The Cattolica race was a recovery of 2020. He trains at the Athletic dog of Feltre together with the instructor Luciano Ganz
THE CHARACTER
The Italian agility dog champions? They are from Belluno.
Daniela Fontana and her faithful Zeb ranked first in the Pentathlon discipline, at the national finals of Cattolica organized by Csen and Fidasc.
It was the recovery of the 2020 Italian championship and the two competed in the senior 400 category, one of five that are based on the various heights of the dog.
“Dog agility is a sport open to dogs of all breeds,” explains the tricolor champion. «It basically consists in carrying out an obstacle course, according to an order established by the competition judge, which the dog runs accompanied by its handler. He must do it as quickly as possible trying not to incur any penalty. It is therefore necessary that the harmony between the two is very strong. In my case, I started practicing it in 2018 with the Shetland, a dog particularly suited to agility ».
We are talking about the most widespread of canine sports disciplines, carried out by dogs over 18 months of age. From an early age, however, they begin to be involved in a sort of preparation, preparatory to the actual sporting activity. Once the physical development of the animal has been completed, work will be carried out aimed at understanding the obstacles and related skills. In addition to the classification of the categories by height, since the absolute value is determined by the harmony between dog and handler, the Debutante, Junior and Senior phases are foreseen as steps. As for the age of the conductor, there are no limits.
It is possible to start at age 5 or 6 and continue as long as a conductor wishes. After all, agility allows you to carry out a constant and fun physical activity with your dog. The disciplines foreseen in agility are three: a very performing one based on two heats called Biathlon, and two others – Games and Pentathlon – always performing but even more technical and in which further quality of the combination emerges. In Cattolica, Fontana won in the Pentathlon discipline, also being second classified in the Games discipline. Placements certainly not the result of chance.
«I work under the supervision of Luciano Ganz, my instructor at Athletic Dog Feltre and several times world champion of the specialty. In addition to teaching me how to best prepare the dog, as not all have the same characteristics and skills, he provided me with advice on how to develop knowledge relating to obstacles and the skills to approach paths and face competitions. We train twice a week in the open field in Feltre. In Cattolica there was also Stefania Lucaora from Feltre with her Bea in the 600 category. I am happy to be able to give continuity to Athletic Dog Feltre: for the seventh time since 2015 they have included at least one member in the national team ».
Daniela Fontana and Zeb will in fact represent the blue colors at the October world championships scheduled in Ermelo, Holland.
«This is my second participation in the tricolor jersey. It will be exciting and I will not have any particular ranking ambitions. The fact remains that we will do our best to keep the name of Italy high at the world championship ». –
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