Overcoming Obstacles with Yardley

by Anne-Marie Mayes

In some of my past articles I have discussed my own dogs’ behaviour as well as a few client case studies but this time I would like to tell you about Yardley.

Yardley came to The Dog Classroom about 5 years ago as a young dog to start his training with Beginning with Basics.

Yardley was rescued from a reserve up north but is unique that he has 3 legs. When he was 12 weeks old he was hit by a car and unfortunately needed his leg amputated. Since he was so young when the accident I do not believe he remembers ever having 4 legs. He has adapted wonderfully to life as a tri-pawed.

Missing one leg did not stop Yarley from being a regular young dog.  He continued through the levels of training and his owners wanted to give him the opportunity to try agility. Even though Yardley was a great runner and didn’t shy away from climbing the obstacles, once in a while his nose would get him into trouble.

Like any dog Yardley started with tunnels and jumping skills, with some adjustments for his disability. We don’t want to put too much strain on his body, so he jumps a lower bar than other dogs his size.  When training certain obstacles (A-frame, dog walk, and teeter), we start by teaching the dog how to safely stop at the bottom. Learning to touch a target helps prevent them from rushing off the end and hurting themselves.  Once we have the target at the bottom we then start having the dogs take the obstacle from the beginning at a lower height. 

Once Yardley had succeeded with jumps, tunnels and obstacles, we then put them in a sequence which the owner learns how to lead.  Yardley’s owner had been doing agility for several years with other dogs prior to Yardley, so she had some experience with the sequencing.   Yardley is an instructor favourite so we all took turns training and running agility courses with him.

Last year Yardley’s owners felt that he was ready to compete in an agility competition but unfortunately due to his disability he was not eligible to participate in most categories.

Unfortunately, there is not a Special Olympics for dogs or different venues in our area that would allow a dog with a disability. 

This year, they found an organization that allowed Yardley to compete with courses that did not involve him having to be off the ground (no jumps or obstacles) but could still do tunnels, barrels, and hoops.

Needless to say that for his first competition he was a rock star and had five first place qualifying runs! Yes we have to give some credit to Amelia who was his handler for the weekend, but it was mostly Yardley’s skill and determination. Check out the picture of Yardley posing with all of his ribbons.

Yardley posing with his ribbons after his first-ever agility trial