An Aledo teen (and her dog) will represent the U.S. at international competition
A teenager from Aledo will represent the United States this summer at an international competition for a niche sport that doesn’t just require her athleticism, but her dog’s too.
Sarinah Landowski, 17, and her border collie Neo will travel to Mannheim, Germany, in July to be a part of Team USA’s AKC Junior Agility Team. The team of 22 handlers and 27 dogs will compete against others from around the world at the Junior Agility Open, the premier international competition for junior dog handlers.
The team includes competitors from 16 states, spanning ages 11 to 17. Landowski will be a part of the team as a reserve player in the large, 24-inch jump category.
“It’s kind of like a puzzle because you have to be really, really fast with it,” Landowski said of the sport. “And then, you also have to know how the specific course is laid out … and then, it depends how I run him. He can run over jumps all day and go through tunnels, but it’s my job to direct him to which one’s where.”
Landowski adopted Neo when he was 9 weeks old, and took about a year to form a strong bond with him. Forming that bond, though, was not a feat for the purpose of winning medals. Dog handling found its way into Landowski’s life at just 5. Landowski is softspoken and has always loved animals, maybe even a bit more than people. She would spend her afternoons as a kid trying to train her childhood dog, Buddy, to do tricks with food.
While Buddy passed a few years ago, Landowski slowly began to put in the work to turn the playtime hobby into a sport. She started Neo in obedience and rally, which are types of dog handling that require owners to train their dogs to respond to specific cues and train their dogs to navigate courses, respectively, before moving on to agility a few years ago. Agility is all about speed and accuracy, Landowski said. Landowski only began competing Neo in agility competitions last year, and the training involved coaching with a dog trainer in Hudson Oaks and years of hogging the family computer to watch dog agility competition videos, her mother, Rhian said.
“It’s been good for her to manage her time,” Rhian Landowski said. “I think she’s really practiced a lot of goal setting and accomplishing these goals. It’s a great sport she can honestly do forever, since we see a lot of retired people.”
Landowski applied in February for the team by video with the American Kennel Club. She got the acceptance call sitting in her bedroom the first week of March.
A lot of credit goes to Neo, Landowski said. The fluffy black dog lounged on a dog bed near the couch in Landowski’s living room during an interview with the Star-Telegram. Landowski wore a graphic T-shirt with the letters printed in all-caps: “HOT GIRLS TRAIN DOGS.”
Dog handling, Landowski noted, is a sport where young people can be a bit rare. Landowski, who is homeschooled, splits her time between training Neo in the backyard and taking college classes at TCU. She plans to attend Oklahoma State University to study wildlife biology on a pre-veterinary track.
“Sometimes you go to shows, and it’s just like me and then everybody’s like, 30-plus,” she said. “I don’t know why. Maybe people don’t have time to take a dog and train them because it definitely takes a lot of work. You’re working with another animal that does not speak English, so you have to create a new communication.”
The junior agility team traveling to Germany this summer is entirely self-funded. Under the American Kennel Club, the youth competitors cannot wear sponsorships on their uniforms. While her parents said they would be able to make the trip regardless of how fundraising goes, donations from the community can help cover costs related to uniforms and travel expenses. The family is accepting donations at Paypal.me/AgilityJuniors, and donations can be written with the note: “Sarinah Landowski.” The team is also holding a T-shirt sale and online auction from May 22 to May 26.
