A Day in the Life: Agility Handler
Spend a day with Julie Daniels and her dogs as they leap their way to success.
By Denise Flaim
Julie Daniels of New Hampshire spent the last half of the 1980s driving around the East Coast with a trailer full of homemade jumps and tunnels, trying to drum up interest in a new dog activity called agility. It was worth the mileage.
Today, the timed test of canine athleticism has become not only a bona fide sport, but an intensely popular and competitive one. Animal Planet routinely airs agility trials, and entire breeding programs are hinged on producing dogs who are able to leap, dash, and pivot faster than a speeding Border Collie.
And Daniels has kept pace. The author of three agility books and one of the sport's first competitors and judges, she has won many gold medals in top-level American tournaments, and has been a member of two gold-medal-winning international teams.
Her days are crammed with teaching – she offers classes at the White Mountain Agility School, teaches off site once a week, and conducts weekend seminars – as well as doing: She loves to run her dogs.
Come along as we follow her through a day of competition.Want to read the full story? Pick up the March 2008 issue of DOG FANCY today, or subscribe to get 12 months of articles just like this.
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