Ringside Chat with Top-10 Competitor Carol Lemche

Top 10 rankings and the importance of fundamental skills

Over more than 30 years in the sport, Carol Lemche has earned Lifetime Achievement awards as high as Diamond and been in the Top 10 agility rankings with several of her Border Collies. She loves the teamwork and connection she finds with each dog — in her words, “running with one set of eyes, but each focused on our jobs.” 

Her first dog, a Golden Retriever, jumped 30” back in the day and dealt with such challenges as rolling in the closed chute, wiggling through narrow weave poles, and clearing a skinny, fixed tire. They achieved the highest title available at the time: Master Agility Dog^®. We chatted with her about the skills and training needed to reach her goals.  

Tell us about your current partner, Hallie.

Halcyon, better known as Hallie, is 5. We’ve been together since she was 10 weeks old. She really is a Border Collie even though she looks like an Arctic fox. In mythology, halcyons are birds with the power to calm the winds and waves, and she came into my life at a turbulent time. Since then, she has certainly done that for me.  

Can you explain how you get such great results in a wide range of categories?

I don’t follow any particular school or theory of agility. Each dog I’ve had has been different, so I spend a lot of time trying things to see what works and what doesn’t. For example, Hallie had space issues as a puppy, so she was more comfortable working some distance away from me. She’s also very smart and thoughtful, and she quickly learned our verbal and nonverbal cues. Much of our success has been thanks to her! 

My “big picture” goal in training is Hallie’s comfort and confidence on tricky challenge courses. The best of those courses requires so many skills executed in one run: independent obstacle execution, lateral distance, sends, close work like pull-throughs, backsides, etc. When we survive those courses, we celebrate. When we don’t, it’s input to the training plan, and I like input! In all honesty, it’s just plain fun to play with Hallie, and I think that goal has helped us succeed in games just as much as the challenging courses.

What are your thoughts on the importance of training for various skills? Any other observations from your years in the agility world?

Courses have become more difficult, and what’s required of both the human and the dog has increased. If you want to succeed in agility and keep up with that increasing complexity, you have to train a variety of skills. In the olden days, it was good enough to have your dog stay with you and do obstacles. You could even get away with having them always run on one side. I don’t think that could work anymore. 

Personally, I find the games Snooker and Gamblers are a great release from the seriousness of Standard and Jumpers, but they do require additional handler skills: 

• Recovering from faults in real time; 
• Handler brain exercise to make up and remember your own course; 
• Figuring out what’s best for your dog and how much you can do in the given time.  

Plus, any training for agility, obedience, herding, tricks, even dance is good; it improves your communication bandwidth and relationship with your dog! And isn’t that relationship why we have dogs? 

Carol and Hallie are ranked at the top of the current Top 10 Agility rankings for several 20” categories. A retired process engineer, Carol splits her year between homes in Minnesota and Arizona. 

Read more about the importance of fundamental agility skills in this article by USDAA founder and president Ken Tatsch: https://www.usdaa.com/news/agility-top-10-rankings-showcase-skills.cfm.