Hounds have a hankering for agility

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/04/2011 (5278 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s an idea that started with a few hundred bucks and a newspaper ad.

Rewind to 1997 and Janet Ingersoll and Iris Shrimpton — two dog lovers with a desire to teach and train — were weary of taking their animals on the road to Minneapolis, Saskatchewan and beyond for sport agility competitions. That’s when the two ladies put their heads together and came up with a novel concept to start their own club.

The Hi-Flyers Agility Training Centre was born.

“When we started we had around $500 and no equipment,” began Shrimpton. “We put an ad in the paper, rented a building for a night and just sat there waiting see if anyone would come. That first night eight people showed up.

“We’ve gone from that to now having 170 people on the waiting list. We just thought the only way this was going to grow is if somebody started it locally and gave people a place to go.”

On a spring night in the warehouse district near the Richardson International Airport a dozen dogs and their owners are being drilled like marines in the school’s advanced class, manoeuvring through tunnels, sprinting up and down inclines, leaping through tires and clearing jumps. It’s one of three classes that will take place this evening in a building dominated by the excited barks of the animals. Other sessions are set aside for beginners and intermediates.

Since 1997, Ingersoll, Shrimpton and their trainers have handled over 1,000 dogs for competition and just for fun. And that’s what is instantly evident from the moment a visitor steps into the facility on Bradford Street: the animals and their owners are absolutely thrilled to be there.

“The dogs love it. People tell us, ‘My dog starts barking when we’re two blocks away from the building,’ ” said Shrimpton. “This is like their second home because they’re here so much.”

Ingersoll, Shrimpton & Co. have trained every breed imaginable at Hi-Flyers, from Weimaraners to cocker spaniels to Labradors to border collies. There are Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers, Australian cattle dogs, West Highland terriers and whippets. They’ve worked with toy poddles and enormous animals like the mastiff, Great Dane and Newfoundland.

Quite clearly, then, a good trainer must love dogs. And here’s the evidence: Shrimpton is retired but still comes to the centre three times a week. Ditto for Ingersoll, who is a director at McDonald Youth Services during the day.

“I love teaching the beginners because at the start they say, ‘I don’t know if my dog can do this,’ ” said Ingersoll. “But the learning curve at the beginning is huge when they get their dogs on a teeter-totter and through tunnels. It’s amazing. I’d say 99 per cent of the dogs love it. The owners, too.”

“I tell people this is a hobby,” added Shrimpton.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

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