Darlene Woz - 2007 - Pioneer of Dog Agility

Darlene Woz of Bloomfield Hill, Michigan, is one of the most interesting and influential people in the sport, and a true pioneer of dog agility. She was competing in flyball and doing demos for Super Dogs when she heard about a new sport called "agility" and had to give it a try. 

Known as an independent, entrepreneurial-type, Darlene helped form Canine Combustion Dog Agility Club in Washington, Michigan. Their first event was a seminar with Ken Tatsch. A few years later, she and some friends traveled to Houston for a seminar with Peter Lewis, and a short time later she was judging regularly and competing with her Dalmatians. As a USDAA Board member, she played a major role in organizing USDAA training camps in the 1990s.

Darlene supported her agility habit with a variety of businesses: screen printing, which created the "Run Agility Naked" t-shirts and morphed into an embroidery business, and Rubber on the Run, which supplies high-quality rubber surfacing for agility obstacles. She has also contributed to the sport by researching and developing better and safer agility equipment.

As she judged less and competed more, Darlene became more creative in her course designs, especially when it came to snooker. She wanted to see more variety and opportunity for all types of dogs to qualify and started incorporating more interesting and thought-provoking challenges, earning her the nickname "Snooker Queen."