Dog Days and Heritage Ways is the theme of the 144th annual Comox Valley Exhibition, which has once again taken over the fairgrounds for a weekend of fun in Courtenay.
As always, dog events were big attractions. Rock the Dock consists of a 36-foot dock and 45-foot pool, where dogs of all varieties leap for floatable toys placed at incremental lengths.
The CVEX also includes dog agility demonstrations from several local clubs. In agility competitions, a handler directs a dog through an obstacle course in a race for time and accuracy.
Among the participants was Glenn Tiede and his dog Billy Bob — a 10-year-old Jack Russell terrier/border collie cross, who won a world title two years ago in a speedstakes run at the World Agility Championships in England.
“Spend a lot of time training the dogs up to where we’re both in shape to do the job,” said Tiede, who owns Team Agility Group (TaG). To prepare for the world event, he invested 15-20 hours a week training by himself. With Billy Bob, he trained five or six hours a week.
“Most of the training we try to keep short because you want his speed. You don’t want him doing it tired.”
Any breed of dog can take part in agility, which contains many categories and levels, as per ability.
“There’s also a veteran category, so as the dog gets older we drop the bars lower so it’s easier for them to do the game,” Tiede said.