News
TEAM USA: Medina handler headed to European Open for
dog agility championship
By Nicole Coleman
E-mail Nicole
Della Sliker stands poised in the middle of the dog agility
court at her Bates Road home, her 2-year-old Sheltie Jazzmine waits
patiently on the grass nearby.
With the flick of Sliker’s wrist, Jazzmine takes off toward a bright,
blue tunnel on the lawn’s edge, quickly scampers through it, and without
a beat, clears perfectly over three hurdles.
“Good girl,” Sliker praises Jazzmine. The dog struts over to her for a
treat as if to say, “That was easy. Let’s try it again.”
Sliker laughs and gives her pet’s long brown and black coat a swift pat.
The treat devoured, Jazzmine circles around her handler waiting for the
next direction. She seems to know this game well.
“OK. Jump,” Sliker says, and the routine continues. Jazzmine easily
sails over another hurdle and heads straight for a ramp in the shape of
an inverted V, stopping at the very end.
Competitors in the dog agility European Open 2008 the weekend of July
18, Sliker and Jazzmine will travel to Gelsenkirchen, Germany, next
Monday to compete among the best dog/handler teams in the world.
It is an honor Sliker has been working towards with her two oldest
Shelties, Echo, 7, and Jessie, 5, for the past five years, she said.
Jazzmine began training just last October and has already risen to the
classification of “excellent,” one of the major qualifications to
compete at the European Open level. She will be the youngest dog on the
30-member U.S. Team.
Della’s husband, Jim Sliker, is their unofficial coach.
“All three of our dogs love agility. It’s one on one with their
handler,” Della Sliker said. “I like the competition.”
A certified medical dosimetrist, Sliker travels across the country
frequently, filling in at cancer centers that find themselves
short-staffed for an average of two weeks to three months.
On an assignment to Fairbanks, Alaska, she and her husband liked the
area so much that they stayed for eight years. It is there that they
found all three of their Shetland Sheep dogs. Jazzmine comes from
Skyview Kennels in North Pole, Alaska.
The couple fell into agility by accident, Sliker said. They had their
first dog, Echo, for only two weeks when they were forced to leave home
for a family emergency. They left the dog with friends who discovered
her missing one day, most likely panicked from the change in
surroundings.
It was four weeks before the Slikers and Echo found each other again.
Only six months old, Echo returned a very different dog — shy and
unsure. A friend suggested agility to help build the dog’s confidence,
and it worked wonders.
Today, she remains the spunkiest in the Sliker pack.
“Echo runs as fast today as she did when she started,” Sliker said. “She
has not slowed down.”
Della and Jim Sliker decided to move to Medina a year ago this month.
The weather is more conducive to training, and they are closer to where
they grew up in Batavia. There are also more agility competitions in the
area, they said.
Training usually takes place in the morning and evening, when the
weather is coolest. They have also taken the dogs for private lessons at
Ebb Tide Kennels & Stables in Holley.
A February seminar in Rochester brought Sliker in touch with Erin
Schafer, a five-time World U.S. Team Agility Competitor and individual
gold medalist from Massachusetts. Sliker, Schafer, her husband Ben
Philbert and Mary Jo Johnson of Farmington will form a four-member team
during group competitions July 20. They will compete individually with
the remaining 670 contestants July 19.
Because everyone in Sliker’s group is running a Sheltie, they will
compete in the 14-inch hurdle category. Larger dogs compete in the
18-inch or 26-inch categories, Sliker said. In the team format,
competitors aim for the highest collective points; the lowest score on
each team is always dropped.
Friday, the day before the agility runs begin, there will be time to
practice and an opening ceremony akin to the Olympics.
“This is only the second year the United States has been invited to
compete in the European Open Agility Championships,” Sliker said.
Her husband, Jim, has elected to stay home with Echo and Jessie on the
trip.
Equally accomplished, Jessie won the Sheltie National Competition for
her division in April 2007, he said. The event took place in Albany,
Ore.
“We compete all over the country,” Jim Sliker said.
Sliker and her teammates have been preparing for the European Open by
practicing previous courses used by the judges. She likens it to a
football coach sizing up the opposing team’s past plays — they won’t
know what the course will actually look like until the day of the event.
“I’m very excited — and nervous,” Sliker said. “This is a new experience
for me.”
Contact reporter Nicole Coleman at 798-1400, ext. 8227.