all does not go as planned. What other sport allows Juniors to compete alongside adults.. It is really great at club level to see seasoned competitors helping the newcomers, adults helping kids, kids helping each other. At our recent Open day several of our juniors were out on the field helping members of the public, showing them the basics of Click and reward !! It is a sport where you can have fun whether you achieve or not, and the more you relax and have fun the quicker the successes will come.

What is your favourite ADAA event? (Agility/Jumping/Gamblers, etc) and Why? I guess I like the Games… its great to play a new game, fresh from the judges mind  either in teams pairs or individual . They also offer a chance to compete with a little less pressure, strategy is needed, but you can succeed by changing the game plan as you go… if the initial plan goes wrong..you have just got to learn to run and think at the same time!!

What was the most important piece of advice that you have been given about agility? Now any PADS member could answer this one, just have fun and the more you relax the less you will stress your dog and the better your dog will do. Do try and listen to your instructors while you have fun !!

What was the most difficult training problem that you have overcome? I think it’s the wild arms, Bud Houston said they were the wildest this side of OHIO… so it needs conscious effort to keep one glued to my side… Oh yes and Turn those shoulders where you want the dog to go.

What is your most memorable moment in agility? It would have to be Uralla 2004 in general… Flicka won Dog of the year and Individual Challenge in mini class, and was in that runner up team that was rather “ Classy “… Flicka has lots of wins but never have we had such a good streak all in 1 weekend.

What will your next dog be and when do you think you will get it? No more dogs for a while, but it will only be Border Collies while I am still fit and able, I love Shelties but my first love is the bc’s.

What is your favourite training game and how do you play it?  Tugging is definitely the favourite for my 2 young dogs, I am using the tug to teach left and right .. hopefully spinning them with the tug toy. Flicka has learned to tug… very gently but has now added vocals…so her enthusiasm is growing. Flicka however hasn’t seen the joy of tugging that Borders have, she tugs for treats… the better the treat the better the tug. She even goes around  to anyone with a bumbag, and tugs their jacket cords, any toy they have hanging from their belts, or even their trackpants …. Then barks for a treat… very cute!!but not sure if she will evr tug for  the fun of tugging as my puppies do.

What is your next goal in agility?  Flicka needs to get her Snooker title, I don’t think that IAD will be coming our way for a while unless we get quicker. DASH needs to get ready to compete next year.

Any other interesting information about you that you would like to share with the members: Many people get discouraged when their dogs don’t take to the sport immediately and the more stressed they get, the worse their dog gets. I think all dogs can derive pleasure doing agility…some just take a while to see the Fun side. Agility is a bit like a roller coaster ride… sometimes you are heading upwards and sometimes a rapid turn sends you downwards, but rollercoasters do go up eventually. Sharon  a PADS member  (in fact the president) has a cattle dog Tess who 2 years ago had a stroke of some sort and was paralysed down one side. She slowly recovered, so Sharon set her sights on just getting her MAAD title… once achieved she raised the stakes, and having finally earned that last elusive Gamble card  earned her AAC Not bad for a dog that many would have thought,… her agility career is over..This may not be encouraging to someone battling to get their AAD, who cares about AAC. Well our Red/white B/C Flame, now semi-retired  having earned her AAC and MAAD4, took about 2 years to ever earn a clear round card at all …. We definitely thought we had an agility DODO…So when you start competing don’t go chasing clear rounds, don’t think of a round with 2 or 3 penalties as bad.. think of it as a round where you probably did  more than ¾ of the equipment successfully… it only takes one mistake to get an elimination so you were more successful than unsuccessful, so it was a good round.

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