It all started when Bug was a puppy. Her owner, Moose Jaw’s Melissa Smith, would have her jump a little bar and teach the animal to think doing such tricks is fun.
“And then you just build up from there,” Smith told the Times-Herald as she and her dog competed in the regional dog agility trials at Moose Jaw Exhibition Grounds on Sunday.
While still competing halfway through the second day of the trials for teams from across Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nunavut, Smith said she was confident Bug might be able to earn the necessary 350 points to qualify for the national competition in Nanaimo, but she couldn’t say for sure until the regional trials were completely finished.
Sharon Weekes, regional dog agility trials chairwoman, said it seemed on Saturday that, of the 96 dogs entered in the regional competition (25 of whom are from Moose Jaw), a good number seemed well on their way to qualifying for the nation finals as of Saturday afternoon.
However, she said agility trials are such that even just one or two bad runs at the course can mean a team won’t qualify.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
