Canine Conditioning : Pet Owners Take Dogs to School and They Get in Shape Together

Marilyn Bennett’s dog, Brando, stares up at her with a look of bewilderment as she tries to shuttle him up a ramp en route to his next trick. Unlike most days, Brando, a 3-year-old Australian shepherd, is not rushing effortlessly through the maze of dog hurdles. Today, Brando wants to do his own thing.

Bennett and the rest of the dozen or so dog lovers in Karen Moreaux’s advanced dog-agility class have assembled for their Saturday-morning ritual of racing their dogs through hoops and tunnels and over ramps and balancing boards.

Rising early, they have headed for St. John’s Methodist Church for the last two years to coach and prod their dogs through the canine obstacle course. Though it’s done mostly for fun, the rigorous routine can help the right dog win prizes, trips and even national and international titles. The hobby provides the owners with events to enter and travel to all over the country.

The four-legged students in this out-of-the-ordinary obedience class are highly trained and agile. Throughout the course, there are obstacles such as the A frame, which requires them to run up and down a small ladder. There are also collapsible tunnels that challenge the dogs to scamper through them without getting caught inside.

And who says dogs don’t have balance? A seesaw provides eager watchers with a dose of doggy dangling.

The classes were started by Moreaux in 1989. For years, the West Hills resident had trained her own dogs to perform feats that eventually became the basis of her classes--and the envy of other dog owners.

It all paid off for Moreaux last year when her Border collie, Dallas, won a prize whose title is almost as long as was her obstacle course: the 1994 United States Dog Agility Assn./Pedigree Grand Prix of Dog Agility National Championships.

Moreaux’s well-trained dogs also earned her trips to the World Dog Show in Belgium and Spain in this year and in 1992, where her dogs finished among the top five contestants. There is no prize money for the winners, but several have appeared in commercials, earning back at least some of the money laid out by their owners.

Moreaux and her students are also preparing for next year’s national competition, which will be held in Ventura.

But it was an attempt to relive the past, as much as the lure of competition, that prompted Moreaux to start the class.

“I used to jump my dogs over suitcases when I was a kid,” she said. “This is just a few steps beyond that.”

Moreaux offers beginning, intermediate and advanced classes, which cost an average of $45 a month. She has signed up more than 75 people all over the Valley.

“Most of them want something fun to do with their dogs,” Moreaux said.

Dogs are grouped according to height and must be at least 18 months old to compete, although they can start training at six months. Winners must achieve speed and perfection, completing a “clean round with no faults.” Tag teaming is also allowed, with one dog starting the course and another taking over halfway through.

The hurdles are about 31 inches high, but as one owner, Terry Simons, said, “Some of the dogs could easily jump 40 inches if they had to.”

Simons, who has a Nova Scotia duck tolling dog named Rembrandt and a puppy named Roxanne, has been coming to the class every Saturday since a friend told him about it a year ago. He does it for the exercise and to see how well his dogs can do, but will never let his dogs’ performance be a mere ego boost.

“Some people are extremely competitive, and it doesn’t look like they are having much fun,” Simons said. “And that’s not what we are out here for.”