Newman Lake dog heads to worlds

A family tradition continues: being one of the fastest among U.S. dogs to speed through an agility course.

Rock-It, a 3-year-old Shetland sheepdog, is scheduled to go with his owner Barb Davis of Newman Lake to Switzerland this fall for the Agility World Championships.

He is the son of Shimmer, Davis’ national champion that took her to Europe five times to compete in the world contest, an event akin to a canine Olympics.

Davis and Rock-It earned a spot on the U.S. team this year, among only 13 nationwide to compete Oct. 6-8 in Basel, Switzerland. The American Kennel Club world team is sponsored by The Iams Co. and Clean Run Products.

While preparing this summer, Davis said Rock-It already has shown great potential for such a young dog.

“Typically, he’s a little young to be performing at this caliber,” she said. “It’s difficult for a dog to understand your cues about where to go when you’re both running at full speed.

“It takes time for both of you to understand each other.”

Agility competitions are AKC’s fastest-growing sport, allowing dogs to show agility and versatility by overcoming a challenging course of obstacles such as weave poles, tunnels, jumps and seesaws.

Rock-It will perform in two individual events in Switzerland, a jumper’s event with jumps, tunnels and weave poles and a standard event that incorporates jumps, tunnels, weave poles and contact equipment such as ramps and a teeter-totter.

Davis believes Rock-It is ready to do his dad proud.

“He really is in tiptop form,” Davis added. “We just had a practice in the Minneapolis area, and he was nailing some very hard stuff when even more mature dogs were struggling a bit.

“He’s a fast little guy, actually a bit faster than his father, so I have expectations that he may be able to podium over there.”