Clean Run - October 2011 - 38

Marianne Uppal is likely the only agility competitor in the world who has obtained both an AKC MACH and a Japan Kennel Club agility championship on the same dog. Uppal, who lived in Far Hills, New Jersey, both before and after her stay in a quiet part of central Tokyo called Shirokane, left the U.S. in January 2009, to join her husband, who was working at a Japanese bank. She brought her Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, now titled MACH2 Cayuga’s Cody XF in AKC (a.k.a. AG. CH, FB. CH MACH Cayuga’s Cody XF in Japan). They returned in December 2010. By competing actively in both U.S. and Japanese agility, she is in a unique position to compare the two.

Agility in Japan from an American Perspective
By Brenna Fender, photos by Megumi Nayuki When you went to Japan, did you immediately get involved in agility? MU: Almost immediately—we had our first lesson about a month after arriving. We had to wait for several months for our Japan Kennel Club (JKC) memberships to be processed, so we were unable to compete right away. Does the Japanese agility community have clubs and training schools similar to those in the U.S.? MU: Yes, from what I could gather, clubs and training schools seem to be similar to those in the U.S. The clubs sponsor trials, similar to here in the U.S., as well as provide training classes and seminars. The club [I trained with] is called Baikosow, and they provide training for agility (as well as other dog activities including obedience, search and rescue, and so on). Baikosow is headed by Rie Nemoto and her husband. Rie Nemoto is a respected judge with the JKC and is the agility coach for this year’s Japan World Team. Did you find it easy to fit into the agility community? MU: The big challenge for me was that I don’t speak Japanese (although I did make a little progress over the two years I was there) and many Japanese don’t speak English. In addition, Cody and I stood out quite a bit, not only because I was clearly not Japanese, but also because Tollers are extremely rare in Japan. In fact, Cody was the only one registered with the JKC! However, despite the language issues, I found the agility community to be warm and welcoming, as we had a common bond of love for our dogs and a passion for agility. I was lucky to have met a few Japanese people who do speak English, including a translator and two of my instructors at
38

the training center. They were tremendously helpful during my first few competitions. In addition, at my second trial I was approached by an individual who brought an English speaker with her just to communicate with me. She eventually became a good friend who brought me into her group of agility and flyball comrades. With their help I could travel for trials to sites that were 5 to 6 hours from Tokyo. (One of the sites that I visited four times was in Sendai, where the tsunami produced such devastation this past March.) How was the trial environment in Japan similar to or diﬀerent from that in the U.S.? MU: There are many similarities between the two environments. There are usually two or three rings, every dog is assigned a number (worn by the handler), and runs in classes in a predetermined running order. There are vendors selling food and dog-related products along the perimeters of the sites, as well as tents set up by the competitors and clubs. Competitors watch others run while waiting, and support each other with cheers or clapping after successful runs. One of the striking diﬀerences between JKC agility and AKC agility is the number of trials oﬀered. Typically there is a one-day trial oﬀered once a month that is easily commutable from Tokyo. Twice a year I drove five hours to attend a two-day trial. There are very few trials held indoors, due to a lack of appropriate indoor facilities. Most were held on grass in parks by rivers, but occasionally there were less desirable surfaces, such as the gravel surface we ran on in the rain during our first trial, where poor drainage produced deep puddles in the ring.
Clean Run | October 11

Clean Run - October 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - October 2011