FAIRGROUNDS — Six dogs lined up alongside their owners and laid down.
“Stay,” their owners said in unison, and they walked out of the building Sunday at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds, leaving the dogs behind. They were gone for three minutes; for an energetic pup, it might have seemed much longer than that. As they waited, a judge watched their every move.
After a minute or so, a couple of the dogs began sniffing the floor around them. One licked at its fur. A couple of smaller dogs, called papillons, began to shake with what might have been excitement as their owners returned to the room.
“It’s OK if they fidget,” judge Theresa Temple said later, but they aren’t supposed to break out of position.
The obedience contest was one of many ability tests dogs took Saturday and Sunday during the All Breed Obedience & Rally Trials, hosted by the Greater Clark County Kennel Club and the Willamette Toy Dog Fanciers. The kennel club typically hosts conformation contests the first weekend in December at the fairgrounds, in which purebred dogs are judged by how well they represent their breed, but this was the first time the kennel club organized activity-based contests the weekend before the conformation shows, said Don James of the Greater Clark County Kennel Club.
The conformation contests, similar to the dog shows aired on TV, aren’t as exciting for the dogs as getting to show off an ability, James said. In addition to obedience trails on Sunday, dogs competed in K-9 nose work — where they uncovered items with the scents of birch, anise and clove — and in barn hunts, where they sniffed out a container holding a live rat, which was hidden among hay bales.
“Dogs love it. They love to work,” James said, adding that the weekend’s activity contests show “dogs doing really what they were bred to do.”
For Claudia Beville of Marion County, Ore., and her cardigan Welsh corgi, Flo, the obedience training has strengthened their bond.
“I try to make it fun,” Beville said of the dog training, which takes place most days of the week. She said she often gets together with other dog trainers so they can critique and help each other.
Training a dog for an obedience or other ability-based contest makes for a well-rounded pet, Beville added.
“They can deal with different situations better because they’ve been socialized a lot,” she said, and it helps the dog gain confidence.
Flo competed in an obedience contest that required her to follow alongside Beville as she turned left and right, and as she changed her pace. Then Beville stopped Flo and threw an object several yards away, past a hurdle. When told to do so, Flo jumped over the bar and retrieved the object.
Flo didn’t win, “but I was very happy with her attitude,” Beville said following the contest. It was just nice coming here.”
Temple, one of the obedience judges, added: “It’s a fun way to spend the weekend with your dog.”
The Greater Clark County Kennel Club will host conformation dog shows next weekend, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, at the fairgrounds, 17402 N.E. Delfel Road, Ridgefield. The show is free, and parking at the fairgrounds is $6.
