Fieldhouse Goes to the Dogs

Dogs are the ones getting a workout at the Fieldhouse this weekend.

A dog agility competition is taking place at the facility. This is the 20th year the Fieldhouse has hosted the event. Around 250 dogs will be competing over two days. In some years that number has reached 500.

Competitors come rom all over including places like Chicago and Maryland.

“These are some of the most intelligent dogs ever and a lot of time you’re not going to see this type of training and these types of dogs in Zanesville,” said owner of the Fieldhouse Alaina Amicone-Durfee. “So we have a lot of people that come in and just watch.”

Kalie Cundiff got started in dog agility contests at a young age with help from her grandma. She trained her first dog at 8. She has two Shetland Sheepdogs in this competition. She said the hardest thing is teaching the dog verbal commands.

“It’s kind of something that you need to do almost before their a year old. It’s extra hard to train them because their mind is developing before they’re a year and teaching them those verbal’s, those tricks before their a year old kind of makes it stick and stays longer where as if you train a dog a year old or after it kind of drifts out a lot faster,” explained Cundiff.

Cundiff said that while some people feel training and competing is stressful for her it’s relaxing because she loves running with her dogs and it’s fun to play with them all day.