Pawsome performance takes Yellowknife dogs to nationals

What’s it like to take your dogs from Yellowknife to a national agility contest? Franz and Corinne Dziuba just found out.

A year ago, the Dziubas’ dogs – Timber and Reo – became the first from Yellowknife’s agility club to compete in Alberta at regional level. Now, they’ve made another step up.

This month, Franz and Corinne took eight-year-old Timber and seven-year-old Reo, Labrador retrievers, to the Agility Association of Canada’s national championships.

Both dogs had come through July’s regionals in Lacombe, Alberta, where they competed in six different runs and earned enough points to qualify for nationals in Edmonton.

The Dziubas were happy not to finish last in Edmonton, where they faced dogs that spend much more time entering and training for a range of agility competitions.

“They run really well, but not well enough at that level,” Franz said of Timber and Reo. “We had some really great runs, and we had other runs that weren’t good, so they ended up not at the top, but also not at the bottom.”

“There are people there who go to the worlds competition every year. People who are doing that use nationals to qualify, so there is some really stiff competition,” said Corinne.

“Then there are people like us who just get as many trials as we can in a year, and that’s sometimes just once a year.”

This past weekend saw Timber and Reo back in the North for the annual trial at Yellowknife’s Rruff Diamonds dog agility club.

The Dziubas hope to qualify again for regionals and nationals in 2023, but for now are enjoying their time with Yellowknife’s club.

Timber naturally took to agility, Franz said. Reo, by contrast, “is more of the party girl – she’ll do whatever, and she does really enjoy it.”

He continued: “It’s a great way to spend your evening with your dog, and the club, and take some classes with like-minded people.

“The dogs love it so much and we’re just really lucky to have such a great club here in Yellowknife.”