A dog is a ranch’s best friend, said Willard “Tut” Smith, a New Mexico rancher who has a pack of canines to help keep his cows and sheep in line.
“I’d rather have a dog’s help than most people’s,” he said as more urban dogs prepared to show off their skills on an obstacle course at the National Western Stock Show.
The role of the dog on the farm is appreciated by the organizers of the 16-day show, which features more than 150 dogs competing or performing in various venues.
This week’s Dog Agility Games drew 50 canines and a sizable crowd of cheering fans to the show’s Stadium Arena. Breeds ranging from statuesque Great Danes to nervous Chihuahuas weaved through cones and tunnels, and over seesaws and hurdles.
Zona Tooke, the superintendent of the dog show who operates the Rocky Mountain Agility Dog Training Center in Arvada, said the fans’ love of hard- working dogs is easy to understand, “because everybody can have a dog in the backyard, but they won’t have cows.”
Kent Mahan of Pueblo brought a champion border collie, holder of 50 titles in agility events, but admits his boy, Fionn, is a city dog, not a working ranch hand.
“He loves it,” Mahan said of his bright-eyed dog. “This is his job, and he’s always ready to go to work.”
That’s precisely why good dogs make good hands with the stock. Over the centuries, dogs were bred and trained for tasks to help humans with theirs, particularly herding.
In the Dog Agility Games, it’s more about speed and maneuvering than herding and guiding other animals.
In fact, it’s the owners who guide their unleashed pet as the pooch weaves through closely arranged poles, an enclosed tunnel, a seesaw and over hurdles at the beginning and end.
Dogs race for times to advance, but if they miss any pole or other obstacle, they must go back until they pass through cleanly and accurately.
Agility courses, loosely based on equestrian riding events, have taken off in popularity because of dog shows on television and the boon in training facilities throughout the country, Tooke said.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
The tales’ end
The second leg of the Dog Agility Games is 6 p.m. Friday in the Stadium Arena. The stock dogs will compare their cattle-herding skills in the National Western Stockyards beginning at 8 a.m. Friday. The finals start at 10 a.m. Jan. 26. Sheep-herding dogs with intermediate skills begin competition at 2 p.m. on Jan. 26 in the Stadium Arena. Top- level sheep herders compete at 9 a.m. Jan. 27.
