Episode 95: Agility with Your Dog!

Today we are joined by Megan Foster, owner of Synergy Dog Sports, long-time judge for the United States Dog Agility Association, and expert agility coach! We are also joined by two of Good Dog's own, Regan Abromitis & Rachel Jefferds, who regularly compete in agility with their Aussies.

Megan describes what agility is, what's so engaging about it, and what you need to get started. She also discusses the human-dog relationship, and how that factors into competing in agility.

We finish the episode with a conversation between Mikel, Regan, and Rachel to learn about Regan & Rachel's personal experiences with agility. Learn about their dogs, how they got into agility, and what they love about it!

Your Litter A to Z is the leading, science-based course for dog breeders. It includes expertly designed 18 modules, checklists, and reports that cover before breeding, getting your bitch pregnant, whelping your litter and raising your pups. If you're already a member of Good Dog, you can access the course here! And if you're not a member, you can join our community here.

Transcript

Mikel Delgado [0:23] Hi, everybody! You are tuned in to the Good Dog Pod. This week, we’re going to talk dog agility. We’re here with Megan Foster. She is the owner of Synergy Dog Sports, where she teaches agility full-time, both in person and through online classes. She has been doing agility for over 20 years and has competed with several dogs and dog breeds, including an American Eskimo and a West Highland White Terrier. She’s worked with Shelties, Border Collies, and Parson Russell Terriers. Megan’s accomplishments include many titles through AKC and the United States Dog Agility Association. She’s done and earned regional and national championships. She has represented the US at the European Open in 2015. And she was also a United States Dog Agility Association Judge for over 10 years. So, you can imagine why I’m so excited to talk to Megan about agility. She is an agility whiz. You can learn more about Megan’s training program and seminars at her website, which is syngerydogsports.com. So everyone, please join me in welcoming Megan Foster to the Good Dog Pod today. Hi, Megan!

Megan Foster [1:28] Hi, Mikel! Thanks for having me. 

MD [1:30] Of course. I always like to start by learning a little bit about the speaker and their personal journey. Would you mind telling us a little bit about how you got started with agility, how you knew this is what I want to do? 

MF [1:42] Sure! Our family dog was in obedience. I was 4-5 years old. And agility was just starting to become a thing here in the states. My parents were taking dogs through obedience training, and they were getting a little bit serious, thinking about competitive obedience. And then the obedience club said, “We really are interested in this agility thing. What does everyone think?” We all started making our own equipment and finding places to practice and train. I was pretty well hooked. I was working with other people’s dogs because I was told I wasn’t old enough to get a dog of my own. So, actually, the American Eskimo and the Westie were not my own dogs. They were dogs that were given to me so I could participate. 

MD [2:37] That’s so cool. 

MF [2:38] Exactly. I was hooked from a very early age, that this was definitely something that I wanted to do. I wanted to work with dogs. I wanted to run around an obstacle course. I don’t know what it was. But I was hooked from day one. Seriously, I never looked back.

MD [2:56] It sounds like your parents also really encouraged this. It was a family affair that turned into your specialty, which is pretty cool. 

MF [3:05] It was. It was definitely a family thing. I will say that I got hooked the most. I was the one that was the most competitive and wanted to do it all the time and was always choosing practicing with the dogs and going to seminars rather than hanging out with peers of my own or sports or anything like that. It was immediate passion.

MD [3:30] That’s so cool. So on the weekends, your parents were driving you to the dog competitions—not to the mall or to games.

MF [3:37] That’s right. 

MD [3:38] Nice. Well, let’s talk about what agility is and is not. I happened to watch a little bit of the Crufts Agility this weekend. There was a lot of fun stuff going on. I guess in my mind, it’s basically an obstacle course for dogs. But it’s also a competitive sport. I also assume that there are aspects of it that I’m not even thinking about, that grow or change to keep the experienced agility person interesting. Right? There has to be something that keeps you going for 20+ years. How would you describe agility to someone who’s kind of new to it?

MF [4:10] You’re on the right track. It is an obstacle course. I think what gets understated is the teamwork in here, the language that develops between the person and the dog and how you spend a couple of years working with an animal, and it’s almost like you’re reading each other’s minds out there at some point. That’s what gets you hooked, I think. Also, agility has this very wide spectrum: something that can be done just as a hobby, that you never have to compete, that’s just good for relationship building, good training, good enrichment, good exercise—and then it goes all the way to what you were watching on Crufts. Very competitive. Very high speeds. Totally different game. And everything in between! There is a flavor of agility for everyone out there.

MD [5:00] It looks very physical on the human’s end as well.

MF [5:04] It can be. There’s also a really wide spectrum of handling styles that one can adopt, because dogs are amazing, and they can learn anything. Handlers that like to run and want to be a little bit more close to the dog and running around as fast as they can—they have that ability. There’s an outlet for that. There’s also an outlet of agility for less mobile handlers, or handlers that just don’t enjoy running. Those people exist as well! 

MD [5:36] That’s good to know. It can accommodate those that don’t or can’t do that much physical activity.

MF [5:42] It’s a very friendly sport. 

MD [5:44] That’s great. If someone is like, “Ooh, this sounds cool,” how do they get started? What equipment do they need? Does their dog need to have certain training skills before they get started? Where would you recommend they start?

MF [5:55] It is a great (and also an overwhelming) time to get started in this sport, because we have the Internet. When I first started agility, there was one magazine, and that’s where we got our information. We just went with it. But now you can probably find a fantastic agility instructor in your area, or you can find a fantastic agility instructor online. There’s a lot that can be done when it comes to agility in small spaces, with very little equipment. In my living room, I practice with just a traffic cone and a couple of platforms. There’s a ton of skills that I teach my young dogs and my experienced dogs without having to drive up the hill and go to the actual practice course. But eventually, once you get hooked and once you’re really thinking about starting to piece things together and compete, you do have to have access somewhere to the full equipment and things like that. Most of my students don’t have everything at home. It usually starts with one little item, and then they’ll pick another one up. Eventually, over a couple of years, their homes get flooded with the real stuff. But it’s usually pretty easy to find places with the equipment as well.

MD [7:15] Can you throw together a little couch cushion and a hula-hoop?

MF [7:21] Yeah! Essentially, yeah. I have done so many things like that, mostly because I don’t like leaving the house unnecessarily. You can get very creative and teach the dog the skills, and transfer those skills to the actual equipment later on. 

MD [7:39] Very cool. Do you observe breed differences in dogs you’ve worked with? We work with breeders at Good Dog, and some of them (I’m assuming) are breeding dogs that are well-suited for agility, but can any dog pick this up? What makes a dog well-suited for agility? Is it their age? Is it their breed? Is it their personality?

MF [7:57] It’s everything. That wide spectrum of agility that does exist does allow for a wider variety of breeds to be able to participate safely. But it’s still a very athletic endeavor. They’re jumping. Sometimes they’re climbing things. They’re going back and forth. There’s a lot of repetitive actions in agility. There’s some impact in agility. Just by all of that, we want to make sure that we’re looking for sound dogs—structurally sound dogs—and fit dogs. Not all pets are going to be immediately functional in that way. They might need some conditioning to be able to excel at and really enjoy it. 

MD [8:43] If your dog needs to lose some weight, they’re not going to be running this course immediately.

MF [8:49] Exactly. Depending on how you jump into it, some people think that agility is good exercise. It is, but it needs to be reframed differently. Agility when the dog is fit is not the same as agility when the dog is getting fit. Just like any exercise that we would do. We wouldn’t jump into the highest caliber of rock climbing when we’re not fit for rock climbing yet. We would start at a lower level. We would start with the skills and work up our strength for that.

MD [9:24] That’s great. So, the obstacle course—maybe we could talk a little bit about some of the components. There’s a see-saw and the A-frame climbing ramps and hoops and hurdles. Do you have a favorite obstacle that you like to train on? Is it like, once a dog gets that, you’re like, “Yes!”?

MF [9:44] For sure. The see-saw is hands-down my favorite to teach, just because so many dogs can have some different feelings about something that moves and makes noise. So watching them develop this understanding: oh, I make it move? I make it make noise? I did that? I have that power?! It’s so overwhelmingly a good feeling. It’s so powerful. It’s my favorite to teach. It’s the contact obstacle that I start with. I start with it as soon as my puppy’s brain can handle that sort of thing. I’m introducing elements of the see-saw: playing games with metal utensils and baking dishes so that they understand I make things move, and I can make things make noise. 

MD [10:35] There’s a certain amount of instability involved with the see-saw, too. 

MF [10:40] Exactly. So we can introduce more and more of these layers to them before they ever even see a real see-saw. So that when they do, they’re like oh, I know this game. BOOM! And they smash it into the ground, and they’re like: Yeah, I did that! They’re so happy, and they’re so proud of themselves. Again, that is 100% my favorite thing to teach.

MD [10:58] That’s really cool. For those that are experienced in agility (and you’ve been doing this a long time), how do you keep things fresh and exciting? I can imagine one is you’re training new dogs. Two is: does the course change? When you’re competing, do you know what the course is going to be? Is the dog trained on a specific course? Or do you really just have to know how to do all of the pieces and once you get there, we’ll tell you what order they’re in?

MF [11:20] The second thing. All of the obstacles stay the same throughout all of agility. There have not been many modifications to the obstacles since I started over 20 years ago. Things have been made safer, but the general idea of all the obstacles has stayed the same. But how the courses are put together, from one obstacle to the next and crossing patterns and distances between the obstacles—that changes every single time you step into the ring. When you sign up, you might sign up for 4 or 5 different runs that have a general theme to them. We have some courses that are just jumps and tunnels, some that are all of the equipment, some where you have to follow the numbers, and there are some strategy games, where you have to make up your own course to earn points. It’s a wide variety of things, so you can expect certain things based on the rules, but you don’t know what it’s going to be. You show up, and you’ve got an 8-10 minute walk-through, where you can familiarize yourself with the obstacles and plan your strategy and rehearse how it’s going to go. Then you’re up! You’re in there. It’s ready to go!

MD [12:35] Is that the adrenaline rush that keeps you going? Or is it really about other parts of it that really have kept you invested for so long?

MF [12:41] It’s both. It’s a puzzle. Planning your agility run is really about: how well can you predict your dog and their behavior? How are they going to respond to this today? Where are they going to take off? Where are they going to land? Where do I need to be to make sure that they know where they need to be? Planning that puzzle and seeing how many of those pieces did I get in the right place—that’s what keeps me going. 

MD [13:45] I wanted to shift things to maybe a little more about the human/dog relationship part of agility. I recognize that’s probably a huge component of this, just from what you’ve described: the communication between the person and the dog. What are the biggest challenges for the humans of the dogs who are doing agility? 

MF [14:02] It’s kind of tricky, but I actually think it’s more mindset skills that become the biggest challenge. When we’re talking about other sports that are maybe more individual, there’s not the same relationship with a tennis racket or a baseball bat that there is with the animal that we spend our entire lives with. Agility is such a small part of that. The rest of it is our emotional selves wrapped up in our favorite little creature. So it can be hard to put yourself out there in a competitive sense and have all those emotions tied into it and not take it personally when it doesn’t go quite right, or not be incredibly disappointed. It’s not just oh, that was a disappointing match and you can put the tennis racket away and move on. It’s that was a disappointing trial day, and now I’m going to go hang out with my disappointment for the rest of the day. I think separating or just accepting that we can be both competitive and compassionate is a big part of it. 

MD [15:13] Because the dog doesn’t know they lost. 

MF [15:15] They have no idea!

MD [15:18] They might pick up that you’re upset about something, right?

MF [15:20] Exactly. Unfortunately, dogs are a little bit narcissists so they sometimes do think oh, you’re upset; are you upset with me? So it’s important to be able to just put that away at the end of the day and go, “Okay, this was something we do together, but this is not who we are. This is not who I am.” Even with it being such a big, huge part of my life—I compete and I also make this my profession—it’s separate. It’s: Yeah, I went to a competition today. Whatever. It’s fine. It went great or it went poorly. Now, back to work.

MD [15:55] Speaking of your work, you do classes for people. And you’re helping people who are getting into agility. Can you tell me a little bit about how that works? Is it really just classes, or do you do private one-on-one training? Is it really about training the person? Are you working directly with the dog? Where do your services come in for someone who’s getting into agility?

MF [16:16] I teach primarily online. Typically, if people were new, they would come into my handling series, where I actually start with a 6-week course on just handler-only skills, so the handler has some fluency in their body movements and how they can be directing the dog more clearly on course, so when we do add the dog in, they already have a sense of what’s going on. Training two brand-new learners at the same time is messy at best! 

MD [16:50] Is it about how training works, or is it like, “Don’t be making extraneous body movements when you’re trying to communicate something clearly!” or…?

MF [17:00] It’s both. Dogs have a very specific order of how they naturally respond to our bodies. They respond to movement first and foremost. If you’re running really fast, they’re running really fast. If you slow down, they slow down. And then there’s all these other intricacies about where you’re looking and where your chest is facing and what your feet are doing. We tend to be handsy humans, that talk with our hands, and that’s mostly distracting to the dogs. They learn that our hands are important because we feed them. We have to reign all that in, and then add the dog in.

MD [17:42] Do you ever have clients where you’re like, “Yeah, you and your dog are not going to compete.” Or is it just encouraging people to do this for fun? Are there some people that are really hardcore serious?

MF [17:52] Most of my clients know that they want to compete. I find that it’s actually very few that just stay for fun. They get into it. They enjoy it. Their dogs are enjoying it. And they really want to dip their toes into competing. For a lot of people, competition becomes such a huge part of their social lives. It’s what they’re doing, instead of going to brunch on the weekend or the golf course on the weekend. They’re going to a dog show on the weekend. We make friends with all these people that we stand around with all day, while we wait for our 30 seconds of adrenaline. 

MD [18:33] The course is that short, right? 

MF [18:37] A minute—usually less than a minute! For non-dog people, we look insane. I know. 

MD [18:45] It’s time and completing the course correctly, right?

MF [18:49] Right.

MD [18:49] It’s amazing that it’s just: you’re in there—and you’re out!

MF [18:52] Exactly. You wake up way earlier than you would like to. You spend all day at an event in the weather, usually. Whatever the weather! Because you’re either outside or in a horse arena, typically. And then you run 3 times maybe, and then you go home, and you wake up and you do it again the next day! Insane!

MD [19:17] It’s dedication.

MF [19:17] Yes. 

MD [19:19] What’s most rewarding to you about your work, especially training others to do agility?

MF [19:23] Back to those puzzles, I love solving puzzles! Every single one of my dogs has been a puzzle. I find that most of my clients find me because they have a puzzle that they need to solve. When I’m helping someone else solve a puzzle, and I can light their passion for dog training and problem solving, when they send me back a video and they’ve solved it and they made this huge breakthrough—that is my jam! People need to be as nerdy about it as I am. 

MD [19:56] What about your own dogs? Are they all competing? Do you have some dogs that get to just lounge on the couch all day?

MF [20:03] They all do agility, and they also all lounge on the couch all day.

MD [20:08] So all of your dogs do agility. That’s impressive. How many dogs do you have? 

MF [20:13] Between my partner and I, we have 5. He also competes in agility. When we get a new dog, the intent is always: I like doing agility. I’m going to talk with breeders, find the dog that’s a good fit for an agility lifestyle—hiking in the woods, traveling, things like that. Thinking about that temperament and that sound structure. And then we bring them home, and we start training. If at any point in time, they are not showing that this is their jam, this is not what they want to do with their career, then that’s okay! My Parson Russell Terrier, for instance, is six and a half, and he’s just now starting to turn onto the career possibilities. That’s okay! All of my dogs get the same training, as if they were going to enter the competition ring, even if they never do. Competing—even though it’s such a big part of my life—is such a small part in the whole scheme of things.

MD [21:15] Agility is obviously more than just a weekend activity. It sounds like you’re living and breathing it.

MF [21:20] Always. 

MD [21:23] We like to end with a fun question about dogs. What’s the one thing you would like to know about dogs—an unanswered question that you wish we knew the answer to? 

MF [21:34] I am so fascinated by their noses. I want to know more about their noses! This is so strange, but it’s so recent. My laundry got washed with a different detergent, and it came out, and I was like, “Oh no. This is not acceptable.” I’m thinking, “If I feel that way, do they feel that way?” They have way more powerful noses. Do they have a headache from this new overwhelming scent?

MD [22:10] It’s interesting. They’re so sensitive, but you also have to think they’re more tolerant at the same time, because otherwise, wouldn’t it just be sensory overload? 

MF [22:18] Their heads would explode! I see it, when I’m working them. Their noses turn off. When my dogs are working, they can ignore meatballs on the ground because the work is so powerful. As soon as work is over, they’re like meatballs! 

MD [22:35] That’s interesting. We’re going to have a series on detection dogs and nosework coming up on the Good Dog Pod. Maybe we can get some of those questions answered. I want to thank you so much for being here. It’s been really fun chatting with you! Before we wrap up, where can people find you online or elsewhere?

MF [22:52] I am all over social media. You mentioned my website in the beginning of the podcast. I have a mailing list there.

MD [23:02] Let’s mention that URL one more time.

MF [23:03] synergydogsports.com. If you join my mailing list, when I email you, it will be packed with training tips, not just sales pitches—I promise! But I’m also on Facebook, Instagram as @synergydogs. I’m also on TikTok! I’m all over. 

MD [23:24] Perfect. I love the name of your business. It really reflects your attitude about the human/dog relationship in agility. 

MF [23:31] That was really important to me. Both ends of the leash are always considered. Every team I work with is unique. It’s a very unique trifecta of the human, the dog, and the partnership that they create. 

MD [23:45] Thank you so much! It’s been great having you here! You are tuned into the Good Dog Pod. I’m Dr. Mikel Delgado. Continuing on the agility thread, we thought it would be really fun to have two members of Good Dog’s team talk to us about their personal experiences with agility. So, today, I’ve got Reagan and Rachel here with me. Just to tell you a little about them, Reagan works with established breeders on the Good Dog platform. Prior to joining us here at Good Dog, she got her bachelor’s degree in animal sciences from North Carolina State, and she worked at a veterinary clinic in North Carolina as a rehab assistant. Rachel works with new breeders who are in the process of joining Good Dog. She also worked in a veterinary clinic before joining us. She earned a bachelor’s degree in anthrozoology, which is the study of human/animal interactions from Carol College. At some point, both Reagan and Rachel moved to Salt Lake City, became friends, and started working at Good Dog. The rest is history. Apparently, they’re also neighbors; I just found out! But the reason we’re here today is that you are both active in agility with your dogs. I thought it would be super fun for our community to get to know some of us who work at Good Dog, to hear about your personal experiences with agility. Thank you both for taking the time to chat with me today. 

First, I’d love to hear about your dogs. Do you have more than one dog each and do they all do agility? We’ll start with Rachel.

Rachel [25:08] I have three dogs. They’re all Australian Shepherds. I have a nine-and-a-half-year-old named Josie. An almost-two year-old named Sage. And a one-year-old named Ochre. Josie is retired from everything. She my old lady and my hiking companion. But the younger two are just getting started in their agility careers.

MD [25:28] Nice. Reagan, what about your dogs?

Reagan [25:31] I have two dogs. Also both Australian Shepherds. Psych is almost five years old. I got him when he was three-years-old from a rehome situation. He is just starting trialing this past year. I have my puppy Valley who is about a year old, and we’ve been doing foundation training, basically since she’s come home. 

MD [25:53] Nice. How did you both get started in agility? Was it something you knew you wanted to do when you got your dogs or did you discover it after you’d gotten your dogs? What attracted you to agility? 

Rachel [26:05] I saw it on TV as a kid. I thought it looked like so much fun! I was like I’ve got to do this. I really want to get into agility! So actually my dad helped me build some basic equipment out of pipes, some jumps and weaves and even a small teeter-totter. I just practiced in the backyard with our Whippets. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was just having a good time. I was 11. I started to get into it a little more seriously when Josie, my older dog, was a puppy. But due to college and her going partially blind at the age of 4, unfortunately, her agility career was ended pretty early. But Sage is the first dog that I’m really starting to compete and get serious with, along with Ochre. 

MD [26:50] Nice. Reagan, what about you?

Reagan [26:51] I got my first Australian Shepherd—my first personal dog—when I was 12 years old. He ended up being a really wild dog for a 12-year-old to own. Really dog and human reactive. It was a lot of work. When we went to college, I started working for a sport training facility. I would work in exchange for private lessons, because he was too reactive to do group lessons. He was 8 years old when we started. It was just so good for him. His confidence and our relationship—I was obsessed. I couldn’t wait to get more serious with my next dog.

MD [27:35] That seems to be a common thread about agility: people become very obsessed with it. It seems like it’s got some kind of positive feedback loop, and it makes people addicted to it. You two—you work together, you’re friends, you’re neighbors. Do you practice and compete together? Do you find that it helps to have that support of a friend who’s also doing agility? Is it a very social event for you? 

Rachel [28:00] Yes! We actually carpool to agility every week. We have done trials together. Now that both of our puppies—Valley and Ochre are actually siblings—once they’re old enough to travel, we’ll be doing it more and more. I think it’s super helpful to have a friend that’s involved. It’s great to have that support; it’s super enjoyable! It’s also fun because we can video each other and help each other out when we’re training, which is super helpful.

MD [28:24] Great. Reagan, anything to add?

Reagan [28:27] Yeah, aside from the carpooling, we also do ring rentals on weekends. It’s just so nice having someone who can sit there for hours at trials with you. It’s been really great having a friend who’s also involved. I feel like it keeps us motivated.

MD [28:42] Are you competitive as dog parents? Are you trying to see whose dog is going to do best? 

R [28:47] I don’t think so. We just have fun together! 

R [28:50] We support each other. We laugh when our dogs do silly things, when we do silly things as handlers. Ultimately, a lot of it is on us as handlers. No, we just have a really good time.

MD [29:02] I just had to ask! Reagan, what would you recommend to any of our listeners who are thinking about trying agility with their dogs?

Reagan [29:09] I say absolutely go for it! It’s so fun! Even if you aren’t looking to compete or trial ever, it’s just such a fun way to build your relationship with your dog. They have a great time learning. Just find some foundation classes nearby and get involved!

MD [29:27] Rachel, what advice do you have for someone setting up a homemade agility course in their backyard, since you did so as a child?

Rachel [29:33] There are some great videos on YouTube. There are some great websites online that teach you how to make it. There are even affordable homemade kits that you can buy, that just have all the pieces. Just have fun building it! Add some tape, make it look nice and pretty. Have fun!

MD [29:49] Do you both recommend working with a trainer? Was that a necessary component of succeeding?

R [29:55] I think I speak for both of us when I say that our trainer is a god-send. She does so much for us, just really teaches us how to handle, more so than teaching the dogs—which is such a big part of it that you don’t think of. If possible, and if you’re interested in trialing, I would definitely try and find a nice trainer.

MD [30:15] It was really nice chatting with both of you about agility. I hope some of our listeners get the agility bug and want to start trying it out with their own dogs. Thank you both for your time. Thanks for tuning in to the Good Dog Pod! We’ll be back next week with Dr. Karen DeMatteo to talk about the use of detection dogs in conservation work. Join us!