The following post comes to us from guest blogger, Barbara, of the Agility Beagle Xsara blog. Xsara regularly competes in Agility trials in her home country, Slovenia, and sometimes abroad.

Getting a dog is easy for some people, but it wasn’t easy for me because my parents didn’t allow one. That’s why it took me 20 years to get my first dog — a beagle, not an easy breed to work with. I have been told many times that working with a dog like Xsara was simply not possible, and that I shouldn’t have high expectations. Luckily, I didn’t listen to any of them, and I really wanted to try working with her anyway.

I admit that training her wasn’t easy and it’s still hard work, but I am proud to say that at four years old she can do pretty much anything a border collie could do – she can run practically any agility course without faults, do hundreds of tricks and impress any obedience judge. We compete on practically every agility trial in our country and sometimes abroad, and she never lets me down; every mistake that happens on course is always my fault.

Xsara is the reason why I believe that any dog can do pretty much anything their handler wants, as long as they are willing to train and work for it. In addition, I strongly believe that work is good for dogs. After all, that is what they were bred for. And I am always amazed by how much dogs actually love to work with us, if the methods of training are dog friendly. Of course, some dogs need more motivation than others, but if the handler can make work interesting enough, there are practically no limitations.

There are so many canine disciplines to choose from, so anyone can find something that suits their personality and that the dog will enjoy. And anybody who has ever seen the enthusiastic look on a working dog’s face will tell you that the training will eventually pay off – big time!

Watch Xsara in action and read more about her at Agility Beagle Xsara.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Dog Sports, Guest Blogger, Pet Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.