Just outside her Montezuma County home, Sunny Williams stood with her 5-year-old Border collie. With a flick of her hand and a few words, the dog took off.
C’Ya, became a blur of black and white fur, flying over jumps, through hoops, weaving through poles, climbing up and down a ramp and running through a tunnel.
“The dogs love this,” she said after C’Ya cleared her last jump. “Agility gets the dogs out and gets them running.”
Williams is a national champion agility competitor and instructs others across the country and in Canada, as well as judging competitions, which put dogs and their owners to the test. She moved to Montezuma County four years ago, and this will be her first time demonstrating at the Four States Ag Expo.
Williams will join five other dog trainers this year. Participants will learn about working with stock dogs to teach them to develop tricks, obedience, and scent and agility skills. They will also learn about the growing sport Treibball.
In all, there will be about 16 hours entirely dedicated to dogs, in addition to the multitude of other farm- and horse-themed presentations.
Williams said she is excited to share the sport of agility with others. She is scheduled to give a demonstration Saturday, March 21, at 11 a.m. in the South Arena. She teaches lessons and runs Vision Agility at her home, located between Mancos and Dolores.
“The relationship work (between the dog and owner) to me is the most important,” Williams said.
Mary Clements and her dog Cowboy will follow Williams and give a Rally demonstration on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Clements, who lives outside of Bloomfield, N.M., said she is excited to show off the sport of Rally with her Australian shepherd.
“Rally is an obedience course done with signs,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun because the courses always change.”
Most of your commands are basic, such as “sit” and “stay down.”
“If your dog can sit and stay and walk on a leash, you can title in rally,” she said. “Its a good way to practice obedience that is fun for the owner and dog.”
Most Rally courses have 15 to 20 signs, Clements said.
Cowboy was 8 years old when they started learning Rally.
“You can teach old dogs new tricks,” she said.
Lainy Eschtruth will teach Triebball, which is an activity typically done with exercise balls and herding dogs. The dogs essentially are taught to herd the exercise balls.
“Not everyone has access to sheep,” Clements said. “It’s a new sport.”
Nose work, teaching your dog to find a scent, and following a scent will be taught by Tracy Moriary at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Also back this year will be Shawna Davis, giving several stock dog demonstrations throughout the weekend.
To learn more about Williams, visit visionagility.com.
To see a full schedule of all the events, visit fourstatesagexpo.com/daily-schedule/