Border collie, Tex, wins Westminster dog agility contest

NEW YORK – A border collie named Tex jumped, wove and ran to a win Saturday at the Westminster Kennel Club agility contest.

Tex beat a field of 330 dogs, while a husky mix named Roo! repeated to earn a separate award for the highest-scoring mixed-breed dog in a fast-growing element of the nation’s premiere canine show.

Five-year-old Tex powered through the course with barks and squeals, seeming not to waste a nanosecond.

“He doesn’t have a foot out of place – he’s amazing,” owner and handler Rose Savkov of Long Valley, New Jersey, said afterward. “And he would go in again.”

In the contest’s second year, the number of competitors grew by more than 45 percent, though the club raised the bar for qualifying by requiring more advanced agility titles.

The dogs spanned 74 breeds and varieties and included 15 mixed-breed hopefuls, which hadn’t had any place at Westminster for at least 130 years until last year’s agility contest.

The entries were as tiny as Chihuahuas and as big as Rottweilers. While many came from herding or sporting backgrounds – border collies and Shetland sheepdogs made up more than a quarter of the entrants – less obviously athletic breeds such as pugs and French bulldogs also competed.

Wendy Lu and her Pomeranian, Daisy, traveled from San Jose, California, “to show the world that these little dogs are athletes, and they can do anything big dogs can do,” Lu said.

And she did. Daisy made it to the 50-dog final round.

Fans say the sport can help excitable dogs channel their energy and shy ones gain confidence. It builds a bond between the animals and their handlers, who use voice and body signals to guide the animals through a complex route of jumps, tunnels and ramps.