CIRI Record Services Supervisor Heidi Vania and her Shetland Sheepdog, Ice, debuted in their first international competition at the Agility World Championships Oct. 1-3 in Rieden, Germany, as members of the elite 12-member AKC/USA Agility World Team.
Dog agility training involves a handler directing an off-leash dog through a timed obstacle course using voice and body signals. The handler and dog are awarded on their time and precision completing the course.
Heidi and Ice competed on a three-person team representing the U.S. small-dog class. On their rookie run, Heidi and Ice finished the course in a fast 31.25 seconds, which helped vault the U.S. team to second place among 27 teams after the first day of competition.
On Oct. 2, Ice and Heidi were setback after Ice took a wrong turn on a challenging course. Heidi and Ice were not alone in their error: None of the teams competing completed the event without at least one fault. The U.S. small-dog team came in at a respectable 12th place overall.
