By Abbie Tamber

My life revolves around dogs. Like many other dog lovers, many of my decisions in life are based on what I believe is the best for my dogs. Doesn’t everyone move to a house with 33 acres for the sake of their dogs? That’s what I did when I moved to Coventry.

But after watching my German sheperd get hit by a car, I moved again for his sake – to a 92 acre refuge in Oxford where he could not even see the road.

However, it was another dog, a husky-terrier mix named Loki, who led me down the road to professional dog training. I named Loki after the Norse god of mischief, and he did his best to live up to that name.

Loki was impossible to deal with, but at the same time sensitive. He did not like people, or other dogs for that matter. Instinctively I knew traditional methods of dog training wouldn’t help him. It is because of him that I found the exciting and addicting world of dog agility. Dog agility is a sport in which a dog negotiates an obstacle course following signals from the handler about which obstacle to take next.

Because of Loki I started to travel to seminars to learn more about this new dog “sport.” He was a dog built for the sport, but he did not have the focus for it. Through agility Loki did turn into a terrific pet. After all, that is what I started out to do.