Canines tap into their prey drive for Fast CAT at Inland Empire Kennel Association dog show

The Mudi blazed down the course in a blur.

The St. Bernard puppy galumphed, his jowls bouncing along with every step.

The heelers stopped midcourse and looked around as if to say, “why am I doing this?”

“Heelers are almost too smart,” said Barbie Fiorentino, Fast CAT chair for the Inland Empire Kennel Association. “They know the bag is fake.”

IEKA held a three-day breed show at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds on the weekend. While participants were chasing their American Kennel Club breed titles, they gave their dogs a mental break with Fast CAT runs.

In the world of canine sports, Fast CAT, short for coursing ability test, is a timed 100-yard dash where dogs run individually after a mechanized lure. The course runs in a straight line, and the dog’s time is converted into a miles-per-hour score.

The goal is simple: test a dog’s speed in a safe, controlled environment while tapping into their natural prey drive and instinct to chase.

Mandie Russell, of Spokane, shows her three redbone coonhounds – Jelly, Murphy and Tesla – and running Fast CAT lets them tap into their prey instincts.

“They get to use a part of their brain that they don’t get to use very often,” Russell said. “I do not want there to be a split between hunting redbones and show redbones. I think the drive should be the same, and they should be able to go chase a plastic bag or a raccoon all day and still look really pretty in the show ring. I can’t hunt in Washington, so we chase plastic bags.”

A shredded grocery bag is attached to a line that zips up and down the course, and Russell’s dogs vibrate while waiting for their turn.

“I literally have to be parked as far away from the Fast CAT course, because if they even see it, if they see the snow fence, they go insane,” she said. “They know, and that’s all they want to do for the day. My puppy will jump over the fence and just go stand there and wait for somebody to move the lure for her, so fairly confidently I can say they really enjoy it.”

The sport has seen a surge in popularity across the country, thanks in part to its accessibility. It competes for attention against agility and flyball but Fiorentino points out Fast CAT doesn’t require extensive training or specialized skills.

“This requires a little prey drive,” she said.

Fast CAT welcomes every breed, from lean sighthounds meant for speed to mutts who have a strong chase instinct and just want to run. Their humans get to celebrate their dogs’ athleticism and drive in a fun, fast-paced and controlled setting.

Not every dog will buy into the game, though. Every so often, Fiorentino said, a dog will catch the bag. Under AKC rules, that’s considered a “no course” and the dog gets a do-over.

“‘Kill the Bag’ is my favorite game,” Fiorentino said, laughing. “If I could figure out how to make every single dog kill the bag, I would go to the trouble of putting new bags out all the time.”

IEKA wants to build on its second year of running Fast CAT events. The group is hosting one in September, independent of a conformation show, and the sport is part of its lure for breed fanciers to return to their June event.

“There is a two-day event going to start next year on the coast the same weekend as ours,” Fiorentino said. “We want to make sure we have enough events and fun things to do that it keeps traffic coming to us.”