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Eleven year old Tiger, a once ‘mangy mongrel’ adopted from Animal Welfare, will be donning the green and gold and representing South Africa at the World Agility Championships in Belgium in May 2008.



Unlike the five other dogs on the team, Tiger is almost geriatric, and he’s far from a pedigree; he’s been described as a cross between a long-haired Chihuahua and a Toy Pom with a bit of Corgi thrown in. He is a ‘toy’ type dog and the only non-working dog on the team.

Six years ago Tiger’s owner Ansie Minnaar was doing agility training with her Border Collie, when Tiger suddenly joined in – he raced through a tunnel and demanded his treat. Ansie was stunned “it had never occurred to me that Tiger could do agility,” she says. “I lowered one of the jumps to Tiger’s height and gave him the over command, he was over it in flash.” Ansie says that Tiger took to agility ‘like a natural’ and she has been training him ever since.

Agility courses consist of about 20 obstacles, which must be negotiated in numerical order. Handlers are not allowed to touch the dog or equipment so must guide the dog using verbal and body cues only. The dog that finishes fastest with the least number of faults is the winner. Tiger recently completed a course that matched the 2006 World Championship 3.8 seconds behind the 2006 winner. He is not the fastest but is consistently clear.

Ansie says in spite of Tiger’s advanced age he is strong and flexible thanks to a special joint diet – Hill’s Prescription Diet j/d. The food was developed using highly advanced nutrigenomics and contains nutrients that literally ‘switch off’ the enzymes that cause damage within the joint. Tiger has been eating j/d for about four years and Ansie says “All I need now is a human equivalent, I’m fifty plus and envy Tiger’s jubilant energy.”
 
Tiger and the rest of SA team will be in Belgium from 5 to 12 May 2008.