At age 72, San Jose resident Bob Daigle was the oldest person to make the U.S. team at the FCI Agility World Championship, held Oct. 4-8 in Liberec in the Czech Republic. Daigle is pictured navigating Blew Bayou, his 5-year-old border collie, through the “jumpers” course. Blew Bayou competed against about 700 dogs from 55 countries in the championship, in which the U.S. team placed 14th. (Courtesy photo)
At age 72, San Jose resident Bob Daigle was the oldest person to make the U.S. team at the FCI Agility World Championship, held Oct. 4-8. His partner, on the other hand, is only about half that age in dog years.
Daigle and his 5-year-old border collie Blew Bayou traveled to Liberec in the Czech Republic for the agility trials, where approximately 700 dogs from 55 countries competed by racing against a clock as they navigated obstacle courses.
“The competition went fantastic,” says Daigle. “Blew Bayou and I had an awesome time.
“The thing I enjoyed most about the trip was being in the presence of so many awesome agility competitors,” Daigle adds. “The people on the USA team are competitors and trainers I have looked up to for so many years. And now I was on their team, watching and learning from every move they did on the course. I loved it.”
The United States team placed 14th at the world championship. Germany won the most gold medals this year, while Great Britain won the most medals overall..
“We had two excellent runs (at the World Championship) that were competitive,” Daigle says. “We did not place on the podium, (but) our team overall did well.”
Blew Bayou and Daigle ran in the intermediate height category, which means the dogs are 45 to 50 cm at the withers (shoulders). They competed in “team jumpers” and “team agility.”
The “jumpers” course has jumps, tunnels and weaves that the dogs navigate at top speed, while the agility course adds an A-frame, seesaw and the “dogwalk.” The dogwalk is the biggest obstacle on an agility course, made of three planks where the horizontal plank is 48 inches off the ground. On the agility course, the dog must touch the colored portion of each obstacle as they go down it.
Blew Bayou performed like a champion, according to Daigle.
“She responded beautifully to the stress of it all,” he says. “I knew she had the skills if I could just navigate her through the course.”
The man also performed well, he says, despite his various medical ailments like back surgeries, knee problems and a recent hamstring injury.
“My wife says I’m the total underdog,” says Daigle. “I made the team in April of this year and two weeks later tore my left hamstring. The entire summer was spent rehabbing that injury.”
Daigle did not compete with the individual jumpers or individual agility, as his coach was afraid he might re-injure his hamstring.
“I was quite anxious up until the point when I got in line for my run on the agility course,” he says. “The stress and anxiety was replaced 100% by focus, fun and the enjoyment of running agility with a dog I love.”
Blew Bayou has been training in agility since she was 8 weeks old and competing since age 2. Daigle and Blew Bayou have entered many other competitions and have won numerous awards.
Daigle is a retired family physician and has lived in San Jose since 1987. He has been competing in agility sports with his dogs for the past 13 years.
He has sage advice for people heading into their later years.
“Whatever keeps you moving, doing the thing that you love,” he says. “Find something in life that you love to do, for whatever reason, and that’ll keep you moving.”
Originally published at Lisa Thorn