TRABUCO CANYON – Ziggy the dog ran, jumped and dodged his way to victory Sunday during the American Kennel Club Agility Invitational in Florida.
The Chinese crested pooch won his height category in the invitational, part of the prestigious AKC/Eukanuba National Championship, for the second year in a row with help from his owner and handler, Estelle Robinson of Trabuco Canyon.
“It was a very good weekend,” Robinson, vice president of DASH Agility Club of Southern California, said just after her plane touched down Monday.
Ziggy placed during every round of the competition, which began Saturday. He beat 109 dogs in the 12-inch category to win the cumulative high score award and also took first in the “time to beat” competition.
Those performances qualified Ziggy as one of 12 competitors in the final round Sunday. He won with a time of 32.17 seconds, navigating the course 0.8 of a second faster than a Parson Russell terrier named Teazer.
“It was one of the most challenging courses of the weekend but definitely fun,” Robinson said, with dogs forced to make a quick turn as soon as they entered the arena and lots of attempts to throw them off course.
Handlers got to walk the course alone for 10 minutes before the competition, with Robinson visualizing a successful run.
“The dog has to do it perfectly, without error, the first time he sees it,” she said.
Robinson has been training dogs since she was 13, working with neighbors’ pets because she wasn’t allowed to have one of her own. She stumbled onto an agility course at the local recreation center a dozen years ago and got hooked.
The Trabuco Canyon resident has been working with 5-year-old Ziggy since he was 8 weeks old. She also has a 9-year-old Papillon that competed when the AKC show was in Long Beach several years ago, and she is prepping a 2-year-old pup related to Ziggy for future competitions.
When she’s not working with her own dogs, Robinson trains others through Wags & Wiggles Dog Day Care in Rancho Santa Margarita and Jump Start Dog Sports in Yorba Linda. And she offers private lessons.
But, she said, there’s nothing quite like the thrill of competition.
“The thrill of being able to run a 21-obstacle course in 32 seconds when he has never seen it before is amazing,” Robinson said. “It is an amazing bond to have with my little guy.”
Contact the writer: 949-454-7343 or bstaggs@ocregister.com
