Morristown Pup To Compete In Westminster Agility Competition

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – When you’ve overachieved your entire life, being named Smartie Pantz isn’t a wise crack: it’s the truth.

And so it goes for Smartie, a three-year-old female Golden Retriever from Morristown who will take part in this Saturday’s Westminster Agility Event. The over-achieving pup is owned and trained by Jean Owen, the owner of NJ Fix My Dog, LLC.

Owen has been teaching and competing in agility for 20 years, but this is the trainer’s first go at the national event to be held Feb. 13.

“Smartie has been a little bit of an over achiever since she was a young puppy winning many large competitions in both Competition Obedience and Agility,” Owen told Patch. (Smartie) is also a certified Therapy Dog and loves making people smile.”

In order to qualify for the event, contestants must have achieved the Master Agility Excellent ranking, which requires 10 qualifying scores in master agility class; and Master Excellent Jumpers With Weaves, which consists of earning 10 qualifying scores in that category.

Once those titles are attained, next comes the challenge of entering the event, which is on a first come, first-serve basis via mail-in application. Just 165 dogs make it to the main stage for Saturday’s event and word has it some 1,000 entries were sent in.

According to Westminster Kennel Club, the competition is broken down as follows:

The competition is divided into five height classes - 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 inches, which refer to the height of the jumps in that class. Dogs compete in the class appropriate for their size. At Westminster, each dog will compete in two qualifying rounds - a Standard Agility course and a Jumpers with Weaves course. Scoring for eligibility to the Championship round will be the combined actual running time of both runs, plus any faults (refusal/run-out, wrong course, table fault, failure) and course time faults. Dogs will be placed in order of the lowest combined score within their true AKC jump height. The ten dogs from each height class with the lowest combined scores will move on to the televised Championship round Saturday evening, creating a field of 50 finalists competing for the coveted title of Westminster Kennel Club Masters Agility Champion.

The championship course will be a hybrid of the qualifying rounds and will be run as a ‘time to beat’ course, where the first dog will set the baseline time for the subsequent competitors.

The competition will be held at 8 a.m. and broadcast on FOX Sports 1.

Photo Courtesy Jean Owen